i8 TO-DAY'S OPPORTUNITY IN NOVA SCOTIA 



spells success from start to finish. Canada has transmuted adversity 

 into good fortune. Take another case : that of a man of gentle 

 breeding brought up among men of leisure like country gentlemen 

 in England ; a good rider, a first-class shot, a judge of sound clan t 

 and fond of golf and cricket. He might find a similar environment 

 not at all to his taste, and feel acutely the absence of class distinc- 

 tions and the loss of accustomed pleasures. To him emigration 

 might not appear in quite so attractive a light ; at all events until 

 he had adapted himself to his environment, and got rid of the 

 dead weight of old ideas and habits. 1 



The present opportunity of acquiring improved farms in Nova 

 Scotia, often including good orchards, at very profitable prices 

 may not last very long. 8 



There is a splendid demand for the products of ' mixed farming ' 

 in Nova Scotia. The farmer who comes to this province will come 

 to a country where the demand of the local home market far exceeds 

 the supply. How is it that oats are retailing to-day in Halifax at ] 

 70 cents (almost 35. stg.) per bushel imported oats while there 

 exist vast stretches of untilled land, which can be had at trifling 

 cost, which could easily be made to produce between 35 and 40 

 bushels per acre ? How comes it that when lambs readily bring 

 from $3 to $4 each ( i.e. from I2S. to i6s. stg.), and wool is eagerly 

 bought up at 30 cents per pound (is. 3<f.), there are large vacant- 

 tracts in various districts peculiarly suited for sheep runs to be i 

 purchased for little money ? How is it that Nova Scotia imj> 

 not only large quantities of hay, oats, barley, butter, eggs, poultry, 

 but beef also from Prince Edward Island and Upper Canada, when f 

 home production might be made to pay a handsome profit ? One 

 explanation of this state of things is that there is very little of what I 

 may be called ' good ' farming in Nova Scotia : another is that the 

 lure of the West and the nearness of the province to the great! 

 Republic, loses a great deal of the young blood which should enrich 



1 Mr. Kcir Hardic was quite right in his recent remark made in Can.ul.i 

 that ' adaptability to changed conditions is a first essential in a new country.' 

 This faculty is far oftcner found wanting in English emigrants than in Scotch 

 or Irish, and accounts for 90 per cent, of the failures. 



1 This is particularly true within the writer's knowledge of the vah 

 of large tracts of land in Hants. Yarmouth and North Queen's Count uv 

 admirably adapted for fruit growing and general farming, and of ( \i< n-i\ 

 areas in Antigonish County peculiarly suitable for sheep. To quote tl 

 Principal of the Agricultural College at Truro. M. Cumming. B.A.. B.S.A. 

 ' A settlement of congenial British farmers can take up lands here at vc 

 moderate prices, and work along lines of general farming in the early 

 of their career, with the idea, however, of having profitable orchards in 

 ten to hfteen years.' 



