WILDERNESS LAND. ST. JOHN. 97 



cent, for his money. Good cleared farms, with houses 

 and buildings, can be bought, stocked, and furnished for 

 about 1000/. A good method for a gentleman to pur- 

 sue, is to get a countryman to farm for him on shares. 

 This man, under the owner's eye, and guided by his 

 orders in all matters of importance, cultivates and crops 

 the land, and pays the labour bill of the farm, receiving 

 for his share one-half of the crops, or an equivalent. 



Wilderness lands can be bought for about three shillings 

 an acre. In choosing them, the settler is guided by 

 the timber. Where black birch, maple, and beech grow 

 is always the best land. The trees are first chopped down 

 and then burnt. The stumps, as I have said before, do 

 not come out for seven years, but in the meantime a crop 

 of oats, and another of potatoes, is taken off the land 

 without manure, and it is then laid down in grass for the 

 remainder of the time. Fuel is inexhaustible, both wood 

 and coal ; the latter crops up to the surface in some parts 

 of the province, and is sold in the city of St. John for 

 about 11. per chaldron. 



St. John, next to Quebec, is the greatest lumber port 

 in America. There is a good deal of friendly rivalry 

 between this city and Halifax. The latter, besides being 

 a large naval and military station, is also the nearest port 

 to Europe, and has its line of ocean steamers. The 

 harbour of Halifax is one of the finest, if not the finest in 

 the world, but in exceptionably severe winters it is liable 

 to be frozen over. Although navigation is never impeded 

 for more than a week or two at a time, and that only at 

 intervals of two or three years, yet it enables the St. John 

 people to draw a comparison between the two harbours in 



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