188 PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. 



going straight to a very hot place to feel sorry for you 

 and to tell you so. 



Unlike the other maritime provinces, farming is the 

 chief industry of Prince Edward Island. Ship building 

 comes next. Wooden ships can probably be constructed as 

 cheaply here as in any part of the world ; they are built 

 up the numerous creeks and rivers. Ships in different 

 stages of progress may be seen in winter apparently in 

 the fields or in the middle of villages. Many of them 

 when finished are loaded with oats and dispatched t<> 

 Liverpool, where .both ship and cargo are disposed ol. 

 There are a few tanneries, cloth mills, and breweries on 

 the island. The beer is the best in America ; that is not 

 saying very much for it, but I can see no reason why as 

 good beer should not be brewed in Canada as in England. 

 Barley is good and plentiful, and hops grow well. There 

 are some who affirm that beer is not suited to the climate 

 of America, and is injurious to health. Perhaps beer 

 drinking is a matter of education, and it is possible that 

 if Canadians drank more beer and less tea they would be 

 the better for it. Cheese factories are much wanted in the 

 island, and would be a boon to the farmers who have 

 plenty of milk to dispose of. 



Prince Edward Island has been called the garden of 

 the St. Lawrence. A good thing gains by contrast, and 

 the rough banks of the St. Lawrence form a frame to the 

 picture that shows it off to the best advantage, but inde- 

 pendently of this, the island, no doubt, possesses great 

 natural advantages. That is the opinion of the Americans, 

 than whom no people in the world are quicker in forming 

 a just estimate of the natural advantages of a country. 



