42 CLIMATE FAVOURABLE TO FRUIT-TREES. 



signs of good husbandry ; and upon Mr Cunard s farm 

 a very well-executed and very successful experiment in 

 the thorough-drainage of stiff clay land the first I had 

 seen in the province. It was satisfactory to learn from 

 Mr Ciuiard, that drains cut to a depth of fourteen 

 inches only, were found, after two years, to be uninjured 

 by the winter s frost. The ploughing on this farm was 

 excellent, and the wages paid to the ploughmen were 

 26 a-year, with board and lodging. 



It is well known that the quality of both soil and 

 subsoil have a very material influence on the growth of 

 fruit-trees the apple, the pear, the peach, and even 

 the coffee-tree, refusing to thrive, or to continue bearing 

 in favourable climates, if the soil be unpropitious. This 

 fact is distinctly brought out in the case of the apple- 

 tree at Miramichi. This tree does not thrive well in 

 the natural soil. Suppose the surface good, the roots 

 soon descend, and the branches begin to die. This is 

 not uncommon anywhere ; but it is important to the 

 character of the climate of Miramichi, that, if a good 

 deep soil be put under the young trees, they will thrive 

 well and bear good fruit. 



At two P.M., I started from Chatham for Kichibucto, 

 a distance of forty miles, which we expected to reach in 

 six hours, the same horses taking us all the way. At 

 the outskirts of the town, we stopped to look at a field 

 where a ploughing-match had come off the day before. 

 The work was beautifully done on the whole, would 

 have been creditable to a field of Lothian or Ayrshire 

 men, and was certainly the best I had hitherto seen on 

 the American Continent. 



We had a pair of nice-looking horses, and got on 

 very well for a few miles, but by-and-by one of them 

 began to dance and look uneasy. We descended to 

 the Napan Elver, and crossed it in safety ; but when we 

 reached the Black Kiver a distance of scarcely eight 



