SEA-WEED IN GROWING POTATOES. 151 



health of the inhabitants, the south-west winds of sum 

 mer bearing them along towards the Bay of Fundy. 

 The temperature is generally milder also, both in sum 

 mer and winter, than in other parts of New Brunswick ; 

 so that fruits, such as gooseberries, which will not ripen 

 at all, or ripen well, at Fredericton or St John, come to 

 perfection about St Andrews. 



Mussel-mud, as it is called, or sea-mud full of mussels, 

 abounds in the Bay of St Andrews, and in some of the 

 other smaller bays and creeks up the St Croix River. 

 This is an excellent fertilising substance, either when 

 made into a compost, or when put fresh upon the land, and 

 ploughed-in in autumn. But the most apparently singular 

 way of using it is to put it. with the mussels still living, 

 into the turnip-drills, when it gives alone an excellent 

 crop of turnips. 



Sea-ware also or rock-weed, as it is here named 

 is used as a manuring substance. Along our Scottish 

 shores, where this substance is extensively used and 

 highly valued, it is known that, though it raises excellent 

 crops of potatoes, they are of an inferior or waxy quality. 

 This is usually the case here also. But if the potato- 

 seed is put into the ground, covered with three to five 

 inches of earth, the sea-ware then laid on, and covered 

 over with earth, lazy-bed fashion, the potatoes, according 

 to Colonel Mowat, are not only numerous, but dry also, 

 and mealy in quality. In large farming, this method would 

 require to be in some degree modified, to admit of the use 

 of the plough. At the same time, it may not be the 

 method of using the sea-ware, so much as the greater 

 depth at which, by so many coverings, the potato set is 

 placed, to which the good effect is owing since, other 

 things being equal, it has been found elsewhere that, in dry 

 sound soil, the deeper it is planted the mealier is the crop. 



A railway has been projected which is to run from the 

 sea at St Andrews to Woodstock on the St John Ivivcr, 



