164 FARMING IN MAINE. 



which the roads were made, and the numerous lumber- 

 carts which pass along them at this season of the year, 

 were ascribed this scarcely-passable condition. 



The farming in Maine appears no better than in New 

 Brunswick, and I was sorry to learn that the farmers 

 themselves were far from being in a prosperous condition. 

 Two-thirds of them, I was told, were on the eve of bank 

 ruptcy. Like those of New Brunswick, I believe, many 

 have engaged in lumbering ; and, notwithstanding the 

 supposed more favourable circumstances of the United 

 States lumber-merchants, like them have suffered loss 

 instead of making money by it. Had the day not been 

 so unpractically bad, it was my intention to have driven 

 up to two or three of the farms we passed, with the view 

 of learning more as to the condition of the rural pro 

 prietors, and more accurately from them than I could 

 hope to do from persons belonging to the opposite side 

 of the river.* 



I have already mentioned that sheep and cattle from 

 Nova Scotia supply the markets of St John, and that the 

 shipping in that port are victualled with New England 

 beef. On the St Croix River, the home produce from 

 either side is unable to meet the demands of the shipping, 

 and droves of cattle come from Massachusetts to make up 

 the deficiency. The feeding of cattle, as I have already 

 observed, is a branch of husbandry to which hitherto 

 scarcely any attention has been paid in New Brunswick, 

 though it is the basis of high and profitable farming. 



At low-water, I walked along the flat intervale which 

 skirts the river below St Stephens. This intervale, and 

 the bed of the river itself, underneath the more recent 

 mud, and as far across the channel as could be observed, 



* The allegations made by tlie people of Maine themselves, in the 

 petition to the State Legislature, from which I have quoted in a pre 

 vious page, show that the information given me on the spot was not 

 far from being correct. 



