ITS PROGRESS. 171 



diate reach has been granted to speculators, who hold it 

 from year to year to get the benefit of the increase in 

 value which arises from the settlements made all around 

 them. For the good of the province, such parties ought 

 certainly to be compelled either to improve so much 

 within a given time, to pay a tax to the local funds, or 

 to sell at a fair price to those who would improve. 



Behind the second tier of farms are extensive carriboo 

 plains and pine-swamps as far as the Magadavic Lake ; 

 but, exploring in search of good land, the young pioneers 

 of the settlement have discovered a tract of rich hard 

 wood land in the midst of the wilderness beyond this 

 lake, to which there is at present no access for want of 

 roads, and no facility of settlement, because of its pre 

 sent remoteness from all human habitations. It is by 

 such explorations, the results of natural expansion, that 

 the better lands are discovered, and the means of suc 

 cessful extension afforded to the families of the older 

 settlers. 



Wheat is sown in this settlement among the stumps 

 on the burned land. It gives twenty bushels sometimes ; 

 but if it give ten bushels, it pays them for the little cost 

 incurred with these first crops. Oats and potatoes are 

 the principal produce ; and since good mills have been 

 established, the settlers have begun to consume much 

 oatmeal. They are already celebrated for their Timothy 

 seed, which they grow very pure. In 1848 they soldnearly 

 eight hundred bushels, at 14s. 6d. a bushel ; but, to the 

 discredit of the province, which ought tc have bought it 

 for home consumption, it was carted fifty miles to Calais, 

 and there sold for transport to the Boston market. 



Though prosperous now, these settlers, as is the case 

 with all poor settlers, had many difficulties at first, and 

 among others that of having no roads which those who 

 followed them did not, and do not now anywhere expe 

 rience in an equal degree. A barrel of flour, which 



