188 SOILS OF THE PROVINCE, AND 



as the main source of wealth when the lumberage that 

 of cutting down and selling the ancient forests shall 

 have in a measure passed away. I have already men 

 tioned an idea as being very prevalent that the mineral 

 resources, especially the supplies of fossil fuel, in the 

 colony, were inexhaustible, though all the research 

 hitherto made had failed to discover a single workable 

 seam of coal of good quality, or of great extent. On the 

 other hand, it was supposed or asserted by many that the 

 surface or soil of the province was not fitted to produce 

 large supplies of human food, that it was not an agri 

 cultural country, and could not support a greatly 

 increased population. 



My earliest attention was directed to this latter opinion, 

 and, by personal observation and inquiry, and by care 

 fully collating the numerous documents in the Surveyor- 

 general s office, I was enabled to classify the soils in the 

 several districts of the province, and to ascertain, 

 approximately, the relative proportions and absolute 

 quantities of each quality of soil which it contains. In 

 this way I estimated the province to contain a surface in 

 imperial acres, in round numbers, of 



Acres. 



Soil No. 1, or 1st class, . . 50,000 



Soil No. 2, or 2d class, . . 1,000,000 



Soil No. 3, or 3d class, . . 6,950,000 



Soil No. 4, or 4th class, . . 5,000,000 



Soil No. 5, or 5th class, . . 5,000,000 



Total area of the province, . 18,000,000 



I have already stated that wheat has, for many years, 

 been an uncertain crop in the province ; that, of all the 

 grain-crops, oats may be considered the surest and safest 

 in the colony, taken as a whole ; and that, for the sup 

 port of stock, this grain and hay are the main reliance. 

 I therefore classified the above soils according to their 

 capability to produce hay and oats, supposing that land 



