44 



SOILS AND AVERAGE PRODUCE. 



each ton of natural hay produced by the farm is, on the 

 St John, considered a fair equivalent. The produce in 

 grain is not taken into account. Hay sells, according to 

 the season and locality, at 35s. to 50s. a ton. 



These low lands are liable to be flooded when the ice 

 melts in spring, but they are, nevertheless, very healthy. 

 There are no agues in the country ! I have heard of none, 

 indeed, in the whole province, even where waters and 

 bogs and marshes most abounded. These spring floods, 

 no doubt, contributed to the richness of the land ; but the 

 best situated or most esteemed farms here are those which 

 consist partly of this low intervale and partly of upland. 



The soils in general are light and loamy, as we should 

 expect in a sandstone country 5 and, therefore, adapted 

 to the culture of Indian corn, which in this part of the 

 province has been considerably extended during the last 

 seven years — I suppose since the wheat crop became less 

 certain. From the mouth of the Washademoak river, 

 in ascending to within a dozen miles of Fredericton, the 

 St John carries us through the centre first of Queen's, 

 and afterwards of Sunbury county. Much of these 

 counties is still in native forest ; but the general produc- 

 tiveness of the cultivated land, and something of the 

 husbandry and cultivation, may be judged of from the 

 following returns as to the maximum, minimum, and 

 average produce, in imperial bushels, of the crops usually 

 cultivated in these two counties. 



