A FARM ON THE ST JOHN. 47 



of St John, and occupied by Mr Gray, a Scottish 

 farmer, who had recently quitted the neighbourhood of 

 Girvan in Ayrshire, for the purpose of settHng In New 

 Brunswick. We found him busy improving and enlarg- 

 ing his farm-buildings, and after breakfast we walked 

 over his farm. As it is the first farm I examined In 

 the province, I may be permitted to give some general 

 description of it. 



It consists of a thousand acres in all, of which two 

 hundred are cleared, and eight hundred in forest, chiefly 

 soft (pine), but some of it hardwood. It contains land 

 of three kinds. First^ an island in the river of eighty 

 acres, to which I crossed, and found it a free grey loamy 

 clay full of natural richness, and subject to be overflowed 

 only twice during the last thirty years. Second^ inter- 

 vale land, generally light and sandy, but bearing in 

 some places good turnips, and resting upon a loamy clay 

 resembling that of the Island, at a depth in some places 

 of no more than eighteen Inches from the surface. I do 

 not know the extent of this intervale, on which the 

 house stands. Third^ the rest is upland, on the slopes 

 generally very stony, but in other parts of the farm 

 capable of being easily cleared. But two hundred acres 

 of cleared land form a large farm where labour Is scarce 

 and dear. 



This farm cost about two thousand pounds currency 

 (£1600 sterling), or two pounds an acre over head ; and 

 this may be considered about the present price of such 

 mixed farms on the upper St John. It had been 

 exhausted by the last holder by a system of selling off 

 everything — hay, corn, potatoes — the common system, 

 in fact, of North America of selling everything for which 

 a market can be got; and taking no trouble to put 

 anything into the soil in return. 



Farming on shares, the Metayer system, is practised 

 in the Provinces and New England states, more than our 



