84 TIME CROPS TAKE TO GROW. 



sold. This exhausting system has been, and indeed still 

 is, as I have already remarked, the almost universally 

 followed one in North America. Ultimate poverty is 

 the consequence of it to the farmer's family, and finally 

 a sale of the farm itself to some one who knows how to 

 restore it. The old occupants then trudge farther west, 

 buy cheaply in a new country, and again inflict the con- 

 sequences of evil management on some still virgin spot. 



This farm is a very promising one still, to judge by the 

 crops of Indian corn, oats, potatoes, and turnips I saw 

 upon it. For money-returns in this quarter the farmer 

 looks to his butter, cheese, and pork. 



The oat and barley harvest is now general on the 

 river. The usual time of growth of the different crops 

 in the province of New Brunswick is, for 



Spring wheat, ... 3 months and 20 days. 



Barley, 3 „ and 6 „ 



Oats, 3 „ and 20 „ 



Spring rye, .... 4 „ — ,, 



Buckwheat, .... 3 „ and 3 „ 



Indian corn, .... 3 „ and 32 „ 



So that, as the oats are sown ten days or a fortnight 

 earlier than the barley — generally in the last week of 

 April or the first of May — these crops ripen about the 

 same time in August. 



On descending the left bank of tlie river, we ob- 

 served a repetition of the same geologico-agricultural 

 relations as we had observed in ascending. On passing 

 from the silurian to the older slates, the surface became 

 more stony and difficult to till and improve. On the 

 gneiss the stones became still more frequent ; and upon 

 the granite immense granite boulders, sometimes as large 

 as cottages, overspread the surface, and occasionally 

 formed a perfect pavement. 



The sumach, Rhus typhina (?) a few trees of which I 

 had seen of great beauty in Nova Scotia, was particularly 



