110 JOHN M'lEAN FEOM AXNAXDALE. 



that these European weeds in the ditches of the Salem 

 raih'oad had actually followed the footsteps of the Irish 

 emigrants who dug them ? May not the seeds of them 

 have been actually shaken from the shoes of the newly- 

 arrived immigrants ? 



On the Xapan River there are many settlers from 

 Dumfriesshire, chiefly from Annandale. This has arisen 

 from the circumstance that a traffic in timber has long 

 existed between the Miramichi River and the town of 

 Annan, the ships engaged in which afforded an easy 

 passage to intending emigrants. Their sons are noted 

 as the best ploughmen, and themselves as among the best 

 farmers in the province. 



With one of these settlers, John M'Lean, I had an 

 interesting conversation ; and as his history may interest 

 some of my readers also, as an example of the way in 

 which steady industry overcomes difficulties, and secures 

 comparative prosperity in a new country, 1 shall state 

 the leading facts I gathered from him. He came over 

 in the year 1822. He has 250 acres in his farm, of 

 which 150 are cleared ; but he has not force to keep all 

 this land in crop. He works it with the aid of three of 

 his sons, two daughters, and three horses — keeps eleven 

 cows, eight or nine young cattle, and a few sheep. He 

 bought his land in the wild state, cleared it all himself 

 without hired labour, and has raised eleven children. He 

 has four sons settled on farms, one of whom paid .£^150 

 for his farm ; two of them worked as carpenters till they 

 had saved money to buy their farms. Neither he nor 

 any of his children ever lumbered, nor should any of 

 them if he could help it. Not one in twenty makes any- 

 thing by lumbering ; and by sticking to their farms, men 

 in the long run always make a better living, and are more 

 independent, than by anything else. jNlany others who 

 came out with him, and since he came, have stuck to 

 tlieir farms, and have done as well as himself. Though 



