181)5.] ADDRESS. 7 



mountains and curling over a little and then receding. It never 

 comes down into the valley." And the words of Longfellow in 

 " Evangeline " came at once to mind, 



" Aloft on the mountains sea-fogs pitched their tents 

 And mists from the mighty Atlantic lool^ed on the happy valley, 

 But ne'er from that station descended." 



And it was indeed a happy valley — the people thrifty, in- 

 telligent and contented, as we might expect when we reflect that 

 the larger portion of them are of New England stock ; for after 

 the expulsion of the French Acadians, the country was settled 

 by colonists from Massachusetts and Connecticut. And the 

 soil possesses a fertility surpassed by few other spots on the 

 continent. There are several square miles of dyke, land, re- 

 claimed from the sea, with a soil from six to eight feet in depth 

 of a rich loam. This dyke land has produced for generations, 

 and without the application of any fertilizing material whatever, 

 from one and a half to two tons of hay to the acre. The loam 

 itself is used as a fertilizer. It is carted to the upland during 

 the winter months, and as a mulch for trees is preferred by many 

 to the best barnyard compost. The staple crops are hay, oats 

 and potatoes. Three hundred bushels of potatoes to the acre 

 and fifty bushels of oats to the acre are not uncommon. 



Fruit growing, however, is the principal industry. Easp- 

 berries are produced at the rate of five thousand quarts to the 

 acre. 



Plums grow there in perfection. I noticed there nearly all 

 the varieties grown with us, — the Lombard, the Washington, the 

 Bradshaw, the Gages, — and every tree loaded to its utmost 

 bearing capacity. 



Fruit growing is not only the principal industry but every- 

 thing else is subordinate to it. It is the principal topic of dis- 

 cussion. The very air seems filled with an atHatus from the 

 orchards. The greatest interest centres, of course, in apple cul- 

 ture ; as the apple, from its forejgn market, is the source of the 

 greatest revenue. And if in the culture of the apple the orch- 

 ardists of the valley have achieved success, it is because they 

 have earned and deserved it ; because they have pursued it with 



