188 



NEV/ ENGLAND FARMER. 



Proceedings of the J^'ova Scotia Provincial -igri- 



cultural Society. 

 Ai> Anniversary Meeting of this Society was convened 

 at Halifax on the 1st of Decemlier last, and after 

 transmitting the formal business which the occasion 

 demanded, the following proceedings took place, as 

 stated in the Acadian Recorder of the 6th of Dec. 

 The Vice Presirlent stated to the meeting 

 that the disposal of the money which lay in the 

 hands of the Treasurer was now the subject of 

 their consideration, and he requested that the 

 Secretary, who probably had revolved the ques- 

 tion in his mind, should now publicly propose 

 what he had to offer. 



Mr. Youn^ rose and said, that the laro;e ba- 

 lance now over was more than adequate for all 

 the demands of the Society, and that £200 

 ought lobe disposed of in some way or other. 

 It ought either to be lent at interest upon good 

 personal security in order that it might be forth- 

 coming whenever the exigencies of the Socie- 

 ty required it, and it might be vested in some 

 agricultural sj)eculation which would at once 

 promote the general inte rest of the farmer, 

 and be directly conducive to tlie benefit 

 of the town. If the latter plan were a- 

 dopted he had turned over in his own mind 

 those objects which stood in need of encourage- 

 ment, and were of such paramount importance 

 as to justify the application of so large a dispo- 

 sable sum. He would not attempt, at present, 

 to go into any minute details, because the senti- 

 ments of the gentlemen present were as yet un- 

 known — but he would beg their indulgence, 

 while he slightly touched tliose subjects which 

 occurred to him as worthy of immediate atten- 

 tion. 



A part of this balance, he thought, might be 

 judiciously employed in premiums for clearing 

 and improving the land which lay within a cir- 

 cle of three or four miles around the capital. — 

 It was well known to the meeting that the natu- 

 ral obstructions which presented themselves 

 both in the peninsula and at Dartmouth were 

 of a formidable nature, and sufficient to damp 

 the zeal even of the most enthusiastic improv- 

 er. From the number of stones which encum- 

 bered the surface and the native sterility of the 

 land itself, every acre required an outlay of 

 from £40 to £50 before it was adequately 

 cleared and manured for a first crop. Such a 

 heavy expense therefore would not be volunta- 

 rily incurred without a powerful excitement, 

 more especially when capital at the present 

 moment could be profitably invested in 

 commercial undertakings. — In order therefore 

 to invite capital from commerce, it was necessa- 

 ry that this Society should hold up some bounty 

 for the improvement of every acre. This 

 could be deemed no waste o( the private funds, 

 when the vast importance of cultivation in the 

 vicinity of the town was duly appreciated. Ev- 

 ery acre of land rendered arable was supplying 

 Dur market with those vegetables and roots es- 

 sential to the means of subsistence, and must be 

 looked upon as an advantage not only to our- 

 selves but to our posterity. Every rod of im- 

 proved ground opened up a new source of pro- 

 duction for the supply of our daily wants, 

 which were increasing in number with every 

 increase ot our population. 



Another object which he would recommend 

 to the Society was the encouragement of Oat- 

 mills in the neighborhood of the town. Meal 



was fast rising in demand with all classes of the 

 inhabitants; and strange it was to tell that no 

 mill for manufacturing it had been erected in 

 this vicinity. The single district of Picton 

 could boast of 22 oatmills, which had risen dur- 

 ing the last (bur years as if by enchantment; 

 and yet the metropolis of the province could 

 not number one amidst all its public improve- 

 ments. This was felt as a want not only by the 

 farmers in the immediate vicinity, but through- 

 out the whole province ; because the immense 

 quantities brought in there for sale every spring 

 and fall, lay as dead weight upon the market, 

 and labored under great and serious depression. 

 But were mills only erected, our merchants 

 would purchase these oats on speculation, 

 would manufacture them at their conveniency, 

 and then deal them out in the shape of meal, 

 according to the calls of the consumption. 



The last object which we would bring under 

 their notice was some method of encouraging 

 the curing of beef and pork. The Directors, 

 as they all knew, had warady recommended 

 this subject, but without effect, to the provin- 

 cial Legislature ; and it would now be becoming 

 in them to testify their sense of the utility of the 

 measure, by offeringsome bounties with a view 

 to its encouragement. Had the Legislature a- 

 dopted the recommendation ot the Central 

 Board, bounties would have been offered to 

 the curers of salt provisions, whether they re- 

 sided in Annapolis, Picton, Halifax, or any oth- 

 er part of the province : but if the private 

 funds of the Society were to be appropriated 

 to this object, it became a question of expedi- 

 ency how for the bounty should be extended, or 

 whether it should be confined to the merchants 

 in the capital. He surely did not need to press 

 with much earnestness the imperious necessity 

 of relieving the farmer in some way or other. 

 Beef at present was daily selling at 2d. and Ijd. 

 per lb. — a price so utterly incapable of remu- 

 nerating the raiser, that it must obviously tend 

 to weigh down the agricultural interest of the 

 country. Beef, weight for weight, was now as 

 cheap as oatmeal ; and he would put it to their 

 knowledge whether the farmer could produce 

 the one as cheap as the other. A handful of 

 oats thrown carefully by the sower, and cover- 

 ed with a single turn of the harrows was an 

 easy and little expensive process ; contrasted 

 with the care of raising a calf, of nurturing it 

 for two or three winters, and of finding it with 

 grass through the summer before it was fit for 

 the butcher. Beef per lb. should at all times 

 be double the price of oatmeal. Let any man 

 search all the records of farming, the tables of 

 the price of provisions which had been publish- 

 ed in England or France, nay, either in the old 

 or the new world ; and he would find it to be 

 an invariable law, that whatever is the rate of 

 bread, butcher meat is double that rate. But 

 here that ratio of relative value was entirely 

 subverted; and we had the anomalous appear- 

 ance of beef sinking every autumn below 

 bread ; and thus entailing on the agricultural 

 body a manifest and prodigious hardship. He 

 trusted that this order of things would be soon 

 reversed : as it brought us within the operation 

 of tlie great law which regulated the depres- 

 sion and elevation of human affairs — and 

 which was this; that whenever any article 

 descended much below its value, its pro- 

 duction was proportionably discouraged, and 



its future advance in value rose beyond the jt 

 point of equilibrium. Three pence half-pen 

 and four pence per pound (or beef were perha 

 the fair price at the present moment, compar 

 with that of bread, and accordingly we had fi 

 many years experienced that butchers' meat' 

 May and June started to 6d. and 7d. per pouo 

 and thus balanced in some measure the deprei 

 ed rates of November and December. It th 

 appeared that while the poorer farmers suffe 

 ed grievously in the fall, the community gene 

 ally reaped no benefit; because the glut nasi 

 variably followed by a corresponding scaicil 

 He, therefore, submitted to the present mee 

 ing, how far it would be proper by a few jud 

 cious bounties, to induce our wealthy merchan 

 to embark in the salt provision trade. 



Judge Haliburton addressed the chair in p 

 ply. He stated frankly that I'or his part I 

 would not sanction the lending of the mone 

 The members of that Society had contributi 

 their quolas for the purjiose of improving tl 

 agriculture of this province, and that great «i 

 ject should in no instance be lost sight of. Th 

 interest ot \'ZL a year would weigh light in II 

 scale, compared with the disposable balant 

 which was now in the hands of the Treasure 

 He approved of the objects which had no 

 been recommended to their attention, and pa 

 ticularly the encouragement of oatmills. Me. 

 had now become almost an article of daily (ot 

 in the capital and the means of manufacturing 

 well deserved the care of this Society. Oai 

 during two seasons of the year were alw»j 

 thrown into this market so plentifully as to sg 

 fer a great depreciation in value. He him« 

 had been offered them the other day at Is. Ji 

 per bushel ; but in the course of three modll 

 he knew and anticipated that they would ifi 

 to 3s. Were mills of that description set i 

 motion here, the superabundant quantity wWl 

 now be profitably carried off, and convertetfii 

 to a cheap, useful and healthful food: andl 

 therefore heartily concurred with the Secreli 

 ry in opinion that part of the private fmi 

 might be wisely employed in encouraging lb 

 erection of one or two oatmills. 



Walter Bromley, Esq. said, that he thoojl 

 there might be some other objects than thos 

 enumerated which deserved the countenance, 

 this Society. On former occasions he fei 

 heard with great pleasure the Attorney Geltr' 

 al expatiate on the wool of Nova Scotia, wKo 

 was the necessary staple of our domestic mii' 

 ufactures. He had lately tried an experiraeil 

 of this kind ; in which he had embarked fifflj 

 £40 to £50; and he did this in order tS^ 

 duce good habits among the young. He W 

 often heard the ladies of Halifax complaWij 

 the want of industry in their servants—* 

 evil which could not be remedied, till the* 

 materials of flax and wool were properly 

 tected, and till a taste for industry was givfti 

 the rising females. He had lately empF 

 32 spinners of wool in school and 7 woraei 

 side — 13 knitters in school and 15 oatsil 

 making sixty seven in all employed in the ne" 

 manufacture : and the socks were in such hi; 

 demand, that he could by no means answer li 

 orders. Notwithstanding the high price ' 

 wool he was enabled to sell these per pair^ 

 2s. ; and he had brought and now present*!' 

 specimen of them on the table for the insp*' 

 tion of the meeting. ■»■ 



