346 



NEVy^ ENGLAND FARMER 



to be considered as arable, and been well ffigh 

 set apart for the exclusive support of live stock. 

 This practice has been one of the chief sources 

 of the depression of our agfriculture, and has 

 served too long to perpetuate distress, embar- 

 rassment and poverty. The very reverse of 

 this favorite opinion will, I apprehend, turn out 

 to be correct; namely, that this Province is 

 much better calculated for agricultural than for 

 pastoral purposes. 



In corroboration of this novel statement, it 

 may be stated that a cwt. of oatmeal or flour 

 can be raised at less expense in Nova Scotia 

 than in Britain. To pave the way for our con- 

 currence in this position, wo m.ij- boldly refer 

 to the comparative fertility of the two coun- 

 tries ; and we can be justified on the best docu- 

 mentary evidence, if not to exalt our own above 

 England, at least to set it on a footing of equa- 

 lity. Our acre will yield as much as theirs, if 

 cultivated with like skill and capital. Should 

 this be granted, the point at issue is no longer 

 doubtful ; because the burdens affecting land 

 are here light and trivial compared with the 

 taxation which the English farmers must bear. 

 Tithes, poor rates, direct and indirect taxes, 

 joinlly contribute to swell the charge of pro- 

 duction and add to the first cost of their bread 

 corn. In all these points of view ours have 

 confessedly the advantage ; and are only inferior 

 to them in a higher rate of wages. 



But if the balance be in our favor with res- 

 pect to the raising of meal and flour, it inclines 

 against us with regard to the cost of rearing 

 beef and mutton. The British farmer can bring 

 these latter to market at a lower rate than the 

 Nova Scotiaa, and this he accomplishes by the 

 mildness of the winter and the nature of the 

 feed. The sheep both in Scotland, England, 

 and Ireland, are allowed to range their otrtive 

 hills throughout the whale year, and to pick up 

 a subsistence from the decayed herbage, heath, 

 and wild plants, which are but seldom covered 

 with snow. The cattle again nrc fed in the 

 foldyard for not more than two or three months, 

 and in the more temperate districts for less than 

 the half of that time. The straw of white crops 

 with a moderate supply of turnips is the species 

 of fodder which supports them, and its principal 

 value is always estimated by its conversion into 

 manure. A heifer is usually taken for winter- 

 ing at the rale of 2(h. — a sum vvhicli here would 

 not pay above the third of the hay vv^hich must 

 be consumed during the lon;^ and dreary six 

 months when our cattle must of necessity bo 

 shut up. If Ihcsc data he correct, it would ap- 

 pear that the Fiiglish farmer raises his meal 

 and flour at a greater, and his meat at a less 

 expense, than these can be respectively pro- 

 duced in Nova Scotia ; and yet in order'to re- 

 imburse his outlay, he requires a dilference be- 

 tween them of double the price ; whereas o>ir 

 farmer during the last year has been supplying 

 the butcher, weight for weight, either at or 

 below what he could obtain, for his broad corn. 

 That region can never be destined by nature 

 for pasturage, where the domesticated animal 

 must be fed by hand for more than half of the 

 year ; and where, on account of the extraordi- 

 nary quantity of hay needed, the very best lands 

 must be devoted to their use. It is this capital 

 mistake which has so long borne down the ag- 

 ricultural interest, and led our landholders to 

 pursue that braocb ol rural economy, where 



they will ever be attended with indigence and 

 pecuniary embarrassment. The cost of rearing 

 a pound of meat will always in this country be 

 somewhat more than the half of producing the 

 same weight of oatmeal and flour ; and there- 

 fore the natural relation subsisting between the 

 prices should be adjusted at a higher level cor- 

 respondent to the capabilities of the climate. 



If France and England, notwithstanding the 

 temperateness of their winters and their super- 

 abundance of straw for fodder, require that 

 meat be double the price of flour, it is perspi- 

 cuously manifest that in Nova Scotia, beef, from 

 the expense and trouble of rasing it, should be 

 elevated a little above that standard. What 

 that proportion of rise should be is no easy 

 matter to determine ; yet the principle itself 

 on which it depends is neither hidden nor un- 

 controvertible. In all the branches of a free 

 trade, where labor and capital are not fettered 

 by any impolitic or arbitrary restriction, they 

 ought to have the same profit, and they will 

 tend to this equality whenever men understand 

 their own interest clearly. The remuneration 

 derivable from an hundred pounds in live stock, 

 should be equivalent to what the same amount 

 yields in tillage ; and therefore the prices of 

 butcher-meat and bread should here assume a 

 relation resulting from the greater or less ex- 

 pense of production. 



These views strongly inculcate a lesson of 

 practical utility that deserves to be earnestly 

 taught and deeply studied. Our countrymen 

 hare persevered in the hay husbandry to the\ 



out the least encouragement from the Legisla- 

 ture, native flour has come in all this winter as 

 regularly as the other articles of agricultural 

 produce. What the whole quantity may have 

 been, it is impossible to ascertain ; we know, 

 however, that it has been bought up as fast as 

 it appeared, by merchants, bakers, and house- 

 holders ; and the supply is not yet stopped, but 

 continues flowing with a steady current. 



From some inquiries which I have made 

 among the principal purchasers, there is evi- 

 Jence that about forty tons* have passed into 

 their hands, besides the small parcels which 

 lave gone to housekeepers, and which could 

 lot be traced with any accuracy, but may be 

 sfely reckoned at ten more. 



This town too is not the only place where 

 lative flour has been exposed for sale. Pictou 

 s now trading in it to a great extent ; and oat- 

 meal and flour are received there by the mer- 

 :hants in payment of debts, and in the exchange 

 )f commodities. Even Liverpool, according to 

 I late letter from the Secretary of its Agricul- 

 Ural Society, had gotten fifty barrels by the 

 ^2d January last, from Brookfield and Caledo- 

 fia, where three years ago the settlers began 

 b cut down the forest. 



But though we have no means of reckoning' 

 he sum total of all the domestic flour raised 

 iy our farmers above their own immediate 

 consumption, we can refer, with the view of 

 casting some light on this subject, to the books 

 of the Custom House, and learn whether our 



obvious disadvantage of themselves and of the 

 community ; and it is now high time that they 

 be cured of the strange infatuation. They have 

 been selling beef at a price much below its fair 

 and natural level, vud consequently drawing 

 from their lands a return less by the one half 

 than these could have yielded under arable 

 management. 



And I believe that our farmers are beginning 

 to open their eyes to their true interests. The 

 rage for grazing is gone by, and better and 

 juster sentiments are succeeding in its room. 

 Our peasantry are a shrewd and intelligent race, 

 and will not fail, in the long run, to discover 

 the best and most advantageous methods of em- 

 ploying their labor and capital. Their own 

 calm reflections and their mutual reasonings are 

 gradually removing the prejudices which cloud- 

 ed their understandings, and are enabling them 



imports on the whole have be«n diminished in 

 1 



When we appeal to this testimony, the 

 Information is of a most gratifying and exhilar- 

 (fing description. In every article of agricul- 

 Mral produce there has been a signal reduction 

 d" imports during the last year, and in oats and 

 iAVarley we have obtained an export for the 

 first time. 



At the desire of his Excellency the Governor, 

 an account of the Imports and Exports for the 

 jears 1818 and 1819 has been obtained from 

 Ihe Custom House in order to ascertain the ag- 

 ticultural state of the province before the ex- 

 Btence of the Provincial Agricultural Society; 

 kut it is unnecessary minutely to go into all 

 these particulars, as it would too much compli- 

 (ate the details now presented, to carry the 

 comparison so far back. This Society began 

 is operations in the spring of 1819, and can be 

 sipposed to have influenced but slightly the 

 agricultural produce of that season. I shall 



to descry the respective benefits of pasturage , . , 



and tillage. Since the origin of this Society, I J'*' "''5^''*' <^' "'«' although the imports of both 



e of arable "ese years tall short of those of the succeed- 



there has been a progressive increase 

 cultivation, and from present appearances it is 

 not yet on the wane. Very considerable quan- 

 tities of country flour have been weekly, 1 had 

 almost said daily brought to Halifax during the 

 last three monlh«, and this event marks a new- 

 era in the records of our agriculture. 



It will be recollected that when I had the 

 honor of last addressing you in this place, I 

 then stated, " that the prizes which had been 

 " offered for bringing a supply of flour to Hali- 

 " fax had baflled expectation, that three parcels 

 " only, amounting to 2 tons, 16 cwt. had come 

 " from the interior, and that it would be vain to 

 " continue those prizes, because our husbandry 

 " seemed to have reached that point in which 

 " it could about meet the internal consumption, 

 " but had nothing to spare for the capital." — 

 We are now advanced a step further; and vvith- 



ijg, they swell greatly beyond those of 1822. 

 li the first of those years we imported 51,095 



•Since the date of this Report, March 121h, a regu- 

 lar weekly supply lias coiitinui d to come in from the 

 i ccimtry, and the whole quantity, now April 1st, can- 

 n)t be less than 80 tons, as one individual, Mr. Wm. 

 Aacara, has brought from his farm several tons. Kighty 

 tms flour are equal to 914 barrels ; and these being 

 acded to the imported stock on hand will, it is belicv- 

 e(!, meet the consumption of the town till the naviga- 

 tion of the St. Lawrence opens again the Canadian 

 mirket in May. But if our agricultural improvement 

 were to be calculated solely by the above quantity, 

 we would run into an egregious blunder ; for it is mat- 

 ter of observation and of fact that the sleds and wag- 

 gons returning from the town are not, as formerly, 

 loaded with foreign flour ; and therefore our tillage is 

 now e^ual to the wants of the country, and has in part 

 arrested that destructive trade carried on by our far-' 

 mers s.ncc the first settlement of Halifax. 



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