Canadian Agriculture, 
431 
Considerable portions of the area of New Brunswick are, no 
doubt, destined to remain clothed with forest, being unfittrd for 
profitable cultivation otherwise. This, at least, seems to be the 
inference deducible from the ' Report on Northern and Eastern 
New Brunswick and North Side of the Bay of Chaleurs,' by 
Mr. R. W. Ells, in which the following words occur : — * 
" In all our explorations careful attention has been paid to the character of 
the soil in different localities. And it may be stated that in New Brunswick 
the finest soils are, as a rule, found on the Silurian or on the lower members 
of the Carboniferous systems. The rich and fertile districts of Carleton and 
A^ictoria counties may be cited as belonging to the Silurian system, ^yhile the 
beautiful valley of Sussex and the fine lands of King's and Albert counties 
result from the wear of strata which belong to the Lower Carboniferous fonna- 
tion. The soils formed from the Pre-Cambrian rocks, on the other hand, are 
generally hard, dry, and stony, while the Middle Carboniferous (especially 
its grey sandstones), gives rise to a soil which is too light and sandy to be of 
much fertility, and which, when once exhausted, is with great difficulty 
restored to good condition. Some portions of the Middle Carboniferous, 
however, consisting of purplish and reddish shales and sandstones, produce a 
soil of much greater strength and tenacity, often a stiff cl;iy. This soil 
requires the addition of lime to make it easily and profitably worked. The 
Silurian soils, as a rule, contain in themselves sufficient lime ; they are easily 
worked, and their fertility is very slowly exhausted. A knowledge of the 
distribution of the formation referred to may, therefore, prove of the greatest 
practical value to the immigrant and intending settler. 
'• It is to be regretted that, for agricultural purposes, so large a portion of 
the Province should be occupied by the grey and sandy portion of the Carbo- 
niferous system, and by granite and Pre-Cambrian crystalline rocks. In such 
districts the principal areis fit for agriculture are along the ' intervales ' or 
alluvial flats of the niunerous streams, many of which are still uncultivated." 
Nova Scotia. — " The marvellous country ! The home of 
Evangeline, where Blomidon looks down on the tides of Fundy, 
and over tracts of red soil richer than the Weald of Kent." 
Thus speaks the Marquis of Lome of Nova Scotia, the penin- 
sular Province of the Dominion. It is connected with New 
Brunswick by an isthmus about 16 miles wide, and is 275 miles 
long by 100 miles wide at its greatest breadth. The island of 
Cape Breton, lying to the north of the peninsula, is 110 miles 
long by 80 broad, and is politically included in Nova Scotia, 
the area of the entire Province as thus constituted being about 
two-fifths of that of England. A line of water-parting extends 
lengthwise through the middle of the peninsula, most of the 
land on the eastern or Atlantic side of which is underlaid by 
hard Cambrian rocks that do not weather into very useful soils, 
they being hard, dry, and stony. The western half is composed 
of Silurian and Carboniferous strata, which disintegrate into a 
much better soil, the land in the south-west, along the Annapolis 
* ' Geological and Natural History Survey of Canada : Eeports of Progress for 
1880-81-82.' Montreal. Published by autliority. 
