438 
Canadian Agriculture. 
identical with those of a company which was engaged in 
factory cheese-making ; but the latter business has been sus- 
pended for a time, and meanwhile the condensed-milk concern 
has made a good start by paying 8 per cent, as its first divi- 
dend. In Cape Breton there are some meat-canning establish- 
ments in operation ; and in the Annapolis valley an industry is 
opening up in the canning of fruit, green corn, and tomatoes. 
As to his own experience, I cannot do better than let General 
Laurie speak for himself: — 
" A question naturally arises, whether the soil and climate of Nova Scotia 
are as favourable to tiie production of crops as other competing regions, and to 
tliis I must bring the testimony of eighteen years' personal experience in 
farming, on a new farm and therefore not under the most favourable conditions. 
Cattle live out at pasture from 1st June to 15th October, and thrive well 
during that time, and will hold then- own for a month longer, if .sheltered at 
night. All kinds of grain grow well. Oats and wheats are u^^ually about 
100 days from seed time to harvest. Last year 25 acres of spring wheat 
yielded me 25 bushels to the acre. Barley gives about 40 bushels to the 
acre ; oats about 45, but there is a tendency to lodge when the crop is heavy. 
Potatoes have usually given me about 275 bushels to the acre, and swedes 
from 550 to 800, according to the season, and exposure of the field ; if lacing 
south or west, giving the smaller crop on account of the heat, and if north or 
east, the larger; thus showing that we are near the southern limits of turuij) 
growing, as they do best in the cooler places. This has led me to turn my 
attention to growing Indian corn for ensilage, on which 1 can only consider I 
am experimenting; but last season, I cut (weighing sample carts as I hauled 
home) 20 tons per acre on a field of 15 acres. It seems admirably suited to 
the climate as a plant, and the mode of preservation is economical and the 
food appears valuable. Hay, the too-favourite crop of our farmers, averages 
(weight calculated when taken for feed and not when hauled oft' the ficlil) 
Ij tons to the acre on the upland fields. On 170 acres of cultivated laud, in 
addition to keeping ten horses, and about the same number of cows, the year 
round, I rai.se suflicient food, with the addition of some purchased oilcake, 
which can be paid for by the sale of other surplus crops, to feed for the butcher 
100 head of store cattle yearly. Permanent grass is jiractically unknpwn as, 
owing to the damp spring and autumn, it becomes overgrown with moss. 
Our most ])rosperous farming districts are those near tide water, where the 
flats have been dyked and tlie flow of the tide barred. On these, hay yields 
2 J to 3 tons to the acre without impoverishment, and the after pasture is 
magnificent ; and as the upland in these districts is usually light, the manure 
furnished from the dyke-land hay enables rejieated crops of potatoes to be 
raised for sale, so that cattle and crops can both be sent to market." 
I do not think any one can travel much about Nova Scotia 
without noticing one very obvious reason why its agriculture 
is not in a more flourishing condition, namely, that the fariring 
industry is hard pressed by three others, for each of which 
the Province is widely and deservedly noted. These are 
mining, fishing, and shipbuihling. There is an abundance 
of coal and iron in the Province, gypsum is largely quarried, 
and gold is worked at about twenty places. But the maritime 
industries are the chief attraction, and if there are fish to be 
