The home market will take all the wool: the product of wool in Canada not being equal to the demand, and the domestic market for woollen goods being as yet largely supplied from abroad.

A large business is already done in raising sheep and cattle for export to Great Britain and the United States— the shipments to the former country being principally from Westmorland and Albert Counties. This industry is capable of great expansion, the proximity of the farming districts of New Brunswick to seaports more than compensating for any advantages which western farmers may possess. Another advantage for the prosecution of this business, which New Brunswick possesses, is that less capital is required to carry it on in this province than in places more remote from the ocean ports. A small venture could not possibly pay where a long land carriage is necessary, but is relatively as profitable as a larger one, when carried on near a port of shipment.

While New Brunswick may never become a wheat exporting country, or even raise enough of this grain to supply the domestic demand, the farmers are yearly giving greater attention to its cultivation; the increase production per head of the population in twenty years being 66 per cent. As is shown by tables already given, the quality of New Brunswick wheat and the yield per acre is very high. The majority of the farmers raise wheat enough for their own use.

New Brunswick potatoes rank with the best grades in the United States markets, being quoted higher than any potatoes except those raised in the valley of Aroostook, a tributary of the St. John, which have a fancy value a shade above New Brunswick potatoes. At the last state fair held in Maine, a diploma was awarded to a New Brunswick exhibit of potatoes as being the best shown. An immense business is done on the Aroostook in manufacturing starch from

potatoes, and although nothing has yet been attempted in this line in New Brunswick, it no doubt offers an excellent chance for investment.

The exports of indian corn are already large and are annually increasing. The corn is put up in hermetically sealed cans, in which condition it is exceedingly palatable. New Brunswick brands of canned corn are preferred to any other.

The attention paid to fruit growing is annually increasing and it is found to be very profitable. Several excellent varieties of apples are produced in perfection, one of them, known as the New Brunswick, is unsurpassed as an early apple. The United States absorb all the surplus stock of apples, although several shipments have been made to England. Skilful orchardists, with a little capital, can invest it most profitably in New Brunswick in raising apples and plums.

Native strawberries are delicious and plentiful, but are not an article of export. Immense quantities of cultivated strawberries are grown; but owing to the great demand for them at home and abroad the supply is always short.. The same observations apply to raspberries, except that the native variety is exported as well as the cultivated varieties. Blueberries are a most prolific wild berry of agree able taste; they are used in large quantities and are canned for export. In the cultivation of berries, fruit, flowers and early vegetables, there are always excellent openings for skilful men, with a little means. It is only of recent years that much attention has been paid to this line of agriculture, and the demand is yet greater than the supply; this is due to the excellent facilities for export, and to the practice of canning goods.

The New Brunswick farmer, it will thus be seen, is not compelled to devote his energies in any one direction, but has before him as wide a field as is open to his brothers in

any country. Slowly the supremacy of agriculture has asserted itself in the Province, until at last the other industries, which temporarily promised better results, have taken their true place, and the cultivation of the soil and its kindred pursuits are recognized as the chief and best employment of the people. The lesson which the history of New Brunswick agriculture teaches is that an industrious man upon a moderately good farm can raise his family in comfort and even in modest luxury; can secure himself a competency for his declining years, and leave his children a valuable property. Many have done this, whose sole capital when they began to clear the forest was a pair of stout arms and a courageous heart.

CHAPTER III.

THE CLIMATE.

The climate of New Brunswick is favorable to the successful prosecution of Agriculture and the longevity of the inhabitants. It has been the custom to represent the climate of Canada as made up of extremes, but it must always be borne in mind that Canada is a country almost as large as Europe and extending through nearly as many degrees of latitude; that it is subject to many influences affecting the climate, of which it presents every variety from the balmy, rainless summers and mild wet winters of Southern British Columbia, to the almost unbroken winter of the Arctic zone. New Brunswick goes to neither extreme, for, although there may be exceptional days every year when the thermometer registers above 90° Fahrenheit or below-20°, a man can do more days' work out of doors in the course of the year in the Province than he can in any part of the British Isles. During the coldest days children go to school and men engage in their ordinary out-door employment without inconvenience. A common working dress for out of door wear in the coldest weather consists of a suit of heavy knit underwear, a flannel shirt, trousers of homespun wool cloth, one or two pairs of woollen socks, a pair of boots, larrigans, or moccasins, a coat or "jumper" of the same material as the trousers, a cloth cap, with coverings for the ears, and a pair of woollen mittens. Clad thus a man can work out of doors all day long in the coldest winter weather ever felt in New Brunswick. If he is going on a long drive he will put on a heavy

top coat. Everybody who lives on a farm in New Brunswick is well provided with comfortable clothing, and the cold of winter, so far from being a drawback or an inconvenience, is both an advantage in many respects and a source of much enjoyment. New settlers in the country are invariably agreeably disappointed in the winter weather. The New Denmark settlers say that, on the whole, it is preferable to that of Denmark, and the Kincardine and other settlers from Great Britian say that owing to the cheapness. of excellent fuel, the dryness of the air, and the infrequency of serious storms, a New Brunswick winter is pleasanter than one in Great Britain.

Summer in New Brunswick is usually very fine. In every season there are a few very hot days, but the greater part of the summer is as delightful as the weather in any part. of the world. The province is a favorite resort of thousands of persons from the Atlantic States, who seek a more enjoyable climate than they can find at home.

The course of the seasons is somewhat as follows:

The year generally begins with the rivers and lakes frozen over firmly, and a foot of snow upon the ground; at least this would be an ideal beginning for the year. The Christmas marketing will have made hard snow roads all over the country, on which a pair of horses will transport immense loads of produce. The farmers are occupied with their stock; marketing what they have to sell or cutting and hauling firewood and fencing; in some cases they will be engaged with their horses in hauling logs for large lumber operators, and sometimes they will carry on a small logging operation on their own account. Lumbering operations are at this season of the year under full way, and in remote sections, sometimes far beyond the settlements, hundreds of men are employed either in cutting logs or in hauling them with horses to the banks of the streams.