ENPages
(seq. 6)
2
lead a miserable life; an almost in as torpid and helpless (an) estate as the vegetables of the Country. Much of the summer is spent in laying in fuel for the winter. and Brandy and Rum are then the greatest luxuries the people indulge in. Such a degree of Cold as is then felt benumbs the every faculty of the mind and is nearly destructive to all industry.
When this severe winter goes, at once comes a summer (for they have no spring) of a heat greater than is ever felt in England. The snow is presently melted and runs in torrents to the sea.
The ground is thawed, the trees are presently in leaf and the little Husbandry here practiced is begun. But what is almost as bad as the extremes of heat and Cold are the perpetual fogs , which, render the country equally unwholesome and unplease-ant and what is very provoking to the Inhabitant
last
(seq. 7)
3
lasts far into (the) summer. Such is the climate: - it is bad almost to an excess but we are not to imagine it banishes husbandry, which might be the first Conclusion of such as were unused to northern latitudes.
The soil varies greatly in many places. It is thin and gravelly on a Bed of rock. For many years this was what they endeavoured to cultivate, but ill success has taught the Inhabitants a change, which has proved very advantageous. They fixed on the salt marshes in the Bay of Fundy which, altho' they required a very expensive drainage yet, the fertility of the soil repaid the farmer much better than other tracts gained with much less difficulty. The soil in these marshes is a white or bleu clay, mellow when in culture, and marley if the water is well conveyed off. It is
capable
(seq. 8)
4
capable of producing great crops, being suitable to the heat of the summer. But , the expence of getting this land is not small; for the sea is to be dyked out, and these dykes are to be kept in repair, and the temporary flashes con =veyed off further. Only a line next the Coast is of value, as that only has the benifet of harbours for boats & Schooners and for carrying off lumber for the West Indies. Most of the advantageous tracts were patented some years ago, but the lots change hands often, and at present, many of them are to be sold cheap enough tho under culture. An idea of the management may be gained from the following particulars. Upon the Settler's farm going, they fix upon a piece of marsh with
an
(seq. 9)
5
an a(d)joining one of Woodland, seldom sells in the whole than from Five hundred to Eight Hundred or one thousand acres. If the march is be already banked, they pay an annual tax for that work; if not, they must execute it before any profit can be made. They build the house on the edge of the woodland, a work that costs nothing in materials, from the great plenty of wood, which, is fine; consisting generally of Oak Pine or black birch but, all the trees are grubb'd, which makes the laborer heavy.
Three years are nominally give to settle the tracts assigned, but this is not strictly adhered to, but extended to Six, Seven; often Ten years. A quit rent is paid to the King of two Shillings for every Fifty acres, also, a Covenant entered unto of planting Two acres with hemp for every
fifty
(seq. 10)
6
fifty taken up. The planters are kept to this article, but with very little effect for the Climate is utterly improper for that production.
The marsh land is fine and wants little more after draining but to set the plow to work for sowing wheat. It is all covered with a short, but thick and spongy moss which they plow in and on one plowing harrow in their wheat. This work they perform as soon as the weather breaks and snow is all gone. They do it in a very clumsy mannter attending not the least to their lands being neat and regular laid out. In September the Corn is ripe. They usually mow it and the Crops they get, not withstanding the soil being good scarce ever amount to middling ones in England I have been assured that two quarters of bad wheat in quality are a good Crop. They have hardly
any