A^< IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT 3) A ^ fc*V >^ z « % 1.0 1.25 IA£ |Z8 125 |J0 ^^* HlH ■^ Kii 12.2 lii lu MS. 12.0 lllllm 1.4 \' ^ ^>. ^v^' ^^. ^.^• ^ "-^ y Phofotgrdphic Sdeiices Corporation (meaning "CON- TINUED"), or the symbol ▼ (meaning "END"), whichever ^applies. Les exemplaires originaux dont la couverture en papier eat imprimAe sent film6s en commen^ant par la premier plat at en terminent soit par la darnlAre paga qui comporta una empreinte d'impression ou d'illustration, soit par la second plat, salon lo cas. Tous les autras exemplaires originaux sont filmte an commengent par la premiere pege qui comporte une empreinte d'impression ou d'illustration at en terminant par la darnlAre page qui comporte une telle empreinte. Un dee symboles suivants apparattra sur la darnlAre image de cheque microfiche, seion le cas: le symbols — ► signifie "A SUIVRE", le symbols y signifie "FIN". Maps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at different reduction retios. Those too large to be entirely included in one exposure are filmed beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames as required. The following diagrams illustrate the method: Les cartas, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent Atre filmte A dee taux de reduction diff Arents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour Atre reproduit en un seul clich6, 11 est film* A partir de I'angia supArieur geuehe, de geuche it droite. et de haut an bes, en prenent le nombre d'images nAcessaira. Les diagrammes suivants iliustrent le m^thode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 PRACTICAL INFORMATION '10 EMIGRANTS. (i. WIMIDI Al,l„ ANI.Kl, (OIKl, PKI.VNRr rTKEKV, I.O.NJIDN. .^;j-3-.i: r/^ ^>.r "-(» *«iV ^■i. -. ov 'i'">' A 'K"x;n;i!uiiT;r.v BmriSH NORTH AMEKK AND THE .uiiii^a- x,^f^^ k. J*- tfiu nL*««f o*M .|0 rjcjiKL.mfxjjisT.mrES m:TWKKN tjik SH NORTH AMEKICLVN^ ('OIA)XIES AND THE ^ 2^ X .•.■.■il.'!!,'i- •<.'!■>•'• i»;:e--" ,«..!..'■;■ i:i^frr:i ■^;-i^^"l Lin!..!--- f .,««•' jB,i»M"- c ^AVESTU^^^ <^ '-V^. % "•* '/r^ (^ 40 3" M^riflian. of O (Vrerirwich. 1-r liiwr. i V 1, s '? -f 70 ' II ^^ vy&tMJe PRACTICAL INFORMATION (>;>^^^^^^ TO EMIGRANTS, INCLUDING DETAILS, (OLLKCTKn KnOM TIIK MOST AlJTIIKNTir AtM^OlI TlVs, RELATIVE TO THE SOIL, CLIMATE, NATURAL PRODUCTIONS, AGRICULTURE, ETC. t OF THE PKOVINCE OF NEW BRUNSWICK. LONDON : JOHN RICHARDSON, ROYAL EXCHANGE. 1832. 1, i ; PRACTICAL INFORMATION TO KMTORANTS I ■ NECESSAHV CONSIDERATIONS BEFORE ElMKJRATlNG. In Britisli America, notwithstiuuling the dif- jficulties which are incident to all new countries, it is a well established fact, substantiated by the evidence of all who have marked the progress of new settlers, tliat all those who have with persevering industry and frugality applied their labour to the cultivation of forest latids, have, with few exceptions, succeeded in acquiring the means of comfortable independence, and all that is requisite to render rural life happy. It frequently happens, however, that emi- grants are disappointed in realizing the prospects they entertained on leaving their native country. Lured, by low, unprincipled, interested persons, into the belief that all they can possibly wish B PRACTICAL INFORMATION ■ for, is to be obtained witli little difficulty on the shores and amidst the forests of America, they consequently embark with sanguine unattain- able expectations. No sooner, however, do they tread the hinds of the western world than the delusion vanishes ; and they then discover that neither food, clothing, nor any article of neces- sity, use, or luxury, is to be obtained without labour, money, or some exchangeable value. These disappointments, productive of no small degree of anxiety and discontent, are caused by emigrants not being told of the dif- ficulties as well as the advantages of new countries : — for, persons preparing to leave these kingdoms require not only to be informed of all that is necessary to govern them before de- ciding on leaving their abodes at home, but honest advice also to guide them afterwards, until they are enabled to secure a comfortable living in the land to which they go. The Board of Emigration has, it is true, circulated useful information in a brief shape ; but it was vain to expect that its members would attend to the detailed advice and intel- ligence necessary for emigrants to know. It would indeed be well, if adequate persons were appointed by government at the principal ports in the united kingdom for the purpose of giving correct information to emigrants ; in order to TO EMIGRANTS. 3 , prevent, as far as possible, the daily frauds practised on them at the sea-ports *. Persons who are deliberating about leaving their native country, should especially guard against those who are connected with the hiring of passenger ships, for the mere gains of passage money : that is, the difference between the freight which they pay the ship owner, and the amount they screv' out of the passengers t. From the little regard observed by these people, first, in obtaining money, in advance, for passages, from unwary country people whom they lure to public houses for the purpose of seducing them to the United States, and after- wards in making little arrangement for the com- fort of emigrants, who are ignorant both of ships and the sea, this business has obtained the far from false designation of the " White Slave Trade." The people engaged in it, (the White Slave Traders,) give, therefore, the most glow- ing accounts of America, particularly of the United States, while they conceal all the diffi- * At Liverpool, for instance, there are numerous places, principally cellars opening to the streets, with a huge sign- board over them, on which is painted in large letters, the words, " American Passengers' Office." These dens andthc crimps who keep them, are vile beyond conception. t Varying from 10*. to 15.y. for each passenger; besides certain allowances which they receive from public houses for bringing to them the custom of passengers. B S PllACTICAL INFORMATION ciilty and inconvenience whicli are always to be encountered on removing from one country and settling in another far distant. It is certainly no common-day business, but a most serious subject of consideration, for a man with liis family to remove from the place in which he was born and brought up, and from occupations to which he has been trained fiom his childhood to a country far distant, and in many respects different from his own, and in which he must assume pursuits and acquire ideas to which he is a perfect stranger. It therefore should be a matter of the first importance, for the person who is thinking of emigrating, before he determines on doing so, to consider well what his circumstances are in the land in which lie lives, whether they are better than formerly, or whether his means of living are diminishing. Whether his present condition enables him to live in tolerable comfort, with something like a certainty of these means continuing for the support of himself and family ; or whether, in order to attain comfortable independence in a country in which he need have no apprehension for the prosperity of his offspring, he can willingly part from his acquaintance, and leave scenes that must have been dear to his heart from infancy, and prepare for, and reconcile himself and T ;■ TO EMIGRANTS. 5 family to a long sea-voyage, and the fatigue of removing from the port where he disembarks in America to the spot of ground on which he may fix for the field of his future industry ; and finally, whether he can endure for two or three years many privations, and submit to the hard labour of levelling, burning, and clearing the forest in order to raise crops from a soil en- cumbered with the usual obstructions of wood lands. If therefore, on making up his mind to all these considerations, he resolves on emi- grating, he will not be disappointed in realizing in America the prospects he may entertain on leaving England. The next consideration is to decide on the country to which he is to emigrate. In order to determine this primary subject as judiciously as a man can do, who is a stranger to the land in which he may settle, six points, of paramount consequence, are to be considered ; in all of which let the emigrant be suspicious of information coming from persons who solicit for " Passenger Ships," or who are connected with the vile " Passenger Offices " to be met with in Liverpool and other places ; and, depend only for information, on the government, or corporate associations J on men of established good re- putation, or on acknowledged good written t) PRACTICAL INFORMATION authorities. The six points of consideration are, First : The country to which it may seem advisable to emigrate. Second : Its distance from and intercourse with the United Kingdom. Third : The climate, soil, and other natural advantages or disadvantages : demand for labour, and markets for produce. Fourth ; The form of government, public institutions, and the manner in which the benefits of education are to be obtained. Fifth : The preparations that may be ne- cessary for him to make before emigrating, and in what way he is to cross the sea. Sixth : How lands are to be obtained ; and how a settler is to act after landing in America. ..' ' 1 In respect to the first point, the emigrant need not be told that British North America, the United States, Van Diemen's Land, Swan River, and New South Wales, are the countries to which emigrants are directed or attracted. To those who are regardless of the govern- ment and constitution of England, and who are indifferent as to becoming some day the enemies not only of their native country, but of their kindred and acquaintances, the United States may certainly offer sufficient inducements. It must be, however, remembered, that there are ■'f TO EMIGRANTS. ,.i I ?; no good lands now to be had at reasonable prices within the American republic, excepting in the back countries, far from the sea, and to be reached only from the port of landing at great expense ; — nor are the certain periodical fevers and agues, common to the Ohio and Mississippi countries and southern states, to be disregard- ed*. Neither are the taxes or other public burdens so inconsiderable as emigrants are taught to believe. To Van Diemen's Land, Swan River, and New South Wales, the great distance from England, the consequent high rate of passages and freight, and the want of a ready market for agricultural produce, form the only disadvan- * Volney says of the climate of the United States, " Au- tumnal intermittent fevers, or quotidian agues, tertian, quartan, &c. constitute another class of diseases that prevails in the United States to a degree of which no idea could he conceived. They are particularly endemic in places recently cleared, in valleys, on the borders of rivers, either running or stagnant, near ponds, lakes, mill-dams, marshes, &c. These autumnal fevers are not directly fatal, but they gradually undermine the constitution, and very sensibly shorten life. If these fevers fix on a person at the end of October, they will not quit him the whole winter, but reduce him to a state of deplorable languor and weakness." An American traveller of respectability, speaking of the St. Lawrence at JMontreal, says, " It may well compare with our own JMississippi ; and though winter fast locks it in ice, summer on the other hand b'-iiigs no yellow fevers." T 8 PRACTICAL INFORMATION j I I I S tages of any importance. Were it not for these considerations, and that persons who emigrate to those colonies must be considered exiled for ever from the United Kingdom, no objections can reasonably be made to them, as t'le climate is salubrious, the soil generally good, and the government and laws those of England *. In regard to British North America, it may be observed, that the upper or inland, and the lower or maritime colonies, have each their respective advantages. Upper Canada has for some years received the greater portion of emigrants who have left these kingdoms for British America. This has been caused, in a great measure, by the de- mand for labour on public works, and by the praiseworthy operations and exertions of the Canada Company. The lands of this province are generally fertile ; and the country affords an asylum for two or three millions of settlers. Emigrants must not, however, be discouraged in having to proceed a great distance into the back country, in order to secure a desirable farm, nor feel disheartened at having to under- go more than they endured from the time they landed at Montreal, until they afterwards plant themselves in the woods, than they experienced in removing to America from the land of their * See scale of passages and other expenses hereafter. i .^ T TO EMIGRANTS. 9 forefathers. Every succeeding year will open more cheering prospects to them. The emi* grants who arri^/o after them will settle beyond them in the wilderness ; and they will in a short period observe houses, villages, and corn fields occupying the place of gloomy forests. In Lower Canada there are some exl^ensive tracts of land still ungranted, and the expense of reaching tho o lands much less than to the upper province j but the climate is more severe in winter, yet on the other hand more healthy. The British American Land Company are likely to limit their principaloperations to this pro- vince ; in which there is certainly full oppor- tunity for the secure investment of money; and ample scope, with judicious arrangements and good management, for profitable enterprise and improvement. The Maritime Colonies, exclusive of the great fishing colony of Newfoundland, are Nova Scotia, including Cape Breton ; New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island. The proximity of these countries to plentiful fisheries is of great benefit to new settlers, who are, in consequence, enabled to procure at an easy rate, or with little labour, what may constitute, for some time, one of the principal articles of food. They have also the advantage of s more im- mediate market for the natural and agricultural productions of the soil than Upper Canada or 10 PRACTICAL INFORMATION IS. ,^'1 the INLAND States ; neither are the lower colonies ever subject to agues or lake fevers, while the climates of Upper Canada and the western and southern states of America, gene- rate, periodically, those enfeebling and lingering epidemics. NOVA SCOTIA. This thriving province has many natural ad- vantages, although its Atlantic coast is rugged, and subject, with south or easterly winds, to dense sea-fogs, which however do not penetrate inland. The climate is remarkably salubrious, and epidemics are unknown : — the soil of many districts is fertile, and yields full returns of all the crops grown in England. It has rich coal and iron mines, plentiful fisheries, valuable forests, and an active trade with the West Indies. Large tracts of land are still ungranted, but not more than 30,000 of good land in any one place. Besides the Royal College at Windsor, it has a respectable academy called Pictou College, grammar, and elementary schools, and various useful and benevolent institutions. The state of society, the rapid improvements in husbandry, the public spirit of the provincial government, and the spirit also of private enterprise which distinguishes this province, claim praise and admiration. I TO EMIGUANTS. CAPi: lUlETOxV 11 Is included under the same proviiicial go- vernment as Nova Scotia, and having still large tracts of good ungranted lands, coal mines, plentiful fisheries, a healthy climate, plenty of wood, numerous harbours, proximity to Eng- land and the West Indies, it affords very great inducements to settlers, particularly to people brought up along a sea-coast, or accustomed to mining operations. PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. This island has long been considered the most beautiful of our North American colo- nies, and eminently adapted for agriculture. The soil is uniformly good, and scarcely a stone on its surface but what a plough will turn over; nor any hill too steep for tillage. All the crops that grow in England yield plen- tiful returns, and ripen in great perfection. The climate is remarkably salubrious, and never obscured by fogs. It has leading and by roads all over the island, plentiful fisheries, and tim- ber for all purposes. There are settlements along all its shores, but not more than one acre in forty has yet been subjected to tillage. The lands are principally in the hands of large pro- V2 I'llACTICAL INI'OHMATION prictors, with whom liowcvcr favourable iirrangc- mciits may bo made for the purchasing or routing of lauds. It supplies the fisheries of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia witli large quantities of agricultural produce and live stock. Exports lumber, salted provisions, and flour: and during the summer of 1831, a few cargoes of excellent wheat and oats arrived in England from this island. ;<■: NEW BRUNSWICK. This province has been hitherto less known in the United Kingdom than any part of his Majesty's dominions, although eminently blessed with the natural advantages of easy access, a sa- lubrious climate, a rich soil, vast tracts of fertile land, valuable forests, plentiful fisheries, mines of coals and iron, salt springs, innumerable rivers and streams to carry the productions of the interior to the sea, and proximity to the ocean in its trade with England and the West Indies. As this province contains more than twelve millions of acres of ungranted lands, the soil of the greater part of which is so especially adapted to agriculture ; and as scarcely any account of it has been published, until the appearance, lately, of the works of Colonel Bouchette and Mr. TO EM 10 II ANTS. 13 Mac (ircgor, and a brief account of the pro- vince by Mr. Baillic, the commissioner and sur- veyor-general of crown lands in New Brunswick, the following' extracts from those authorities, and also from the Reports of the Emigration Committee, may be safely relied on for the guidance of emigrants *. " New Brunswick", says Colonel Bouchette, ** is bounded almost on two thirds of its circum- ference by the ocean ; it invites the commerce of the world. The general face of the country may be described as composed of bold undu- lations, sometimes swelling into the height of mountains, and again subsiding to vale and low lands, principally covered by noble forests, not so dense as to be inaccessible. The banks of the larger rivers for the most part disclose a country of the latter description, so in some places they are inclosed by lofty and precipi- tous rocks, whilst the abundance of inferior streams produces frequent slips or spaces of * Topographical and Statistical Description of Lower and Upper Canada, &c. By Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Bouchette, Surveyor-General of Lower Canada, 2 vols. 21. 17*- Maps, 41. 10s. — British America. By John Mac Gregor, Esq., 2 vols., with maps, 1/. 8*. Blackwood, Edinburgh ; Ca- dell, London. — Account of New Brunswick. By Thomas Baillie, Esq., Commissioner and Surveyor-General of Crown Lands in New Brunswick. J. G. and F. Rivington, London. II. PUACTrCAL INFORMATFON what is termed intervale, wliich being overflowed during the wet seasons become, at stated inter- vals, distingnislieil by extreme fertility. The borders of tlie rivers, and tiie islets with which they abound, furnishing extensive tracts of pas- ture and flourishing crops of Indian and Euro- pean corn, attest the general adaptation of the soil to the most profitable uses of agriculture." Mr. 13aillie tells us, ** The province of New Brunswick is bounded on the north l)y Lower Canada, on the east by the gulf of St. Lawrence, on the south by the bay of Fundy, and on the east by the United States. It extends from 63° 45' to 67" SO' west longitude, and from 45° to 48° 10' north latitude; comprising in its area 16,500,000 acres, 2,500,000 of which are granted. " The voyage to New Brunsv^^ick, is short, (being about 2500 miles from England) and varies from three to five weeks > It has so many excellent ports that an emigrant can scarcely go wrong ; but if he is anxious to get im- mediately into the interior, the river St. John affords him the best opportunity, and abundance of superior land is to be found near its banks. Passages from the city of St. John (where the emigrants will land) to Fredericton, by the steam-boats are about 2s. 6d." At Fredericton, which is the seat of govern- TO riMUaiANTS. 1^ niLMit, (Miiigrants can get every infoim; lion re- specting lands at the surveyor-general's olHce. ** Along the margins of most of the rivers u ribband of smiHng clearances, studded with cottages, and che([uered with the worm fences j)eculiar to a country abounding with wood, vary the monotony of the Ibrest ; while hamlets composeil of a few liunilies and detached settle- ments or plantations, connected by paths or bridle roads, arc interspersed through the wood- lands in rear, and throw a checrfid asj)ect over the surrounding gloom. ** If it is not a land flowing with milk and honey, it is at all events a land of promise, and will not deceive the exertions and labour of the agriculturist ; and the man possessing a small capital, would in a few years find himself in comparative aftluence, his children, which are a clog to his exertions here, would there be his support and assistants; for often have I seen a boy of twelve years old handle his a3 e and fell a huge tree with the ease and dexterity of an old woodsman. The girls will spin in winter, and in summer use the hoe. There are no idlers. All the family are in requisition, and all will enjoy health, comfort, and contentment. " I have seen so many families who, from very small beginnings, are now in comfortable independence, that I should be wanting in IG PUACTrCAL INFOUMATION i- ♦ regard to my countrymen on this side oC the Atlantic, and forgetful of the interests of my adopted country on the other, if I neglected to make known the field which is open for, and the benefits which must assuredly accrue to the the latter. " While the small farmer in England is year after year becoming poorer, and endeavouring to eke out an existence and pay a high rent and necessary taxes, some of the finest land in the world is open to his labour in New Brunswick, and invites him to cultivate and improve it." Mr. Baillie in continuation and in alluGion to the fishes that frequent the coasts and rivers says, " The province furnishes immense ad- vantages to poor settlers in this respect, united v/ith the more solid beneiits arising from a good soil, a genial climate, and a good situation for trade and commerce. ** Timber of different descriptions covers the whole face of the country in such abundance, that were it used for the purposes of building alone, it would supply Great Britain for ages. The principal trees arc white, yellow, and red pines ; fir and hemlock ; poplars, bass wood ; rock, curly, bird's eye, white and sugar maple j black, yellow, grey, and white birch; beech, ash, oak, elm, kc. it I T TO EMIGRANTS. 17 " St. John's River is navigable to Fredcricton, (at the head of tho title navigation,) for sloops of 100 tons ; but ships of large tonnage can ascend to the Oromucto eleven miles below ; large flat bottom boats or barges from ten to twenty tons are the usual craft employed between Fredericton and the grand falls," 130 miles further up the river. " New Brunswick is included in the diocese of Nova Scotia, and the establishment of the Church of England consists of the excellent archdeacon and thirty missionaries." There are also clergymen of the Church of Scotland, and the Catholic church, besides Wesleyan and Baptist missionaries. " There are neither tithes nor taxes, but a moderate poor-rate is required from all persons, according to their means, for the supj^ort of such poor who iiom age or infirmity are unable to provide for themselves. There is also a cer- tain portion of statute labour to be performed upon the roads by all persons in proportion to their wealth ; and I am sorry to say, that in most cases it is done with a bad grace, so much so, that half the amount of labour under proper management would do more work." We find among the minutes of evidence taken before the Emigration Committee of the House of Commons, the following testimony given by c 18 TRACTICAL INFORMATION 1 • r H I I! Henry Bliss, Esq., a gentleman intimately ac- quainted with the province. " My attention has been directed to the evi- dence given byMr. Uniacke, which is perfectly just. It appears to me that the emigration pro- posed might be directed to the province of New Brunswick with greater facilities, for the follow- ing reasons ; — The passage is shorter than to Que- bec ; opportunities more frequent than to Nova Scotia, which ought in some degree to lessen the expense ; on arriving, the business and ac- tivity that prevails in every part of the province will give the emigrant casual employment and support. New Brunswick offers a large quan- tity of vacant land of a good description and excellent situations — so universal is the water communication through this province, that lots may be easily laid out adjoining some stream, or to no groat distance from it, which, besides supplying the want of roads, form convenient seats for mills, and supply fish for the emi- grant's support. The winter is somewhat colder than in parts of Nova Scotia, but the summer is warmer and less clouded with fog. Every thing the seller has to buy is cheaper, and every thing he has to sell is dearer than in any of the colonies, owing to the ease with which he can pay for the manufactures of Great Britain by the timber trade, and whicl are imported T TO EMIGRANTS. 1!) in great abundance, and sold at reasonable prices ; and owing to the excess of consump- tion above the produce, arising from the people being engaged in the timber trade, corn and ti'uits of the earth are therefore dear. " Considerable sums are appointed every year by the Colonial Assembly for repairing and im- proving roads to the remote plantations, and are paid to the settlers themselves for their la- bour, and for the same purpose a bounty is given for clearing the new land, or rather for the first crop of corn raised on such clearance. New Brunswick, with the Gul f of St. Lawrence on the one side and the Bay of Fundy on the other, possesses a valuable fishery on its own shores ; its coasts are indented with numerous bays and harbours, and the country possesses innumer- able smaller streams, to such a degree that there is not, it is said, a point in the province eight miles distant from a navigable stream. In fertility of soil it yield i no part of America ; the face of the country is level, and is covered with an almost inexhaustible forest of large timber trees ; beneath are mines of coal, free- stone, lime, and gypsum ; and, it may be \ added, that the ports in the Bay of Fundy are the only luirbours, Halifax excepted, north of New York that are never closed by / ice. 20 PRACTICAL INFORMATION :| *: Hi': Captain Henry W. Scott, who lived in both provinces for about twelve years, and assisted in surveying crown lands, says, on his exami- nation, — " I have been up the river St. John ; there is a great deal of unsettled lands, very large tracts indeed, all over the province, which are all good, I tliink ; I cannot specify any particular place ; there is a large tract of coun- try between the St. John River on the one hand, which opens into the Bay of Fundy, and the sources of the Miramichi, which opens into the Gulf of St. Lawrence on the other : this great tract is quite fit for settlement."* — Second Report, Page 255. To the foregoing extracts we may add the following, from Mr. Mac Gregor's description of the province. He crossed the country in dif- ferent directions, coasted all its shores, and tells us in his general account of North America, Vol. n. Book 2 : " The greater portion of this province, (New Brunswick,) is still in a wilderness state, al- though its soil, with the exception of a few rocky districts, principally on the Bay of Fundy Coasts, and several but not extensive swampy tracts, is rich and fertile. * This fertile tract has lately been purchased by the New Brunswick Company- < i TO EMIGUAiNTS. '21 " The river St. John with its lakes and my- riads of streams, the tributary waters of one side the St. Croix, the river Petit Coudiac, the Miramichi with its majestic branches, the river Nipisighit, and many lesser rivers open an in- land navigation into almost every part of the province. " Dense forests cover nearly the whole coun- try ; the quality of the soil, as elsewhere in America, may always be ascertained by the de- scription of wood growing upon it." " Along the countless rivers of this province, there are also innumerable tracts of what is termed inter- vale land ; this kind of soil is alluvial, with de- tached trees of luxuriant growth, principally elm, ash, black birch, and butternut ; and like the lands of the Nile annually irrigated by the overflowing of the rivers. " In several parts of the interior country, ge- nerally along small brooks, are wild meadows created originally by the industry of the beaver : being the consequence of the irrigation of a flat tract, with the water arrested by the dams con- structed by these animals. " The aspect of the coast of New Brunswick along the Bay of Fundy, is generally rugged, and the soil near the shore difficult to cul- tivate. *' As we proceed from the sea coast up the ^^ OC) I'RACTICAL INFORMATION i I rivers of this province, the rich fertility of the country claims our admiration. A great flat country may be said to prevail from the parallel of the long reach, up the river St. John, to the foot of Mar's Hill." " High hills rise occasion- ally in ridges in various places, but no part of New Brunswick can be considered moun- tainous. ** The scenery of the rivers, lakes, and cata- racts is generally picturesque and beautiful, and often wild and grandly romantic. ** The wild animals are the bear, moose-deer, carraboo, fox, loup-cervier, tiger-cat, racoon, porcupine, marten, beaver, otter, mink, mus- quash, fisher, hares, in great plenty, squirrel, weasel, &c." " Most of the birds enumerated as common to America, are plentiful *, " Along the coasts cod, haddock, mackerel, and nearly all the kinds of fish caught in the North American seas are abundant; lobsters and oysters are plentiful ; salmon, shad, bass, sturgeon, alewives, &c., frequent the rivers and shores ; and a variety of other fish, among which are chub, smelt, trout, eel, perch, &c., are plen- tiful in the streams and lakes." * Wild geese, brent-goose, several kinds of wild ducks, partridges, pigeons, snipe, curlew, plover, bittern, crane, woodpeckers, robins, blackbirds, eagles, hawks, owls, gulls, gannets, &c. &c. TO KWKJllANTS. '2,^ " THE CITY OF ST. JOHN Is at the moutli of the river of the same name in latitude 45" 20' n. It has three episcopal churches, a Scotch kirk, catholic and dissenting chapels, a handsome court-house, commodious barracks, a hospital, schools, and other institutions. " Fifty years ago, the site of tliis thriving city was covered with trees, and only a few straggling huts existed within its harbour. AVhen we now view it, with its population of above 12,000, its stately houses, its public buildings, its warehouses, its wharfs, and with the majestic ships that crowd its port, we are more than lost in forming even a conjecture of what it may become in less than a century. Its position will ever command the trade of the vast and fertile country watered by the lakes and streams of the river of St. John. All towns through which the bulk of the imports and exports of the countries in whicli these towns are situated necessarily pass, have, in consequence, flourish- ed. We view this, in the long and continued prosperity of Hamburgh, tiie boundless com- merce of Liverpool, and the amazing prosperity of New York. " TFIE RIVER OF ST. JOHN, Called by the Indians Loosh-tork, or the Long River, is, next to the St. Lawrence, the finest river in British America. Steam-boats start u 1MI,\CTICA» INFOllMATION i'roin Indian Town, about a mile above the city of* St. John, for Ficdericton. '* On saiUng up the river through Grand Bay, the country is wild and rugged until we enter the Long Reach. Huge calcareous (limestone) rocks, bursting through dark fir forests, stretch- ing up the sides of lofty hills and promontories which frown over tlie dark waters, impart a most savage and menacing character to the scenery." '* At the head of the Long Reach, the lands on each side the river, and the islands which divide it into several channels, present beautiful and rich features." •* From the head of the Long Reach to Fredericton, the seat of government, no part of America can exhibit greater beauty or more luxuriant fertility than the lands on each side, and the islands we pass in this distance. I can only compare it to the St. Lawrence from Fort "William Henry to Montreal ; and those who have had the opportunity of observing both will agree with me in considering the banks of the river St. John, naturally, quite as beautiful and fertile as those of the St. Lawrence." If « FREDERICTON Is situated on a pretty point of land formed by a bend of the river, nearly ninety miles above St. John, and in front of as richly wooded hills as ever eye beheld. For soft and TO EMKillANTS. picturesque scenery it is not surpassed by any part of the province. In front, the river St. John, something more than half a mile in width, flows past, sometimes smoothly, but often in overflowing grandeur ; and immediately op- posite it receives the Nashwaak, a rapid stream which winds from the north-west thirty miles, through fertile lands, settlements, and forests." " The magnificent view from the handsome college lately built on the brow of a hill above the town, embraces much of what poets and ro- mance writers tell us about * fairy land.' Be- fore us we have the neat white buildings of the town, with their pretty gardens, and the verdant foliage of their trees ; then the river St. John with the deboiiche of the Nashwaak, and an ex- tensively ascending forest country, stretching far to the north and west. Downwards we have a commanding prospect of several windings of the river ; the banks and headlands of which are beautifully adorned with clumps of trees, interspersed among the cultivated uplands, or intermingled with the rich fringes of alluvial lands which its waters have created. Upwards, our eyes and imagination feast on a splendid view of luxuriant islands, water, cultivated farms, farm-houses, blue distant hills wooded to their summits j with the presence of human industry, i' ^Zi'y IMIACTICAL INrOUMATION \\\ iierds of cattle on the thrms and islands ; one or more sloops or steain-boats on the river ; timber-rafts, batten ux, and the white canoe of the Indian, to lend animation to the whole." Sir Archibald Campbell, the governor of the province, resides at Fredericton. Here also assemble the provincial legiskiturc, and here the sittings of the Supreme Court are held. 'I'he office of the Surveyor-General and Commis- sioner of Crown Lands is also at Fredericton, where necessary information about land can be obtained*. When we view this magnificent river as it flows past us to the ocean ; and examine the vast field which lies still unoccupied on its banks and on those of its numerous branches, we do not require the spirit of prophecy to conclude, that a region, possessing ton or twelve million acres of good land, a salubrious climate, proxi- mity to markets, institutions to which English- men are attached, and the most perfect protec- tion, under British laws, of persons and pro- perty, must, in a few years after the natural advantages and means of the province are pro- perly known and understood, be filled with the * Correct information will be given to settlers, as to lands and employment, by the agents of the New Jirunswick Cum- [wny, at Fredericton, St John and Aliramichi. I TO KMICIIANTS. S7 sons and ilaugliters of enterprise and industry, and that this country must then flourish and prosper. MIRAMICHI. The river Miramichi, navigable for large ships forty miles from its mouth, is another great inlet from the ocean to the interior j its importance hitherto has arisen from the vast quantity of timber exported from it during the last fifteen years. It separates into two great branches, and these again into several streams. It is frequented by great plenty of salmon and other varieties offish. There are extensive mercantile establish- ments at the town of Chatham, particularly that of Messrs. Cunard *, from whom emigrants may depend on correct information respecting the fertile tracts of intervale and uplands in the ex- tensive upper country, watered by the numerous streams of the Miramichi. The town of Newcastle is a few miles above Chatham, and there are two other villages ad- joining J but the banks of the river are very thinly settled upon ; and the inhabitants, until the depression of the timber trade, in 1826, de- * Joseph Cunard, Esq., of tliis firm, will direct emigrants ])roceeding to the New Brunswick Company's land, and give tliem such information as will obviate any difficulty. 'J8 IMIACTICAL INFORM ATIOV pciuled chierty on the forest for tlie ineaiis of subsistence. Since that period they have ap- plied their attention as much to agriculture as to the hewing of timber. " The natural advantages of New Brunswick are certainly equal to any country in America, and it requires only a great addition of in- dustrious settlers to secure its prosperity, and make it one of the most imjiortant of his Majesty's colonies. Its resources are great, and it is capable of maintaining at least three P"»illions of inhabitants." — Mac Gregorys British Ame- rica, Vol. I J. Book 2. AGRICULTURE. Agriculture and the raising of cattle have all over the province advanced rapidly since the establishment of a central agricultural society with district branches. The following extracts from the Reports of the New Brunswick Agricultural Society may be interesting. " It is rv.ost gratifying to the society at this early stage of its progress to announce that the operations of this and the several county agri- cultural associations, have tended powerfully, though silently, to the advancement of agri- culture, not only with regard to the cultivation TO r.M 10 HANTS. '2\) of the soil, but also with respect to the improve- ment of the breed of our domestic animals. ** Mr. Nicholas Cuidiffe, of Woodstock, com- menced clearing his farm in May 1824. The work was done by contract, at the rate of from .'3/. 10.9. to 4/. per acre. He has now 107 acres of land cleared, excepting of the stumps of the trees j '74> acres were cleared since May last ; and the crop raised from this land last season was 0(X) bushels of good clean wheat weighing 03 pounds to the bushel, 400 bushels of Indian corn, nearly 1000 bushels of potatoes, besides a quantity of beans and garden stuff, of which no particular account was kept. This crop alone will leave a profit of about 100/. over and above the expense of clearing the whole of the land. ** Mr. Joseph Bedell commenced clearing his farm at Richmond, in the parish of Woodstock, about four miles from the river St. John, in May 1821. Without any other assistance than that of his three sons, the oldest of whom is now but 16, the next 12 years of age, and the other still younger, he has cleared 50 acres of land, from which he raised last season 240 bushels of wheat, 250 bushels of oats, 50 bushels of buck-wheat, 600 bushels of potatoes, 150 bushels of turnips, and a small quantity of Indian corn. He has paid 110/. since he went on the farm, is now clear of debt, and owns four i 30 PRACTICAL INFORMATION n !i. ■* COWS, one pair of horses, eight Iiead of young cattle, twelve sheep, and 800 acres of good land. " ' is al-jO mentioned, that from one acre Mr. Upton raised 84J- bushels of Indian ccrn, and that from the same quantity of land, Mr. Miles raised 34 bushels of wheat j and the report concludes by stating, that the Southdown sheep could not now be purchased for three time^ the price for which they were sold in 18'20, so superior are they and their lambs to llie native breed. " It is no wonder that in a new country, whose first inhabitants, many c? whom are yet living, had to struggle unassisted in what was a few years ago a gloomy wilderness, and where the iisheries and the manufacture of timber have always employed a considerable portion of its population, the more improved modes o^ farming have but in a few instances been practised. ** The goodness of Providence has cast our lot in a highly favoured land ; and all that is requisiie on our parts, is the general adoption of that industry of which, in various parts of the province, there are so many honour .*ble examples, and that industry differently and more judiciously applied." * I Reports of 1820, 1827, 1828. TO EMIGRANTS. 31 ; " Horses, black cattle, sheep, swine, and poultry, thrive as well as in England." Mr. Baillie says, he had the head of a hog sent him which weighed 03 lbs., the whole carcass 1232 lbs. " A young ox," says he, " reared in the province, and fatted only after being taken from the grass in the fliU of tlie year with hay, potatoes, ind a small quantity of Indian corn, weighed, including the hide and tallow, but exclusive of tlie offal, 1423 lbs." " Near tiie sea coasts," says Mr. Mac Gregor, " wheat crops, owing to the fogs, are uncertain ; but in the interioi' all kinds of grain and vege- tables that grow in England, beside someot..ers, ripen in perfection, and on alluvial lands yield great returns. The average return of Indian corn is 80 bushels per acre; wheat 18 to 30 bushels ; oats, buck wheat, barley, and rye, are always certain crops." Beans may be raised in vast abundance^ they are often sown with In- dian corn, and we often see pumpkins and cucumbers intermixed with them. Vast quan- tities of hemp and flax, for which the lands ?.ie well adapted, might be raised. Cood land will produce about 200 bushels of potatoes or more per acre ; turnips, mangel-wurzel, red and white clover, iiud timothy, are the grasses most cultivated j two to four tons per acre is the usual crop. 1, 31 PRACTICAL INFORMATION m '11 " On coming clown the soutli-vvest branch c'' the river Miramichi in the autumn of 1828, from where the road from the river St. John joins the Miramichi, I was astonished," says Mr. Mac Gregor, " at tlie unexpected progress made during so short a period (about four years) in the cultivation of the soil. *' Near where the road parts off lor Frede- ricton, an American, oossessing a full share of the adventurous activ'ty of the citizens of the United States, has established himself. He told me that when he planted himself there, seven years before, he was not worth a shilling. ''• To -^ now (1829) more than 300 acres under cultiva- tion, an immense flock of sheep, horses, several yokes of oxen, milch cows, swine, and poultry. He has a large dwelling-house conveniently furnished, in which he lives with his family and a numerous train of labourers, one or two other houses, a forge with a powerful trip-hammer worked by water power, fulling mill, grist mill, and two saw mills, all turned by water. Near these he showed me a building, which he said he erected for the double purpose of a school and chapel, the floor of which was laid, and on which benches were arranged so as to resemble the pit of one of our theatres. He said that all preachers who came in the way were welcome to the use of it. An English parson, a Catholic TO EMIGRANTS. -rii priest, a Presbyterian minister, or a Methodist preaclicr, should each, he said, get something to eat at his house, and have the use of the chapel, with equal satisfliction to him. He then showed me his barn, and in one place a heap containing about 90 bushels of Indian corn, that grew on a spot scarcely an acre, which he pointed out to me. This man could hardly read or write. His manners were quite unpolished, but not rude; yet he had wonderful readiness of address, and as far as related to his own pursuits, quick powers of invention and application. He raised large crops, ground his own corn, manufactured the flax he cultivated and the wool of his sheep into coarse cloths ; sold the provisions which his farm produced, and rum and British goods to the lumberers ; kept a tavern, employed lum- berers in the woods, and received also timber in payment for whatever he sold. He made the axes and other tools required by the lum- berers at his forge; he ate, gambled, and associated with his own labourers, and with the lumberers, and all others, who made his house a kind of rallying point ; he appeared however to be a sober man, and a person who had in view an object of gain in every thing he engaged in. He talked much in praise of tiie rich interior country, and how rapidly it would D !■<■ .SI. PHACTICAL INFORMATIOV be settled and cultivated if possessed by the Americans*. " I have noticed the condition of this man as being strictly characteristic of thousands of Americans who settle on back lands. " Great, however, as the change and improve- ment in the agriculture of the province has been, we must yet consider farming, comparatively speaking, in a rude state. There still exists a lazy attachment to the make-shift system, an t.: ce of neatness amidst luxuriant vegeta- tion. In short the mere means of living are too easily obtained ; and when this is the case the stimulus to improvement and the attainment of order seems to cease. Time and a great in- crease of population will alone create an effec- tive change. " Uplands are those which are neither over- flown by the tide, nor by the inundations occa- sioned by the waters that swell the rivers and streams, when the sun and spring-thaws dissolve the snows. The uplands are always fertile when they naturally produce maple, beech, black or yellow birch, with a mixture of other trees. " Intervale land consists of flat tracts along * This is the extensive tract hitcly piirdiased by the Non- Brunswick Company. I TO EMICllANTS. S5 the rivers, brooks, or lakes originally formed of deposits carried down from the uplands by the spring freshets, and annually irrigated and enriched by the overflowing of the rivers in spring. " Ploughing, in spring, begins in the end of April or the beginning of May, at which time summer wheat and oats are sown. Barley will ripen if sown any time before the end of June, although generally sown much earlier. Potatoes are planted about the last of May, or before the middle of June. Turnip seed is sown about the middle of July. Gardening commences early in May and generally combines the different de- partments of fruits, flowers, and vegetables. Cu- cumbers, salads, cabbages, cauliflowers, aspara- gus, and indeed all culinary vegetables common in England arrive at perfection. Apples, peaches, pears, cherries, plums, damsons, black, red, and white currants, gooseberries, raspberries, straw- berries, ripen perfectly, and are large and delici- ous. Many fruits that will not ripen in the open air in England will grow in perfection in this province ; grapes, when sheltered, will also ripen in the open air, although scarcely any attempt has been made to cultivate them. " Hay-making commences in the latter end of July, and as the weather is commonly very dry, it is attended with little trouble in curing ; u 2 SG IMlACTICAr. INFORMATION ■,'f hay is sometimes put away under cover, but oftener made up into stacks or ricks ; barley is reaped in August. The wheat and oat harvest commences sometimes before, but generally after the first of September. Some use an Ame- rican implement called a cradle, for cutting down their grain, and afterwards make it up in sheaves and stacks, but the common way is to reap and lay it up in sheaves, and then gather and stack it in the manner followed in England. Potatoes and turnips are left underground until the middle or end of October ; parsnips may remain in the ground during winter, and are finer when dug up in spring than at any other period. " Milch cows and such horses and cattle as require most care are housed in November j but December is the usual month for housing cattle regularly. Sheep thrive best by being left out all the winter, but they require to be fed, and it is necessary to have a shelter without a roof to guard against the cold winds and snow-drift." If li CULTIVATION OF FOREST LAND, etc. It is curious and interesting to observe the progress which a new settler makes in clear' ng and cultivating a wood farm, from the period he commences in the forests until he lias re- TO liMIGllANTS. 37 cliiiiued a sufficient quantity of land to enable him to follow the mode of cultivation he prac- tised in his native country. As the same course is, with little variation, followed by all new settlers in every part of America, the following descrij)tion may be useful to those who are about to emigrate. The first object is to select the farm among such vacant lands as are most desirable ; and, after obtaining the necessary tenure, the settler commences, the nearest inhabitants usiially assisting him by cutting down the trees on the site of his intended habitation, and those growing on the ground immediately adjoining. This operation is performed with the axe, by cutting a notch on each side of the tree, about two feet above the ground, and rather more than half through on the side on which it is intended the tree should fall. The trees are all felled in the same direction ; and after lopping off the principal branches, cut into ten or fifteen feet lengths. On the spot on which the house is to be erected, these junks are all rolled away, and the smaller parts carried off or burnt. The habitations which the new settlers first erect, are all nearly in the same style, and in imitation of or altogether like the dwellings of an American back-woodsman, constructed in 38 I'llACTICAL IVFOllMATION I f M the rudest manner. Round logs, iVom fifteen to twenty feet long, without the least dressing, arc laid horizontally o^er each other, and notch- ed in at the corners to allow them to come along the walls within about an inch of each other. One is first laid on each side to begin the walls, then one at each end, and the build- ing is raised in this manner by a succession of logs crossing and binding each other at the corners, until seven or eight feet high. The seams are closed with moss or clay ; three or four rafters are then raised to support the roof, which is covered with boards, with the rinds of birch or spruce trees, bound down with poles tied together with withes. A wooden frame work, placed on a foundation of stone, roughly dressed, is raised a few feet from the ground, and leading through the roof with its sides closed up with clay and straw kneaded together, forms the chimney. A space large enough for a door, and another for a window, is then cut through the w^alls; and in the centre of the cabin a square pit or cellar is dug for the pur- pose of preserving potatoes or other vegetables during winter. Over this pit a floor of boards, or of logs hewn flat on the upper side, is laid, and another over head to form a sort of garret. When a door is hung, a window-sash with six, nine, or sometimes twelve panes of glass is fixed. TO K.MKi HANI'S. S9 a cupboard and two or tliree bed stocks put up, the habitation is then considered ready to re- ceive the new settler and his family. Although such a dwelling has nothing attractive in its appearance, unless it be its rudeness, yet it is by no means so uncomfortable a lodging as the habitations of the poor peasantry in Ireland and in some parts of England and Scotland. New settlers who have means build mucii better houses at first, with two or more rooms ; but the majority of emigrants live for a few years in habitations similar to the one here described ; after which, a good comfortable house is built by all steady industrious settlers. Previous to commencing the cultivation of woodlands, the trees which are cut down, lopped, and cut into lengths are, when the proper season arrives (generally in May) set on fire, which consumes all the branches and small wood. The logs are then either piled in heaps and burnt, or rolled away for making a fence. Those who can afford it, use oxen to haul off the large unconsumed timber. The surflice of the ground and the remaining wood is all black and charred ; and working on it and preparing the soil for seed is as disagreeable at first as any labour in which a man can be engaged. Men, women, and children must, however, employ themselves in gathering and burning the rubbish, and in 40 I'RACTICAJ. INFOHMATIOM such parts of labour as their respective strengths adapt them for. If the ground be intended for grain, it is generally sown without tillage o\ er the surface, and the seed covered in with a hoe. By some a triangular harrow, which shortens labour, is used instead of the hoe, and drawn by oxen. Others break up the earth with a one - handled plough, the old Dutch plough, which has the share and coulter locked into each other, drawn also by oxen, while a man attends with an axe to cut the roots in its way. Little regard is paid, in this case, to make straiglit furrows, the object being no more than to work up the ground. With such rude pre- paration, however, three successive good crops are raised on uplands without any manure; inter- vale lands, being fertilized by irrigation, never re- quire any. Potatoes are planted (in new lands) in round hollows, scooped with the hoe four or five inches deep., and about forty in circumfer- ence, in which three or five sets are planted and covered over with a hoe. Indian corn, pumpkins, cucumbers, peas and beans, are cultivated in new lands, in the same manner as potatoes. Grain of all kinds, turnips, hemp, flax, and grass seeds, are sown over the surface, and covered by means of a hoe, rake, or triangular harrow ; wheat is usually sown on the same ground the year after potatoes, without any tillage, but TO KM 10 HA NTS. 41 merely covering the seed with a rake or harrow, and followed the third year by oats. Some farmers, and it is certainly a j)rudent plan, sow timothy and clover seed, the second year along with the wheat, and afterwards let the gronnd remain under grass, until the stumj)s of the trees can be easily got out, which usually requires three or four years. With a httle additional labour, these obstructions to plouglung might be removed the second year, and there appears little difficulty in constructing a machine on the lever principle, that would readily remove them at once. The roots of beech, birch, and spruce, decay the soonest : those of pine and hemlock seem to require an age. After the stumps are removed from the soil, and those small natural hillocks called cradle hills, caused by the ground swelling near the roots of trees in consequence of their growth, are levelled, the plough may always be used, and the system of husbandry followed that is most approved of in England or Scotland. 'I CLIMATE. The principal objection urged against the North American provinces by those who have not resided in those colonies, and frequently by disaj)pointed persons who may have visited them, 4*.' I'HACTKWI. INIOHMATIOV but whose iiabits of tiiinking uiul acting unHtted them tor prospering or being content in any country, is the length and duration of winter. This objection, however, appUes with equal truth to Prussia and tlie greater part of'Germany, where the people employed in agricultural pursuits form the majority of the inliabitants. The only disadvantage to the farmer, which the winter brings on in New Brunswick, and the other North American colonies, is the con- sequent provision required for feeding live- stock, about a ton of hay with straw for each being necessary to winter horned cattle properly. But the winter season on the other hand has also many advantages. Wood and fencin* oles arc more easily brought home from the ^3t; agricultural produce is, with little difficulty, carrip(1 to market over the smooth slippery roads made by the frosts and snows ; and dis- tances are at the same time shortened by the lakes and rivers being frozen over. The winter is also a season of visiting and amusement, among all classes, in a country where horses and sledges are possessed by all the inhabitants. The ground it is well known is mellowed and fertilized by the frosts and snows, and con- sequently does not require half the ploughing necessary in other countries. Upon further inquiry it will also be found that there are lew TO 1:MIG HANTS. 43 lariucrs in the province who consider tlie winter any impediment to agriculture, otiierwise than the spring opening so suddenly as to cause an astonishing rapidity of vegetation, which leaves only five or six weeks for ploughing, sowing, and planting. When we consider, however, that the autumn and fall are much finer and of Jonger duration than in these kingdoms, the farmers have in reaHty no cause to complain of the seasons, as they have abundant time to plough all their grounds in the decline of autumn, which is, at the same time, the best season for American tillage. The following extracts afford a clear, correct, and conclusive account of the climate; the authorities are too respectable to be doubted. " The climate of this province ** (New Brunswick) says Mr. Baillie, " is peculiarly congenial to health and longevity, and agrees uncommonly well with British constitutions, and I have never discovered that the swamps and barren plains render the atmosphere in their neighbourhood injurious. " The winters are doubtless severe, that is in respect to frost ; but the intense frost is more tolerable than the bitter chillness of an English winter's day, when it can be said it neither freezes nor thaws." 'i I * il u rUACTlCAL INFOKiMATlON 5ii Tlu ague and fever of Cunada are quite un- known, and I doubt if any country exists less liable to disease than New Brunswick. " The summer is warmer than in England, but the weather is so genial that few people complain of the presence of thv: sun. The summers are indeed beautiful, more like what the summers in England are described formerly than what they are now." Jn a valuable little pamphlet, written, as the author, Mr. Hooper, observes, alter thir- teen years' experience in the North American colonies, we find the following remarks on the climate of New Brunswick. " T1\p climate is yearly meliorating its rigours ; the winters are by no means so severe, or of the same dunition, as ten years since, and the reason, to a philoso- phical mind, is obvious: the rapidity with which settlers are clearing the forest, and opening to the light of heaven the face of the earth, gives to the sun's influence a much greater space of country annually j and as a natural consequence, the snows melt more early and rapidly, the win- ters are consequently shorter than formerly. Twenty years since, the winter commenced early in November, and continued generally till the end of April, making nearly a six-months' winter J but within the last five or six years TO EMIGRANTS. 45 there has been no doail winter until Christmas, and the spri'ig has usually opened in the earb part of April, making the winter of little more than three months* duration. It is a doctrine held by tlic enemies of the colonies, that their winters are both dreary and comfortless : this is not the case. In a social point of view the social comforts are materially increased : indeed it is the season of pleasure, visiting, balls, and other amusements, (which are frequent,) while they occupy the holiday of nature, increase and pro- mote good feelings among neighbours, and while away the otherwise solitary evenings. Nor is the winter without its agricultural advantages: the vast bodies of snow which fall during win- ter, form natural roads throughout the province, so essentially necessary to the farmer and lumberer, and by covering the whole face of the country, protect the herbage and winter grain from the severity of the frost j and in spring, by suddenly melting, so swell the rivers as to cause them to overflow their banks, carry- ing with the irundation a sufficient quantity of alluvial slime, (which is precipitated on the land,) to form a ric'. bed of manure." The spring, w^hich lasts four or six weeks, is gene- rally rainy ; the summer hot and dry, and suf- ficiently warm to produce cucumbers, melons, 1 • 46 PRACTICAL INFORMATION i r and other hot-house plants in the open air, with little or no attention. The autumn very much resembles an English autumn, but is usually more dry and clear. "The climate of New Brunswick," says Mr. Mac Gregor, " is salubrious ; the epidemic fevers of the southern states are unknown, and colds and their consequent diseases can only be con- sidered as common to the province. Consump- tion, although not so common as in England, is the principal cause of death among the young or those between twenty and thirty. In a coun- try like New Brunswick, where the inhabitants carelessly expose themselves to all the varieties of climate, rheumatisms often afflict the working class, especially the lumberers and raftsmen, who are often, during fall and spring, drenched in the cold waters of the rivers. An agricultural population need scarcely ever be exposed to wet weather, or such hardships as the professed lumberers and raftsmen. The diseases, how- ever, that are most fatal to life, are those brought to the country by passenger-ships, such as com- mon fevers, small-pox, and measles. The provincial legislatures have lately made a regu- lation to prevent unhealthy ships landing their passengers, except at places appointed for the purpose. TO EMIGIIANTS. 47 " Generally speaking, the climate may be considered at least equally healthy as that of England." Vol. II. Page 220. In the article *' Climate" in Mac Gregorys Bri- tish America, the following extracts apply cor- rectly to New Brunswicic. " In remarking generally on the climate of Britisli America, I consider the countries lying between the latitudes of 43° and 47° north, are those to which the mean temperature of the dif- ferent seasons more immediately applies. " The natural climate of Prince Edward Island, Pictou in Nova Scotia, Fredericton in New Brunswick, and Kingston in Upper Ca- nada, will not differ much from the following outline of the character and temperature of the seasons of America. Countr'"es to the south of those places have warmer atmospheres, while those to the nor^'i experience proportionally more intense cold. "In America the scn^ -ns liave generally, though erroneously, been divided into two, summer and winter. The space between win- ter and summer is indeed too short to claim the appellation of spring, in the sense understood in England; but the duration of autumn is at least as long as in countries under the same latitudes in Europe, and is, over the whole IS: 48 i'llACTICAL INFORMATION II continent of America, the most agreeable sear,on of the year. " The cUmate of America is colder in winter, that is, it freezes more intensely, and hotter in summer, than under the same parallels of lati- tude in Europe, and the daily variations of temperature, which depend on the winds, are also greater. But the transitions from dry to wet are by no means so sudden as in England ; and we may always tell in the morning, whe- ther it will be fair all day or not^ except in the case of thunder-showers, which come on fre- quently during hot weather, in the evening, when not the smallest appearance of a cloud can be seen before midday. " The summer season may be said to com- mence soon after the first of April, or as soon as the ice disappears in the bogs, lakes, and rivers. In May the weather is generally dry and pleasant ; but it rarely happens that sum- mer becomes firmly established without a few cold days occurring after the first warm wea- ther." This also i^ always the case in England. . " All the birds common in summer make their appearance early in May, and enliven the woods with their melody ; while the frogs, those American nightingales, or, as they are often TO EMIGIMNTS. 49 called bog choristers, also strain their evening- concerts, vegetation proceeds with surprising quickness; wheat and oats are sown, the fields and deciduous trees assume their verdure ; va- rious indigenous and exotic flowers blow, and the smiling face of nature is truly delightful, and in grateful unison with the most agreeable associations. " In June, July, and August, the weather is excessively hot, sometimes as hot but never so oppressively as in the West Indies, the mercury being 90° to 100" Fahrenheit. Showers from the west accompanied with thunder occur during these months, about once in a week or in every ten days, w.ich generally shift the wind to the north-west, and produce for a time an agree- able coolness. ** During thunder-showers accidents seldom occur, and in tL? course of two or three hours the heavens clear up beautifully bright, and the most delightful evening that even flincy can create usually succeeds. The vegetable world is refreshed; the animal creation recovers from the lassitude occasioned by the oppressive heat of the meridian sun ; the birds hop, chirping from bough to bough, the cattle turn out from the shade to graze, and the evening is suf- ficiently cooled to be truly agreeable. " The nights at this season exceed in splen- > I il E 50 PHACTICAL INFOUIMATION i';i lf\^ ^ dour the most beautiful ones in Europe. To portray them in tiieir true colours would re- quire more than any language can .iccomplish, or any ])encil, but tliat of" nature, can deli- neate. The air, notwithstanding the heat of the preceding day, is always pure, the waters of seas, rivers, or lakes generally unruffled, and the surface reflecting with precision every visible object either in the heavens or on the earth. The moon shines with a soft silver- like brilliancy, and during her retirement, the stars are seen in their utmost efllilgence ; fishes of various sorts sport on the water, the sin- gular note of whip-poor-will is heard from woods, the fire-fly floats on the air, oscillating its vivid sparks ; and where the hand of man has subdued the forest, and laid the ground under the controul of husbandry, may be heard the voice of tlie husbandman and milkmaid, or tlie ' drowsy tinkling of the distant fold.' In another direction may often be seen the light of the birch torch, wliich the Mic-lNIac Indian uses in tlie prow of his canoe, while engaged with his spear in fishing. *' In September the weather is extremely plea- sant — the days are very warm, until after the middle of the month ; but the evenings are agreeably cool, usually followed by dews at night ; and about, but generally after, the 11 TO EMIGRANTS. 51 autumnal equinox, the serenity of the weather is interrupted by high winds and rain. " The season, from this period to the end of October, is generally a continuation of pleasant days, moderately warm at noon, and the morn- ings and evenings cool, attended sometimes with slight frosts at nights. Rains occur but seldom, and the temperature is perhaps more agreeable at this time than at any other, being neither unpleasantly hot nor cold. About the end of this month the northerly winds begin to acquire some ascendancy over the power of the south, and there appears in the atmosphere a determination to establish cold weather, and to accomplish a general change of temperature. " Rain, sun-shine, evaporation, and slight frosts, succeed each other; and the leaves of the forest, at this period, change their verdure into the most brilliant and rich colours, exhibit- ing the finest tints and shades of red, yellow, and sap-green, blended witli purple, violet, and brown. The peculiar charm and splendour which this change imparts to American scenery produce one of the richest landscapes in na- ture. " After this crisis, the air becomes colder, but the sky continues clear ; and a number of fine days appear in November. There are slight frosts at night, but the sun is warm in the F. 2 11 I'UACTICAL INFOKMATION middle of the day ; the evenings and mornings are cool, and a fire now becomes very agreeable. This period is termed all over North America, the * Indian summer,' and always looked for, and depended on, as the time to make prepara- tions for winter. " About the end of November, or a little after, the frosts become more severe, and the north- erly winds more prevalent j the sky however continues clear, and the weather dry, with the exception of a rainy day in every eight or ten. This month, and often the whole of December, pass away before severe frost or snow becomes permanent, which, the old inhabitants say, never take place until the different ponds and small lakes are filled with water, by the alternate rains, frosts, and thaws that occur, or until the wild geese depart for the south. " Towards the end of December or the be- ginning of January, the winter season becomes firmly established : the rivers and lakes are frozen over, and the ground covered to the depth of from eight inches to more than a foot with snow. The frost is extremely keen, with mild interruptions occasionally, during the months of January, February, and the early part of March, the mercury being frequently several degrees below zero. A thaw and mild weather generally occur for a day or two about I TO KM la HANTS. 53 the middle of Jamiiiry, and sometimes in Febrii- ary. Thaws and warm weather take phice whenever the winds shitt for any time to tlie south, and the weather that immediately succeeds is always extremely cold. The ice then becomes as smooth as glass and affords a source of delightful amusement to all who are lovers of skating! Driving from place to place in cabriolets or sletlges, pic-nic parties, dances and visiting, now form the enjoyment and amusements of the inhabitants, who on this ac- count alone would deeply regret the absence of frosts and snows. " The deepest snows fiiU in February or early in March ; at which time boisterous storms sweep the snow furiously along the surface of the ice and lands, leaving some places nearly bare, and raising immense banks in others. These storms are not felt in the woods except by the snow falling quietly among the trees. " The duration of snow storms is seldom more than one or two days at most, and then it can scarcely be said to freeze. " The effect of cold while travelling in winter among the snow is sometimes, though very sel- dom, fatal. In clear frosty weather there is little danger ; but the traveller if fatigued, and particularly during a storm, or even in clear cold weather, experiences a drowsiness and • I' :>h I'UACTlt'AL INFOUAIATION iiulittbreiice to consequoiices, an inclination to sleep, and at the same time little scnsii)ility of cold. Yielding to this influence, to which the whole frame becomes as agreeably disposeil as if the person were falling asleep on a feather bed, is inevitably iatal to life, which appears to be abstracted with the ])rinciple of heat from the l)ody by the surrounding cokl, and without the least pain ; the fluids of the body gradually con- gealing until the whole becomes a frozen mass. Exertion alone, until the traveller readies a house, can save him. " When any part of the body is frost-bitten the most eflectual remedy, and that which re- moves the eflect of being frozen, which is much the same as being burnt, is rubbing the part af- fected, before approaching a Are or a warm room, with snow. " The vernal equinox connnonly brings on strong gales from the south accompanied by a mighty thaw which dissolves all the snow on the cleared lands, and weakens the ice so much that it now opens wherever there are strong currents. Clear weather, with sharp frosts at night and bright sunshine during the day, generally suc- ceeds and continues to the end of March or the first week in April, when a snow storm usually comes on, and disagreeable weather lasts two or three days. This is the final effort of expiring Bvi' 1^' TO EMIGUANTS. 6ti winter, and is immediately followed by a warmth of temperature which l)reaks uj) the ice and dis- solves the snow. Tlie heat of the smi, wiiich now becomes powerl'iil, (hies up the ji^round in a few days; after which jjloiighing bei^ins, and the summer season commences. Although the foregoing- outline of the ge- neral system of the climate is as near the truth as can be stated, yet the weather, as in Eng- land, is often different at the same period in one year from that of another. This ditference arises chieHy from the winter season setting in earlier or later, anil the same nuiy be observed as regards the commei;cement of summer. Thus, the winter has been known to set in with un- usual severity in the beginning of December, and sometimes not till the middle of January. In some winters, thaws occur oftener than in others, and deeper snows are known in one season than for some years before. Mild winters are suc- ceeded by cold springs. The winter just passed was considered severe; yet a veteran officer, who has spent a great portion of his life in Spain and the West Indies, and who emigrated last au- tumn with his family to New Brunswick, says in his first letter, dated lOtli of November, to a gentleman at Liverpool, ' The weather is now as mild and fiir more pleasant than in England when we left it on the 13th of September.* In rs iMiArrrc Ai- inioumation another letter, thited Kicciorictoii, *jytli of Fubrii- ary, * The winter has been severe, but clear and ph'asant. \Vc ail like the country very nuich ; the slei«;hin^, in wliich vvc indulge ihiiiy, has been very good. All kinds of provisions are cheap except bread, which is dear as in" Liver- pool, and it will be so until we have plenty of labourers out to cultivate the fine huid. Veni- son is as cheap here as mutton. I bought a beautiful hind quarter the other day, iii> lbs. at lour pence i)er pound, the kidneys covered with fat. There is j)lenty of fine hares and par- tridges in the woods, but not in the market ; people don't go for them.* ** It cannot, with all the variations of climate, be said with propriety that the full duration of winter is more than four months. Many prefer the winter to the same season in England, and taking the year throughout, give a decided preference to the climate. Though the cold is intense for nine or ten weeks, the air is dry and elastic, and free from the chilling moisture of a British winter. *' From tlie observations of old people who have lived fifty or sixty years in America, as well as from the writings of those who visited the new continent many years ago, it appears that the climate has become milder, and that the duration of winter is now shorter. Whether w TO I ;. Ml (J II A NTS. 57 this may be attrihutod to clearing- \\w. land of the wood, or to some iinkiiovvii process i^oiii'i- Ibivvartl in the system of nature, will always remain (loiibtHil." (iOVKRNMKNT, CONSTITUTrON, L A VV S, RELIGION, AND EDUCATION. The constitution of the Provincial Govern- ment of New IJrunswick is a transcript of the constitution of England. The Governor re- presents the king, the Council the House of Lords, and the House of Assembly tlie House of Connnons. No local laws can be recognized that are repugnant to the laws of England ; nor, any, the least tax on property, or duty on im- ported articles be levied, except by the consent of the inhabitants through their representatives. The laws protect person and property with as much security as in England. The blessings of religion are fully extended, as before noticed, to all the settlements j all are free to think and speak on matters of religion agreeably to the dictates of their conscience, and they are not compelled to contribute a shilling to the support of any established church. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, support the clergy of the 11 58 PRACTICAL INFORMATION (■'. Chufcli of England ; all otliers are maintained by their respective congregations. The benefits of school instruction are also to be obtained without difficulty in this province. King's College, at Fredericton, is liberally endowed. There is no religious test as to admission, and the comforts and instruction of the students aie careful J v attended to. There are granunar schools in all the counties, and elementary schools in all tiie settlements. The Legislative Assembly grants sums annu- ally for the purpose of aiding the maintenance of these laudable and useful institutions ; the expense of educating youth is therefore mode- rate. There are four or five weekly newspapers published at Sj^ohn, one at Fredericton, and another abou^^^ be commenced, two at St. Andrew's, and Swat Miramichi. There are no stamp duties on papers or advertisements, which removes a most troublesome restriction on the diffusion of knowledge. 14' • TRADE. New Brunswick exports squared timber pre- pared by the lumbering parties in the woods, who cut down and hew into square logs the large forest trees, which they afterwards haul to TO EAIIGUANTS. 59 the streams and float in huge rafts down the rivers to the shipping ports ; deals and boards which are sawn either at the numerous mills which afford so much employment for labourers or by hand sawyers. Shingles, lathwood, and the produce of the fisheries, are also exported. The squared timber, lathwood, and deals, are sent to England j and this trade employs about f)00 large ships requiring about 8000 sailors to navigate. The British manulactr.res and East India goods used in the province are paid for in timber. 'J^he trade with England, the West Indies, the fisheries and coasting trade, employ altogether, great and small, '^O?! vessels, re- gistering vl37,lL9 tons, and navigated by 11,749 men. Tlie average imports are about 450,000/., and the exports, exclusive of new ships sold in England, d80,000/. ; the difference between the imports and exports being paid for in freight and the sales of new ships. Boards, shingles, and fish, are exported to the West Indies, which articles pay for the rum, molasses, sugar, tobacco, and tropical fruits consumed in the province. A trade with Africa, not a slave trade, has also been comnu need. There is besides a trade in exporting grindstones, coal, and gypsum to the United States, which is daily increasing in importance. When the country will be suf- 60 PRACTICAL INFORMATION ficiently inhabited, the present popuhition being only about 100,000, agricultural productions, such as wheat, oats, barley, Indian corn, flax, hemp, &c. must form the principal articles of export. Great quantities of pot and pearl ashes might also be made with little difficulty. But to increase both the agriculture and the trade of the province to the immense conse- quence to which the country is adapted for both, it must be filled with industrious people; or as we heard a most intelligent gentleman of observation, who had lived long in this and the neighbouring province in a highly responsible office, lately say, '* that colony, New Bruns- wick, only requires men and women, boys and girls, in the place of trees, to make it one of the most flourishing countries in the world." * 3 if Necessary Preparations before emigrating, — - Instructions as to Passages, and how to act on landitig in America. — Alode of obtaining Land, — Various Sources of Employment. When a man resolves on emigrating to Ame- rica, and disposes of such articles as would be inconvenient to carry along with him, the next consideration is, his passage across the ocean. In arranging for passages, it will be necessary for him, in order to avoid imposition and the ir TO EMIOUANTS. 61 men alluded to in connection with the vile passenger offices, to make inquiries for vessels through men of reputable good character, who may have some knowledge of ships and their owners. Information coming from the offices of the land companies established in London and Li- verpool may be safely relied on, as the directors of all these associations are men of too hio-h character to lend themselves to any measure that can delude emigrants. Emigrants proceeding to New Brunswick will therefore receive necessary instruction at the New Brunswick Land Company's offices in London or Liverpool. Great inconvenience and expense will be avoided by embarking in a ship bound for the nearest port to the emi- grant's destination. St. John and Miramichi are the best ports for New Brunswick, from either of which ten or twelve shillings at most will carry each person, with luggage, to wliere good lands on the Company's tract are to be had. By the last act of parliament for regulating the carrying of passengers to America, the fol- lowing stipulations are required, viz. 1. No ship to carry more than three persons for every four tons of burden, and to have five feet and a half between platform and deck ; two children under fourteen, or three under seven, (KJ I'HACTICAL I N FORMAT ION' Wif Hit; or one cliilcl inider one year, and the mother to be counted as one passenger. 2. Ship to be provided with fifty gallons pure water, and at least .50 lbs. oatmeal, bis- cuit, &c. for each passenger. 3. Ships having the full number of passen- gers to carry no stores between decks ; may occupy with stores between decks three cubit feet for each passenger less than the full number. 4. Ship-masters to deliver a list of passen- gers to the Customs at port of sailing, and fur- nish a similar list at port of landing. 5. Ship-masters landing passengers any where else than agreed upon, liable to a penalty of 20/. for each, to be recovered by any two jus- tices of the peace. 6. Ship-masters not having the above quan- tity of water and bread to be guilty of a mis- demeanour. 7. Ship-masters to enter into bond for ob- servance of this act. In arranging for passages, the emigrant need scarcely be told, that whatever he can save in the expense or rate of passage-money, he will find of the utmost benefit to him in the coun- try to which he removes. He must not how- ever want those things that are necessary to make himself and family comfortable on the passage. Health is the greatest blessing he can If ■A, 4' TO EMIGRANTS. 63 carry ashore with him in America; and the disease and squahd wretchedness of thousands of emigrants huidcd in our colonies from ships in which they were tiiickly crowded, and little more than lialf fed, were miserable beyond de- scription, and attended with innumerable evils, not only to the emigrants themselves, but to the inhabitants of the colonies, by tlie intro- duction of poverty and disease. Too much cannot be said on this head j nor can emigrants be too earnestly cautioned against the mere traders in carrying them across the Atlantic, wherever they are to be met, whether at the sea-ports, or prowling about the country, " seeking whom they may devour.** The average rate of passages, including pro- visions, may be stated as follows, varying how- ever a little under or over. Say for a flimily of five persons : £ s, d. To Van Diemen's Land, or Swan River, &c. ^22 each person, in- cluding provisions, and 205. to the place of settlement . 115 o To Canada, for passages and pro- visions, £Q each, and £2 lOs. each, including luggage from the ■ lHI»!."J'J-«P^=f" ()1 IMJACTICAL INIOIIMATION' £ s. d. If I 42 10 port of landing to the place of settlement .... To New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, or Prince Edward Island, passages £Q> each from the port of land- ing, including luggage IOa'. each, 32 10 Besides the requisite provisions found by the ship-owner, passengers should have a few other necessaries in case of ill health at sea, particu- larly a little tea, sugar, and aperient medicine. Farmers or labourers should bring out with them, if their means will admit, as much cloth- ing, bedding, and linen as they may require for two or three years, a set of light cart -harness, two spades, two shovels, two scythes, four sickles, four or five hoes, two pair of plough- traces, the iron work of a plough and harrow of the common kind used inl^jotlandj the cast machinery of a corn-fan, one hand, one jack, and one jointer, plane, one draw knife, six socket chisels, six gouges, one hand saw, two or three hammers, three or four augers assorted, none larger than one and a quarter inch ; a dozen gimblets, a few door hinges and latches, and a small assortment of nails. Furniture, or any kind of wooden work, will only incommode them, as what may be necessary can easily be procured at moderate rates in America. TO KM[G1JANTS. i)5 On landing in America, the emigrant should immediately apply at the proper office respecting lands, and the best mode of going from the sea- ports. At St. John, the New Brunswick Com- pany will have an agent, and at Miramichi, Joseph Cunard, Esq. will give the necessary informa<^ion. Emigrants must not be deluded into the belief that they mil get lands for nothing in any part of America* The government has fixed a price on all the crown lands; and from 5s. to IQs, per acre, varying according to natural advantages and improved facilities, must be paid for land in all the colonies, either to the crown or to the pub- lic companies. Emigrants, on account of the greater facilities afforded, in respect to ready settlement and employment for labourers, will generally find it more advantageous and con- venient to arrange with the Company's com- missioners than with those of the crown. We believe it is the intention of the New Brunswick Company to prepare farms by clearing from two to ten or twenty acres for settlers that would prefer purchasing farms partially prepared for cultivation, to lands entirely covered with wood. As to the question who should emigrate ? it is scarcely necessary to make any observations ; nor is it of any consequence to enquire what 1' ( PI % - r, ()() IMIACTICAI- INFOHMATIOX Ij are tlie causes of emigration : for men who have either enterprise or industry, when they find tlieir condition becoming less prosperous, will endeavour to escape somewhere from the evils of poverty. Let not the idler, the rake, the drunkard, or he who disregards integrity, the observances of society, or the laws of the country, how- ever, expect to thrive in America. In that region nothing but unremitting industry, tem- perance, and economy can insure prosperity ; nor is there any encouragement for j)eople brought up in our factories. Masons, brick- layers, brick-makers, joiners, carpenters, black- smiths, shoemakers, tailors, saddlers, tin-smiths, are the artisans required. Farmers and steady labourers may emigrate in thousands. They may all thrive if they please. There is not much encouragement for the learned professions, nor for mere gentlemen farmers. *• The climate of British America is too salubrious," says Mr. Mac Gregor, " for doctors to make fortunes.** Practical farmers with from 200/. to 600/. may purchase farms in any of the colonies, with from fifteen to thirty acres cleared, on which they may commence cultivation agreeably to the system of husbandry practised in the United Kingdom. Such farmers may secure farms with TO K.MICllAN'JS. 07 from five to twenty acres eleareil of the trees, and with a comfortable tlwelling-hoiise, by ap- plying either at the offices in London or Liver- pool, of the New Brunswick Company. To those who are anxious to emigrate, but who have not the means, it is a matter of some difficulty to advise them how to proceed. Various plans have been adopted. Unmarried men and women who were unable to pay for their passages, have often bound themselves as labourers or servants for two or thiee years to persons whom they accompanied, and who paid for carrying tliem to America. Money has also been frequently sent home by settlers in America, to enable their friends to follow them, and by these means and by letters from America, more have been induced to emigrate than by the influence of any other cause. The following very prudent plan has long prevailed in Scotland, and having always been attended with success, can scarcely be too much recommended. When a family or a few families have de- termined on emigrating, some of their sons or relatives who were grown up, have been sent forward to America to prepare for the reception of those that were to follow. It has often occurred that the young men thus sent to F 2 ()S F'UACTICAI, INFOIIMAIION •.1 n America, liavc for two or three years laboured to earn money, which they remitted to Scotland to bring out their parents or relatives. Associations have lately been formed in parishes for the ])urpose of assisting persons to emigrate. Those who may be aided in the expense of emigrating by their parishes, should carry with them a certificate of character as to sobriety, honesty, and industry, and it will likely be of importance for those who bear the expense of their removal, to send them, if to New Brunswick, under the protection of the Company, who, if they undertake to do so, will guard them again^ ,'oing in ill found, unsafe ships, and from imposition on landing in the province, and give them also a preference of employment. As the means of obtaining employment and the occupation of the inhabitants of British America are not well known to the people of the United Kingdom, the following information gleaned from the best substantiated authorities may be useful. - There are various ways in which emigrants may always employ themselves afler they land in America. The heads of families, however, cannot do better than devote all the time they possibly can to the clearing of and preparing their new farms for cultivation. It is often. i TO K.MIGHANTS. (iy however, necessary for tliem to work I'or pro- visions, or other assistance among the old settlers, but prudent men never do so after the first year except compelled by necessity. Active unmarried labouring men and women may always secure employment, kind treatment, and reasonable wages. In New IJrunswick, as well as in the other colonies, the public roads, clearing of wood- lands, saw-mills, and the assistance required by the old settlers, form the principal sources of employment for labouring men. There are two great lines of road to be commenced by the government during the present year in this province, exclusive of the roads and improve- ments about to be commenced by the New Brunswick Company, through whose tract the above roads to be opened by government will pass. There are saw-mills in almost every settlement in the province of New Brunswick. In fact, a saw-mill of itself soon forms a settle- ment, for attached to it must be a blacksmith's forge, dwellings for carpenters, millwrights, and labourers, stables, and ox-houses. A shop and tavern are also sure to spring up close to it j tailors and shoemakers are also required. A mill working two saws will alone employ four first rate, four second rate, and two or three second sawyers, a measurer, blacksmith, car- '.{ 70 IMlACflCAL INFOIIMATION ' ■ ' »^ poiilor, JoiiuM', thirty to I'orty laboiiiors, two or tlireo liorses, twenty oxoti, with mimi'ious people to provide for their wants. IJnniarrieil women and ehilihen above ten years of age can find ready employment, particnhirly during spring and antnnm among the settlers. Uinnarrieil lal)()nring men and women shonid save at least half their wages. Food, except at the towns and public works, is provided exclusive of wages tor labourers by their employers ; an equivalent nearly equal to the difference is, however, made in the rate of wages. Children whose parents arc unable to support them, may be provided for by binding them until they become of age as apj)rentices to farmers, with whom they arc generally brought up as one of the family ; and a cow, a sheep, and some seed are usually given to them when they leave, to begin with on a new farm. In this comfortable manner orphans are generally taken care of. It rarely happens, however, that a man who has a family finds it necessary to bind any of his children to others ; and he who has tiie most numerous offspring, is considered to have tlie best opportunity of prospering in a country wliere land is abundant and in which the price of labour is high. In British America early marriages are always prudent ; not so in England, where bringing up a family is attended II TO KM Kill A NTS. 71 with such anxious care, that the most thinking men generally remain the longest unmarrieil. A common plan with those who own cleared farms which they tlo not occu[)y, is to let tiiem oil the halves, that is, to stock the farm with horses, horned cattle, sheep, and hogs, provide half the necessary seed, and then give possession to a practical farmer who will cultivate the farm arid find the labour. Alter harvest the produce, even to that of the dairy, is divided equally betweeii the ])roprietor and the farmer. Many farmers who dislike commencing at first in the woods, Inive by industry and frugality supported their families very comfortably besides accumulating sufficient stock and seed to commence on a new farm. An emigrant cannot however commence too soon on the land which is to be his own, and on which all the labour he applies to its im- provement increases its value, and at the same time accelerates his own independence. He must not be discouraged at the apparently for- midable task of subduing the forest, nor the pri- vations that he must endure. It is certainly not to be denied that there are, in the very face of a wood farm, a thousand seeming and many real difficulties to encounter, sufficient to stag- ger the resolution of most people, but more particularly that of an English fiirmer, who has 72 rilACTlCAL INFOUAJATION t nil his life been accustomed to cultivate land subjected for centuries to the plough : and, were it not for the example which he has be- fore him, of others v;ho had to surmount similar hardships before they attained the means which yield them independence, he might indeed give up in despair, and be ahnost forgiven for doing so. A farmer who can spare money enough to pay for clearing four or five acres of land, which will cost about 15/., and to erect a house that will cost from 15/. to 20/. more, will av- A the difficulties which to him will be most disheart- ening, merely from his awkward acquaintance with that indispensable labour, wielding the axe *, or the art of chopping. With this tool, a gun, one or two hoes, and a common kettle or pot, a young American back woodsman will start with his newly mar- ried wife, and make his way througli, and plant himself in, the midst of a most dreary forest, * This tool has not yet been manufactured in England, in the form or temper which long experience has proved the best. A good chopper will do treble the work with an Ame- rican made axe, than he could with an English made one. Neither have we yet made any mill-saws equal to tliose made at Philadelphia ; for the greater number of those used in New Brunswick are smuggled from the United States, al- though they cost double the price paid for mill-saws in Eng- land. TO LMl GRANTS. 3 and secure at the same time the means of sub- sistence, and soon after those of comfortable independence. Natural obstacles have in all countries been only removed by the industry and fearless intre- pidity of man. Such formidable obstructions to settlement as the New World at first pre- sented, and which still characterise the remote districts, existed at one period in Britain, and in all the kingdoius of Europe ; and in the same progressive ratio as the settlement and cultiva- tion of any wilderness country proceeds, do natural obstacles disappear : those therefore of the most disheartening character to men accus- tomed to plough the long cultivated lands of Britain and Ireland, are vanishing gradually in British North America. Leading roads are opened through the different provinces; by- roads lead to the settlements ; the water com- munication between different places by steam boats, sailing vessels, and batteaux, is attended with but little inconvenience, the necessaries and even the luxuries of life, are to be obtained in abundance at moderate prices, and at no great distance from the most remote settle- ment. An emigrant, to be enabled to settle at once on his farm, and not to be obliged afterwards to work for others in order to get provisions, should 74 PRACTICAL INFOUMATION* rA i be able to bring with him to his wood farm, if his family consists of five persons — 50 bushels potatoes 2 barrels flour .... 1 ditto rye, Indian, or oatmeal 1 ditto mackerel and 1 of herrings A half ditto of beef 5 gallons molasses 3 ditto rum 3 lbs. tea 12 ditto sugar 1 milch cow <2 axes, 4 hoes, 1 saw, 3 planes, 1 adze, 3 augers, 6 gimblets, ^ chisels, 2 gouges, 25 lbs. nails, 3 iron pots, 1 kettle, some tin mugs, gridiron, frying-pan, and some earthenware . . . 10 £ s. d. o 10 10 1 C) 2 1 15 12 6 12 15 8 5 ^28 8 6 This amount, with 51. to purchase seed, will enable him to establish himself on a wood farm of 100 acres ; but he must also have about 10/. more to pay the first instalment of the purchase money, which altogethiT will cost liom 5,s. to 15s. per acre, according to its situation. The majority of nuw sellhiis have however nothing but apair of iiu|iis(rious han4§ t<^ l>t;gin TO EMIGRANTS. 75 witJi ; and altliough they have certainly to en- dure greater privations, yet they also succeed in acquiring land and stock. By working part o[" their time for wages, and the rest on the land on which they may settle, they soon find themselves in a comlbrtable condition. The old settlers would willingly allow an emigrant to settle on any part of their wood- lands in consideration of the improvements he should make ; but this would be a most impru- dent plan for the new settler. A farmer who may have the means to pur- chose either from the crown, or if in New Brunswick from the Company, whose lands, as will appear by referring to the map, are so very conveniently situated, and who can either pay for clearing a tew acres and erecting a house, or who may purchase any of the lots which the Company will improve by erecting a house and clearing a few acres^ will, with the facilities which this Company will have in their power to make, avoid many difficulties and privations which he would experience if he settled alone in the wilderness. When the emigrant has fixed on his farm, if he be a poor man, the newest settlers will assist him by joining, on a fixed day, and cutting down the trees on an acre of land on which he is to build his house — this is termed a chopping 7r. PllACTICAL INFOIIMATION J'rulic, and will cost the settler a gallon of ruin, and five or six shillings' worth of provisions, or 105. for the labour of ten to fifteen men ac- quainted with levelling forest trees. For the same cost he will be aided by the labour of an equal number of persons to raise his house. The old settlers are always willing to assist new settlers in this way, having themselves formerly experienced the same benefit. When a number of persons join, on one day to perform any piece of labour, it matters not whether it be cutting down trees, building a chimney, husking Indian corn, dressing flax, or whether a good wife has a quantity of wool to spin, all are termed Jrolics ; and from bring- ing people together in a social way, labour in this manner is courted, and not avoided : the young people of both sexes are particularly fond of these mutual labours. Farmers and labourers brought up in the province are eminently expert in the use of edge tools, making their own sledges, carts, ploughs, harrows, and various agricultiual im- plements. They also make their own shoes, harness, and many other articles, which neces- sity renders indispensible in new countries, which do not admit of much division of labour. The women spin, knit, make up the clothes re- quired by the family, plait straw hats, make TO IL^IIGKANTS. 77 fur caps, and many of them weave their flax and woollen yarn. A loom is a common article in a farmer's house. The manners, customs, and amusements of the settlers are in many respects similar to those of the countries which either they themselves or their ancestors came from ; modified however by circumstances, and by persons from various parts of the United Kingdom intermingling in tlie settlements, and their mutual wants requiring mutual acts of neighbourly assistance and kind- ness. They have their dances and frolics, fiddlers and pipers. Horse-races, gymnastic exercises, and driving about in winter sledges. They fre- quently meet after the labours of the day at each others' houses, when some tell the latest news, others sing songs, or relate tales of the old country, A settler's occupations will require his inces- sant daily attention for the first five or six years, at the end of which period he ought to possess, if hi' bo uii imhistrious sober man, a good farm of one to two hundred acres, of which he should have under cultivation, ten to fifty acres, according to the assistance in labour which his family, from the number it consists of, and their age, can render him : a couple of horses, a pair o^ oxen, four to six cows, twenty ■8 PHACTfCAL INFOHMATIOV sheep, six to twelve liogs, poultry, &c. This is no exaggerated scale of prosperity ; thou- sands who had nothing but industry and fru- gality to begin with, may be found, wiio have secured much more ; while, at the same time, those who want habits of thrift, are found in a state of daily dependence and poverty. An in- dustrious careful man, with a family trained to thrifty habits, has nothing to fear by emigrating to New Brunswick. He should leave England if possible by the 1st of April, or if not then, in time to reach the colony before the 1st of September ; at which time he will be sure of employment, and sufficient time to locate him- self and family before winter. If he has any money he had better deposit it in safe hands, for instance, with the managing director, or the bankers of the New Brunswick Company in the United Kingdom, as he will gain something by drawing for it in the province. He will en- counter no jealousy or envy amon^ Jie inhabit- ants, and he will find that hospitality to new settlers is common. After he settles on his new farm he will find the winter bracing and pleasant, and the abun- dance of fuel renders ' , hoint v-^rm and com- fortable ; and it is^ rare in t, * that a day occurs in which h' rjiiTi. ' wtvk u\ ^ » open air. There is also a i: .j.nr \n cttjh;njr :; tarrr H ro KM IG RANTS. 71) and making it his own by the mere appUcation of his labour. He will also be stimulated by an emulative feeling. The clank of his neigh- bour's axe, the falling trees, the corn crops that grow where he has levelled the forest, all stimu- late him to further exertion. Besides the countless individual instances of thriving settlers, we find whole settlements which have flourished with extraordinary rapi- dity. Among these we may allude to the Car- digan settlement of Welsh emigrants near Fre- dericton, and joining the New Brunswick Com- pany's lands ; the Irish settlement of New Ban- don, consisting of a colony from Ireland, who formed a sort of compact of mutual assistance on settling in the province. The English set- tlement, of which the British Colonist, a news- paper printed at St. John's, New Brunswick, says, '' We feel pleasure in having to report so favourably of this thriving little colony. It is eight years since the inhabitants began to clear the forest; and, short as is the period, the settlement at this time affords a surplus of pro- duce adequate to the support of double its po- pulation. It has thirty families, thirty farms, each of which has from twenty-five to thirtv- five acres under cultivation, about 300 head of horned cattle, and a proportionate number of horses, sheep, pigs, poultry, &c. It is within 11 I; w 80 PRACTICAL IVFOll.MATIOM, KTC. our knowledge tliat they were burdened with a number of small children at tlie time of their going on their allotments of land j add to which, they were destitute of almost every re- source, and nothing but a steady perseverance and industrious course could, in so short a time, have placed them in circumstances com- paratively independent. They have with the axe chopped out a home for themselves and their rising progeny, and feel that they are lords of the soil they till." AVERAGE PRICES OF LABOUR AND COMIMON ARTICLES. Mvn servants, 20/. to 30/. per year, board, &c. — Labourers, per day, 2.y. Cut. to 4x. — IMaid servants, 8/. to 12/. — Trades- men, ().?. to ^s. ihl. finding their own provisions. — Tailors, shoemakers, saddlers, Sec, are paid for the articles they make. — Wheat, 4.V. Hd. to ().y. — Indian corn, 4.v. ijd. to 5s. inl. — • Oats, l.y. (id. to 2.v. — Barley, 2*. to 4*. — Rye, 3.v. Od. to 4.?. per bushel. — Potatoes, 1*. 3d. to 1*. Od. — Turnips, 1*. C)d. — Beef, 'Ad. to 6r/.— JVIutton, 4d. to « 74 ■\ N ^fcl^lDJ KOim :^toBa;'H mmkmica) ^ '^, . r 'W'JTUTIIi: D L.KicAatuLttrA. t ^ 7'n (>(> C. .') ^.^J^/ ^, ISrvon i«« ^ • {" .1 \V«-»t »*■* ' • -Av 'X Ci ' W->-- ^^..v. r -> '• -V iJi .,'1 Ui.«'K> OF '' • ^_, 1 '—J ;p/i rl%oke ^ " (sS'huiit y." inl/ftl ' it .) (. I ti:i (ij 01 (•»() :><) '*>v. /> ^^^.^/V' '»'/»/• -AV"- -U - All i n ft ■" <' .1 r ■! /J I A \ .. — Chif^''" K\ ... ('" V '"■ .lv. ■J^ ■/(•o.s. 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