APeriod of Transition 147 
     
    
   
   
    
     mended raising quality animals for market to solve the problem of 
     
     soil exhaustion resulting from cereal production'’’. It should also be 
     
     noted that home-made butter and cheese provided a good source of 
     
     income for the farmer of the time'®. 
     
    

    
     With regard to other livestock, sheep appear to have been highly 
     
     prized since, in 1880, there were four times as many sheep as pigs 
     
     on the Island". The farmer sold wool for cash while pork was raised 
     
     mainly for home consumption”. 
     
    

    
     The sale of eggs constituted another source of cash income for 
     
     farmers. Poultry-raising developed particularly during the 1880s on 
     
     the Island. The egg market was located in the United States. We know 
     
     the main exporters: the Honourable Joseph-Octave Arsenault from 
     
     Abram’s Village; Honoré V. DesRoches, Gilbert DesRoches and Jean S. 
     
     Gaudet from Miscouche'*’; and Joseph D. Buote from Rustico™. 
     
    

    
     The horse was probably the most prized animal and, in fact, 
     
     greatly sought after as a draft animal. It replaced the ox formerly used 
     
     in the province. The Island gradually acquired an excellent reputation 
     
     in the Canadian and American marketplace for the quality of its 
     
     thoroughbreds”. The race horse also gained in popularity and races 
     
     became extremely popular amongst Islanders. 
     
    
   
   
    
     THE SEA 
     
    
   
   
    
     The Reciprocity Treaty signed in 1854 between Britain and the 
     
     United States was largely responsible for the expansion of the Prince 
     
     Edward Island fishery. Tignish was one of the areas in the province 
     
     that benefited the most: numerous fishing companies were established 
     
     in the region, including Hall and Myrick which set up in both Tignish 
     
     and Sea Cow Pond"*. By 1867 the company owned seventy-five boats 
     
     of varying tonnages with a crew of three to five men, exporting about 
     
     4,000 quintals of dried cod mainly to the West Indies, and about 
     
     2,500 barrels of salt mackerel to the United States'’. 
     
    

    
     Despite the growing number of Islanders involved in fishing, 
     
     they were still outnumbered by American fishermen in Island waters. 
     
     In 1868 the editor of The Summerside Journal felt that it was unfair 
     
     that Americans were coming to fish here every year, while young 
     
     Islanders were having to emigrate to find work: