Successful Initiatives 209

Road in 1898**. Butter factories were constructed in St. Louis and Wellington at the very beginning of the century, but only operated for a short time®’. As we shall see, Acadian farmers also benefited from the creation of agricultural institutes and all the advantages they entailed.

EMIGRATION

In spite of all these transformations, the majority of Acadian farmers had no capital and were farming small acreages usually consist- ing of impoverished and badly drained soil. They were rarely able to provide a decent living for their large families. Looking for additional income, they began to turn increasingly to fishing or other sources of remuneration. Some farmers merely left the province. As in the past, emigration appeared to be the only solution for some Acadians on the Island. Good acreage was no longer available and, tempted by the abundance of jobs in the industrial heartlands of the United States, the new generation preferred self-exile to the difficult and uneconomic life of the small farmer. The poor economy of the Island, and the Maritime Provinces generally, resulted in a steady emigration that caused a significant drop in the Island population. It fell from 109,000 to 88,000 between 1891 and 1931.

This flow south of the border distressed Acadian leaders through- out the Maritimes. They feared that living in American cities, Acadians would lose their language, their culture and their religion. In the hope of stopping this movement, they recommended colonization even more vigorously so that new Acadian parishes could be created on crown land in New Brunswick. This argument was heard especially after the first National Convention of the Acadians (1881) during which a colonization society had been established. Several leaders on the Island supported this trend by encouraging their compatriots to become pioneers in the new settlements. Consequently, many families left the Island at the end of the nineteenth century and settled in Rogersville and Adamsville in New Brunswick, while other households joined the Acadian settlement of Matapedia in Quebec”. An Acadian from Tignish, living in Rogersville, wrote to L’Impartial in 1895 urging his compatriots to move to Rogersville instead of crossing the American border: