with occupations only six identified themselves as farmers, and twenty-five of the forty-three identified themselves as “laborers”. This is a reversal of the findings in 1881 when thirty-one out of forty-one identified themselves as farmers and only three as laborers.

This small number of farmers’ sons becoming farmers suggests that either farming was not feasible, or not desirable. Some statistics do point to a decline in the number of Island farmers, from 20, 492 in 1881, to 20,227 in 1891.3 The number of farms on P.E.I. also began a steady decline after reaching a peak of 14, 549 in 1891.4 Young Islanders were attracted to farming opportunities in Western Canada, and to industrial and domestic work in Eastern United States. By 1902 the exodus of young peo- ple was recognzied as one of the major causes for P.E.Ifs declining population: from 109,080 in 1891 to 103,257 in 1901, including a drop in the population of eastern Prince County of 729 people in this period.5 The editor of an Island newspaper suggested several reasons for the popula- tion decline: the restless spirit of the young; cheapness of travel; “the spread of intelligence;” and, because “parents tend to treat their sons as mere boys, long after they have

j reached maturity working them like servants, without

"ma. 1: Ma saw/t... z». ..

m,m.«~m...r.. .H «My.» ..

pay or even spending money3’6 The custom of one son in— heriting the undivided farm afterthe death of both parents also limited opportunities for the young. Of course there were difficulties in farming. Letters in the newspapers fre- quently voiced complaints about low crop yields due to un- satisfactory weather and loss of soil fertility; inadequate transportation; and fluctuating prices for products.’ Still in 1902 the newspaper editor considered P.E.I. farmers “quite as well off as the farmers of any other Province, and With a surer return for their labor year after yeari’8 Farm— ing was feasible, but it was an option for fewer and fewer.

Besides careers in domestic and industrial trades, young

49

adults from the communities were turning toward the pro— fessions. In 1893 Patrick C. Murphy graduated as a medical doctor, from University Medical College, New York.9 In 1894 eight young men from St. Malachy’s parish joined the Christian Brothers, in New York3° In 1899 John T. Mur— phy, brother of Patrick C. Murphy, was ordained a priest in Rome;11 and Margaret McCarvill and Emily McIver join- ed the Sisters of St. Joseph, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.12

Ties with the home community were not severed by go— ing away, and especially not when the son or daughter achieved success; Dr. Patrick C. Murphy is a dramatic ex- ample. He was born in Kinkora, but had left after com- pleting the ten grades of schooling to work as a railway agent and operator, and then to pursue a medical career in New York. When the Island newspaper reported his gradua- tion, and the fact that he had won top honors in medicine it gave his home address as Alberton, the place he would set up medical practice}3 An indignent “Justice” in Kinkora wrote a letter to the newspaper, “Credit Where Credit is DueZ’ demanding that it identify Dr. Murphy’s home as Kinkoral" When the doctor returned to P.E.I. there were several celebrations in Newton and Kinkora to honor him; at the one in Kinkora, some twenty speakers took turns praising him]5 This was, of course, an event worthy of such celebrating, but the extensive coverage it received suggests another motive. One speaker noted: “. . . as a student in a famous university your remarkable success has once again shown America that, given a fair field and no favor, a Prince Edward Island boy can distance all competitiors?’16 Just three months previous, the editor of the Charlottetown Ex- aminer wrote a critical editorial in reply to newspapers from three New England states which criticized Prince Edward Islanders, “P.Iis”, as “poor ignorant Islanders” working for lower wages than New Englanders would accept] 7 Dr. Mur- phy had redeemed the clan!