Chapter 4

ECONOMIC LIFE

For purposes of discussion, the economy of a community may be divided into sectors. It is the activity carried on in each sector and the interrelationships that exist between one sector and the others that de- termine the community’s economic character. The sectors discussed with regard to the economic life of the Village of Mount Stewart are agricul- ture, fishing, shipbuilding, transportation and services.

Agriculture

Agriculture has been the primary economic activity of the Mount Stewart area throughout its history. With the exception of a small group of full-time fishermen and some of the 19th century shipbuilders, the productive workers in the community have either been farmers themselves or those engaged in providing services to a clientelle. of whom farmers comprised an important part. This section contains a general history of the agriculture sector, followed by an indepth treatment of its straw- berry growing component.

By 1850, the year which began the decade of Mount Stewart’s initial development as a village distinct from a proprietory estate, half the surrounding countryside was covered by forest and more than half the dwellings on it were log houses. The farmer had his plough and tooth- harrow, and oxen were commonly used as motive power. The harvest was laboriously cut — the wheat and barley with a reaping hook, and the oats with a scythe. The potatoes were dug by means of a fork or hoe. Thresh- ing was done by means of a “flail,” and the grain was taken to market on a two-wheeled cart, four-wheeled waggons being practically unknown.

Not the least of the mid-century farmer’s problems was the poverty of the land in certain areas. Benjamin A. Coffin, writing a description of Lot 37 for the Census of 1861, reported that the farms on the shore were partly ruined by drifting sand. The soil on the north side of the Hills- borough, he continued, was light and very difficult to clear on account of so much wild tea and ferns. Apart from barnyard manure and lime, the chief fertilizer used was mussel mud which was extracted from the river bottoms at low tide. As the beds came very little above low water, occa- sionally a box without a bottom, about 10 feet square was put down, forming a temporary “coffer dam.” The mud on the inside was then dug out to a depth of several feet below the water’s surface. A special machine for digging this valuable fertilizer was subsequently devised. In later years, the mud was shipped from St. Peter’s Bay on flat cars. About forty cart loads were sufficient to fertilize an acre, and the arduous labour 1nvolved was performed between planting and haying.

A matter which caused most farmers of that early period much anxiety was raising the rent money exacted by the proprietors each year. John R. Bourke, himself a proprietor, in a memorial addressed to the Land Commissioners in 1861, admitted that, except in very favorable circum- stances, it was impossible to pay the rent and support a family on the farms of the day. When the rent was not paid, it remained a perpetual Incubus upon the energies of the farmer and prevented improvement.

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