PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND 55

This period was marked by continuous heavy exports. While our farmers and shippers made money and prospered, the soil of the Island was deprived of much of its pristine fertility. The quantity and quality of our crops began to be less satisfactory. Weevil attacked the wheat. Hay and oats refused to grow in their early luxuriance. The price of ships went down with the advent of peace and iron steamers, and our supply of ship timber became exhausted.

/ In this contingency greater care was taken of stable manure and its application to the land. The mussel banks at the bottoms of our harbours and rivers were

drawrI upon by farmers with capital results. Some of the better class of farmers resorted to the

fattening of cattle for export to the mar- kets of: St. John and Halifax, Newfound- land and Great Britain. Horses of excellent quality were bred for the use of the lumbermen of Maine and New Bruns- wick, as well as for the stylish residents of Atlantic port cities. Prudence and economy aided industry. Attention was paid to the rotation of crops. Agricul- tural machinery of the latest invention and most approved pattern were intro- duced. The seeder, cultivator, mower, reaper, binder, improved harvester, etc., were brought into use. Improved farm buildings were erected; and in many cases the adornment of orchards and gardens was attached. In some parts of the country, improved fences, including hedge-rows of hawthorn and spruce, add to the satisfaction of the view. Of course much remains to be done. Even in the more advanced settlements of the Province, there is much that is unfinish- ed or that needs improvement. The country is yet young. But, taken for all in all, no part of North America pre- sents wider or more pleasing rural land- scapes.

For many years the struggle of our P. E. Island farmers with the obstacles pre- sented by nature, was accompanied by a struggle with absentee landlordism. Land- lords who, with a few exceptions, resided abroad, drew from their tenants here an annual tribute money, called rent. The

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