Ship-building.
Po tash.
Wood products exported to Newfoundland and the West Indies.
The fur trade.
A new farm in the forest.
The cost of clearing a farm.
Ship-building.
Jobs in the forest for new immigrants.
circumstances; and thus the western districts of the island, where it still lingers, and which, beyond question, comprise the most fertile portion of the country, are less populous and improved than the middle and eastern. [pp. 49-50]
As the timber trade declined, ship building increased. This has proved a more profitable source of production, and furnished a valuable export to Great Britain. The reasons for the dissimilarity of these pursuits is obvious. The timber was felled or manufactured by farmers, who not only neglected a better pursuit during the months of winter in which they generally worked, but who were often called upon to complete their contracts or perform some incidental labor during seed time or harvest, to their irreparable loss. Ships are built by a class of men, who, except in rare instances follow no other occupation; and thus the principle of the just division of labor, not being violated, both the farmer and the ship builder acquire the legitimate profits of their distinct avocations, while their combined labors contribute to the general welfare of the colony. [p. 50]
Pot-ash ought long ago to have been exported to England. It was at one time, though it is not now so much in demand as formerly, the most valuable export from Canada, and the staple of its production, the beech tree, is super—abundant in the island.
The exports to Newfoundland, have usually been more profitable than those to Great Britain. They have chiefly consisted of boards sawn at the water mills in the island, shingles, which are (if the expression may be allowed) a kind of wooden slates, the best of which, are made of white cedar, and staves, spars, and many vessels for the grand fisheries of that island.
The exports to the West Indies, have been much the same as those to Newfoundland
[pp. 5162]
There was once a considerable export of furs from the island; but as this branch of trade must decrease as population increases, it is not worthy of a particular notice in this brief review [pp. 5253]
CHAPTER X. Agriculturist emigrants prospects of new settlers.
The sight of a tall forest, encircling sometimes a single farm, and the stumps of the trees up to the doors of the ill—constructed dwellings of many of the settlers quite disheartens [the emigrant]. [p. 62]
You are now then the proprietor of a hundred acres of land Your first object will be, to remove the timber that obstructs cultivation. In order to facilitate this you are strongly recommended to carry out a farm servant at thirty shillings a month for the year. The price you will otherwise pay in the country will be about seventy shillings an acre, for cutting down, chopping up, and burning and fencing; [p. 65]
Ship-building has not, hitherto, been a very profitable employment to individuals engaged in it; although it has, as before stated, produced a valuable article of export from the colony; but it is to be hoped that it will ere long be attended with more advantage to all who embark in it. [p. 71]
Should any one [in the mechanic employments] know anything of farming or be able to use the axe in felling trees, the chief requisite of which is muscular strength he may maintain himself until he is able to obtain employment in his own proper vocation. He will sometimes have leisure during the winter months to work at clearing his own land, if it be near the settler with whom he may be engaged; and by
that means, get a crop in upon his own farm, sometimes before he has been fifteen months in the country. [pp. 77—78]
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