Elliott, Bruce, 2004-2005: Emigrant Recruitment by the New Brunswick Land Company: The Pioneer Settlers of Stanley and Harvey.

********************************************************************************

Table of Contents, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, o 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, Previous << 37

 

The Durham lecturer reported that after 11 years wheat was still being sown among the stumps on the burned land, but that oats and potatoes were a more important crop for local consumption.   Harvey Settlement already was famed for its Timothy seed.   In 1848 the farmers sold 800 bushels, "but, to the discredit of the province, which ought to have bought it for home consumption, it was carted fifty miles to Calais, and there sold for transport to the Boston market".   Though enjoying comparative prosperity, the 1837 immigrants explained to Johnston, "A man must work as hard here as at home, and longer hours.   He must build his own house, make his own family's shoes, and do many other things.   A useless man need not come here."   Yet, Johnston added, "if a piece of good land was to be got handy, many of their friends were ready to come from home to join them."  

After returning to England Johnston visited the settlers' ancestral territory in Northumberland between Cornhill and Yetholm, and found the farmers, alarmed at the sinking price of grain, laying off their labourers.   Johnston thought this foolish "in such a half-pastoral district as that".   But he also felt that the indifferent quality of the land and the lack of ready access to markets made the Harvey Settlement a poor prospect for further immigration.   "Had I known of a bit of good land 'handy' to that settlement," he concluded, "I could have felt in my heart to urge them to make up a party among themselves with the view of going there, and to offer to aid them in their views.   Every one such man would be an invaluable gain to the province of New Brunswick."   But he did not, and emigration to Harvey Settlement from Northumberland and the Borders ceased shortly after his book was published, nor were there many accessions to the population from elsewhere in the decades that followed.⁽¹²²⁾

 

_________________________________________________________________________

 

(122) Johnston, Notes on North America.   See also the 1881 census, and the details concerning the foreign-born in the census of 1901.