A FOX FARM IN PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND.
In Prince Edward Island such a large proportion of the people are farmers that their importance to the community is recognized more readily than where the mercantile classes predominate and have the ear of the government. Great efforts are now being made to give an education in the public schools suited to the needs of the rural population. At the Teachers’ College and Normal School in Charlottetown courses of lectures are given in agriculture. At several places school gardens have been introduced with good results, and in others one “consolidated school,” with different teachers for different classes, has taken the place of six ordinary schools, the children being taken to and from the centre in vans. Steps have also been taken to arrange for better salaries for teachers.
The farmers and their families work hard, but usually find some time for reading, music, or other recreations, and social gatherings, especially in the “slack” winter season, and as a rule they live well. They are rarely addicted to indulgence in any liquor stronger than tea. In fact, the sale of intoxicants, unless prescribed by a doctor, is prohibited in Prince Edward Island, and, though the law may be sometimes evaded, the consumption of strong drink is much less than it was a generation ago.
There are many churches in Prince Edward Island. Considerably over one-third of the people belong to the church of Rome, and of the Protestant denominations the Presbyterians are much the strongest. The people support their own churches, largely by congregational subscriptions, supplemented in poor districts by grants from the “Mission Funds” of the particular religious body. Of course the churches are a very important factor in the social as well as the religious life of the people. In this connection, societies and organizations, such as the “Sons of Temperance” and the “Foresters,” are also of importance.
There is a demand in Prince Edward Island for farm workers, and though the wages are not quite so high as in some parts of Canada, it has the advantage for British immigrants of being nearer to England, and of conditions more closely resembling those of the “Old Country.” Wages for an experienced man, with board and lodging, range from $12 (£2 8s.) a month in the winter to $16 (£3 4s.) a month through the busy season, of about eight months; a married man can often obtain a cottage rent free.
In any notice of Prince Edward Island one industry must by no means be forgotten. This is the breeding of black foxes, of which the fur is immensely valuable. It began in 1896, when a man living in Tignish bought three black foxes caught near Bedeque for $300 (£60); but the price of a good pair has now gone up to $20,000 (£4,000). Black foxes have been imported from Labrador, and now “fox ranches” in the island can be counted by hundreds. In 1911 the value of this curious branch of stock-raising was estimated at $2,000,000. In the early part of 1913 the capital invested, by some six thousand shareholders, reached $6,000,000. In that year, on the opening of the Provincial Legislature, the industry was mentioned in the “speech from the throne,” and during the session forty new companies were incorporated.
IX
QUEBEC AND ITS EASTERN TOWNSHIPS
ALIKE in its scenery and its history, Quebec, which was the first “Canada,” is one of the most picturesque provinces of the Dominion.