Page 8
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Title: Page 8
Full text: INTRODUCTION ship of Chester, and 2,275 in the township of New Dublin. A similar in- crease was recorded in the census of 1838, when the township had 6,913 people and the County had 12,055. The county had 16,395 persons in 1851. Ten years later the population had risen to 19,632. It rose to 23,834 in 1871 and to 28,164 in 1881. By 1861 the population of the town of Lunen- burg reached 3,048; in 1871 it was 3,231; and in 1881 it numbered 3,874. From its foundation the people of the township of Lunenburg concen- trated upon farming. "As the chief of their time," Charles Morris reported in 1761, "is spent in clearing and improving their Lands they will soon be able to support themselves, and afford some assistance to the Neighbouring Settlements." By 1827 the township had 7,081 acres and the whole county had 13,467 acres of land cultivated. At that time the argicultural produce of the township included 2,008 bushels of wheat, 21,044 bushels of other grain, 193,028 bushels of potatoes, and 6,249 tons of hay, while the figures for the whole county were 3,117, 33,146, 334,163, and 10,577 respectively. Then the stock of the township consisted of 105 horses, 5,042 horned cattle, 6,350 sheep, and 2,766 swine, while that of the whole county numbered 202 horses, 8,978 horned cattle, 11,238 sheep and 5,331 swine. According to The Novascotian of November 2, 1826, Lunenburgers towards the fall of the year occasionally assorted cargoes destined for the West Indies with a few barrels of potatoes. They also found a market in Newfoundland at that time for several cargoes of the agricultural produce of the county, consist- ing of cattle, potatoes, cabbage, apples, etc. "The trade of Lunenburg," The Times of August 25, 1840 reported, "notwithstanding its apparent advantages of situation, seems rather at a stand. Some years ago its capitalists formed amongst themselves an Insurance Company, for the purpose of insuring their own vessels, and so keeping in the town the money that used to go in other directions to effect this object; but unfortunately, soon after its establishment, most of the vessels of the port were wrecked, and the loss was so general and severe, that to this day it has only been partially recovered. Joined to other causes which have conspired against Lunenburg, the people of the country around, who formerly depended upon the town for their supplies, having by their industry made themselves independent, now take their produce to Halifax. Every substantial farmer has his coasting shallop, and every little farmer his few cords of wood, his seventy or eighty bushels of potatoes, his cabbages and eggs, which he sends to the metropolis, and receives in return his supplies of merchandise. The country is now more independent of the town, than the town was formerly independent of the country, even in its palmiest days; nor is there much likelihood of a change in this respect, except perhaps that the merchants by importing direct from Britain, and being able to offer their commodities as cheap as they can be procured from Halifax, should turn the trade again into the old channel, and take upon themselves the chief dealings in the marketable products of the country. ..." In 1829, within a few years of Gaetz's arrival there, Captain William Moorsom in Letters from Nova Scotia (London, 1830), described the town 4

