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Previously printed in the Bruce Bulletin, Volume 14, Issue 3, August 2003From the Perth Courier, Friday, October 18, 1867COUNTY OF BRUCE CORRESPONDENCEPaisley, 8th October, 1867.The Counties of Bruce and Huron are
well known to the rest of Canada in connection with the
agitation heretofore kept up for an increased representation in
Parliament, but otherwise not much is known about them
throughout the country. The want of railroads and the difficulty
of reaching water communication with the outside world, isolates
these Counties, and especially Bruce, to a far greater extent
than ought to be the case, considering their immense natural
resources and the rapid advances being made by them in the march
of progress. During a recent visit to Walkerton, the County Town
of Bruce, I was much impressed with the apparent superiority of
the soil of this part of the country in comparison with the
older settlements of Central Canada, and the splendid facilities
for the erection of mills and factories in many places to be
seen on the numerous streams intersecting the County in several
places. The Saugeen is the only river running through Walkerton,
and one of the finest mill privileges possible to be imagined,
is here secured by Mr. Saylor of Almonte, who is erecting
a dam of heavy square timber across the main stream, and has
placed a bulwark of stone entirely along the neck of an arm that
formerly carried off a portion of the water. An immense raceway
– broad and deep – is then dug out, and here Mr. Saylor
purposes erecting mills enough to supply timber and flour to a
territory equal in extent to half a score of German Kingdoms.
This is truly enlightened policy of a good citizen – selfish if
you like to call it so, since he makes a fortune by it – but it
is a generous selfishness, that will develop the resources of
the country and benefit others as well as himself. If Mr.
Saylor choose to act the dog-in-the-manger with his
property, or locked his money up in mortgaging the industry of
his neighbors, as the enlightened (?) capitalists of Perth are
in the habit of doing, he would be much more open to censure on
this ground than he is at present. There is not a great deal of
timber made in this part of the country, agriculture being its
main staple of business, although of course a large quantity of
boards is produced by the numerous mills erected on its streams.
As I had occasion to remark in a previous letter, the soil of
Bruce County is of a very superior quality, being generally a
heavy clay, which is better adapted to the raising of grain than
any other description of land. As a consequence, splendid crops
of wheat constantly cheer the heart and encourage the industry
of our farmers, even in seasons when scarcity prevails in other
parts of the country. Fall wheat is raised in large quantities,
many fields being already green with the budding promise of next
year’s crop. The snow generally comes on here before the frost,
and covers the ground to a considerable depth before the mud is
hardened at the bottom, thereby protecting the growing grain
from injury. It is quite surprising to a person from the lower
part of the county to learn that the rivers are never frozen,
and that it is as easy to dig the land in winter as summer. A
gentleman in Walkertown told me that, last year he bought a town
lot from a person who had it planted with potatoes but never
took them out, and that when he went to build there this spring
he got four or five bushels of good potatoes which had never
been touched by the frost, although remaining in the ground all
winter. This remarkable circumstance easily enough accounts for
the surprising yield of fall wheat. Although lacking in
railroads, Bruce is well supplied with excellent gravel roads,
which are about as good a substitute for the pathway of the iron
horse as could be adopted. One of these roads runs from Paisley
to Guelph – eighty miles in a direct line, and no less than
eight large villages and the town of Elora flourish between the
two places. About fourteen miles from Paisley, the Durham gravel
road strikes the Elora and Guelph road at right angles, and
about two miles down this road lies the village of Walkertown,
nestling in the valley of the Saugeen between a succession of
picturesque hills. The scenery in the immediate vicinity of the
village is of a highly interesting character – bold hills of an
almost mountainous nature being alternated with valleys of
surprising fertility and gentle beauty. At one side of the river
on which the village rests, the bank rises suddenly to a great
height, whilst on the other, a beautiful piece of table land
interspersed with shade trees, spread out to the foot of another
hill, affording a romantic retreat for pic-nics and other
parties desirous of enjoying the beauties of nature in a social
way. The high bank of the river mentioned, is called “clay
banks,” and from its summit a fine view of the village and
surrounding country is presented. A little farther up the river,
another bold hill rises suddenly from the water’s edge and adds
an equally interesting feature to the scenery of the locality.
Deep in the bowels of the earth, at the foot of this hill,
splendid stone quarries afford the Walkertonians an abundance of
building material. A good quality of lithograph stone is also
found in the vicinity, and exported to Toronto, Montreal and
other centres of trade in the new Dominion. On the Durham road
leading into the Village, the appearance of the country would
delight an agriculturalist. Smooth level fields, devoid of
stumps, and well fenced, on every hand give evidence of
prosperity and good cultivation, whilst the substantial farm
houses by which they are graced, generally surrounded as they
are by orchards and extensive out-buildings, denote a degree of
comfort far in advance of the age of the settlement. Down from
the Village, and running towards Paisley, the Saugeen flows
gracefully, frequently breaking into rapids that would drive any
quantity of machinery. If people who have money to spare would
but come here and invest it in mills and factories on these
streams, they would confer far more benefit on the country and
realize larger profits for themselves, than by putting it into
ten per cent mortgages. There is much more enterprise among the
people here than in the older parts of Canada, but capital is
needed to develop the natural resources of the country. The
country is settled principally by young men who emigrated from
other parts of Canada and come here to push their fortune as
best they might. Of course they possessed many advantages over
European emigrants, in having a better knowledge of the country
and a more practiced and intelligent education, and accordingly
have impressed their settlements with a superior mark of
progress and development. The great lack among them is
accumulation of capital sufficient to employ and turn to
profitable account the abundance of resources at their command,
the consequence of which is, that this County is still far
behind the standard of its capabilities. There are especially
great facilities for the erection of cloth factories, foundries
and machine shops, water power in abundance being every place
running to waste, and wool, for instance, being abundant and
cheap. At present I hear that it is but twenty cents a pound. If
some of those who are anxious to get possession of the water
privilege at Perth would but come here, they can have water in
abundance, and in a country too as much superior to Perth as
Perth is superior to a bog hole in Connaught.
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