Our agricultural wealth

It has been said that the man who makes two blades of grass grow where one grew before is a benefactor of his race. Not the least remarkable feature connected with this colony is the steady increase — slow but sure — that we have made, year by year, in the development of our agricultural resources.

A few — not more than five or six — years ago it was boldly asserted that Vancouver Island did not possess enough farming land to supply a market of 1,000 consumers, or pastures sufficiently fertile to fatten 2,000 head of livestock. Time has shown how fallacious such assertions were.

The Island, it is now estimated by farmers themselves, will this year produce enough of the prime necessities of life with many of the luxuries for its own consumption.

The farmers of this colony — the real producers — are laying the foundation of fortunes and rearing homes for those who are to come after them.

They have struggled through many difficulties, and having reached a position of comparative independence, will shortly be able to retain within the country most of the money now sent into Oregon and Washington Territory for the purchase of stock.

Speed the day when the population of Vancouver’s Island will have become self-supporting! The Daily British Colonist and Victoria Chronicle,

July 6, 1867