Resources 
     
    
   
   
    
     or when good dressings of the oyster deposit are applied, 
     
     these foreign aids may well be dispensed with, at least for 
     
     many years. ” Of this deposit, Professor Sheldon speaks as 
     
     follows:—” The Island possesses one advantage which is 
     
     unique and very valuable. I refer now to its thick beds of 
     
     ‘mussel mud’ or ‘oyster mud’ which are found in all 
     
     bays and river mouths. The deposit which is commonly 
     
     many feet thick, consists of the organic remains of countless 
     
     generations of oysters, mussels, clams, and other bivalves of 
     
     the ocean, and of crustaceous animals generally. The shells 
     
     are generally more or less intact, embedded in a dense deposit 
     
     of mud-like stuff, which is found to be a fertilizer of singular 
     
     value and potency. The supply of it is said to be almost in- 
     
     exhaustible, and it is indeed a mine of wealth to the Island. 
     
     A good dressing of it secures fertility in a striking manner to 
     
     the poorest soils; clover grows after it quite luxuriously, 
     
     and, as it were, indigenously by its aid, heavy crops of 
     
     turnips and potatoes are raised, and, indeed, it may be re- 
     
     garded as a manure of great value and applicable to any kind 
     
     of crop. Nor is it soon exhausted, for the shells in it decay 
     
     year by year, throwing 03 a film of fertilizing matter. ” 
     
    
   
   
    
     Of the total area of 1,397,991 acres, 85.44 per 
     
     cent, or 1,194,508 acres are occupied, of which 
     
     726,285 are improved, or under cultivation. The unimproved 
     
     land consists of 350,366 acres in forest, and 117,857 acres in 
     
     various conditions. such as swamp, marsh or waste land, 
     
     and land in rough or natural pasture. The occupied land 
     
     is divided between 13,199 farms of 5 acres and over; and 
     
     865 lots less than five acres in area, of which the average 
     
     size is I. 56 acres, 30 per cent are less than an acre each and 
     
     70 per cent are an acre or more. The average size of farms 
     
     is 90.74 acres of which 55.13 acres are improved and 35.60 
     
     unimproved; and of the total number of farms, 3 per cent 
     
     (389) are from five to ten acres in extent, 28.6 p. c. (3,769) 
     
     are from 11 to 50 acres, 41 p. c. (5,380) are 51 to 100 acres, 
     
    
   
   
    
     23 p. c. (3,030) are 101 to 200 acres. and 4.4 p.c. (501) 
     
     [66] 
     
    
   
   
    
     Acreage