returns and high inputs curtailed the opportunities of young

people to enter the field of agriculture. Corporate farming con— tinued to push aside the small family farm unit.

The land question for Lot 16 has resurfaced

due to the community’s proximity to an urban cen-

tre and the financial pressure exerted in the bid for

“These large scale land for housing development. farmers usually hold title to at least a part of Fishing

the land they cultivate but are locked into the The waters of Richmond Bay and Ellis River were

larger capitalist econo- fertile fishing grounds which provided the daily my upon which they food for many settlers. Shellfish gathered from the are dependent for the shoreline carried many early settlement families processing and sale of through the bitter months of winter. The early fish- the commodities they cry consisted of lobster, herring, mackerel, cod, produce.” oysters, smelts, and eels. In the early days, lobster 77w Past 75 The Future: was so plentiful that it could be collected from the Rethinking Rural Sought shore following a storm. People would sneak down and Social Change. to the shore to gather them in burlap bags so that Errol Sharpe, 1991, no one would see they were poor enough to have p. 33 to eat lobster. Through time, canned lobster

became the base for a lucrative export market and

a number of canning factories dotted the Lot 16 shorelines.

By the 18905, lobster and oyster fishing were the two money- makers in the industry. The last lobster factory remained open until the late 19405 when the raw product was trucked to larger factories. The Malpeque oyster became world famous and one of the men to cultivate it was Southwest farmer James G. (lVIac) MacLean. He employed a number of men and became president of the Prince Edward Island Oyster Growers Association. He also operated a mussel canning factory.

Early settlers usually farmed and fished in order to survive although there seemed to be some stigma attached to fishing as indicated in a letter of 1871 written by census taker John MacKinnon.

Sin-In the census returns of Lot 16, you say there are four boats

owned for fishing purposes,’ while the number of men is not noted

in the census book. The reason is, the boats were owned by

LOT 16 UNITED CHURCH AND ITs PEOPLE