Farms

Atlantic farms
Farmland covers 9 percent of the Atlantic Maritime ecozone. Agricultural activity is concentrated in a few fertile areas: Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick’s Saint John River valley, along the Northumberland Strait and the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia. Beyond these areas, the land is too rough and rugged for agricultural settlement. Favoured by a moist climate and silty, stone-free soils, farming is the leading industry on Prince Edward Island; potatoes are its best-known crop. The island also supports grain and dairy farms. Of all Canada’s provinces, Prince Edward Island, called the “Garden of the Gulf,” still uses almost half of its land area for agricultural purposes. In New Brunswick, the Saint John River valley produces potatoes and livestock, and there is mixed farming in the northwest of the province. Nova Scotia’s best farmland is located along the Bay of Fundy and the Northumberland Strait, where the main agriculture activity revolves around dairy farming and poultry production. Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley is renowned for its output of fruit — particularly apples. In the Atlantic Maritime region, as elsewhere across the country, farm size is increasing and the number of farms is decreasing.