Prior to coming to Cape Breton in 1739 to take over his father’s farm in Little Bras d’Or, Boularderie junior recruited agricultural workers in Normandy and “all the utensils necessary for the cultivation of the land.” Over an eight-year period Boularderie employed 25 workers who developed a successful farm including a fine manor house, barn, stable, dairy, dovecote, oven, windmill, watermill and kept 50 sheep, 25 cows, six oxen, six mares and one stallion. “I had land in production,” he noted, “which yielded beautiful wheat and vegetables as in France, moreover I had brought fruit trees from France, which also succeeded” (Du Boscq De Beaumont, 287).

            Apple trees, grown from seed, had been introduced to Cape Breton during the 1630's. The apple trees of St. Anns had been first planted in 1632 and harvested in 1680.⁸ When Monsieur Melchin visited St. Anns in 1713 he reported seeing apple trees that “had been thought to have been planted by the late Mr. Denis” (CAOM, DFC, No. 271). Throughout the eighteenth century the French in Ile Royale imported apple cultivars from France and New England. Eight apple trees, for instance, were brought to Cape Breton from New England in 1732 (Moore 1975, 43). In 1752 43-year-old Maurice Leveque and his family had apple trees in St. Anns. “They had made a clearing for a garden in which they have grown all sorts of garden produce”, noted the census taker, “and in which they have six apple trees bearing fruit.” (De La Roque, 42). The remains of these French-regime apple trees can still be seen in the Mira River area. Scottish immigrants who settled on the Mira in the early 1800's took seedlings from the French trees and planted them on most of the farms from Hillside down to the mouth of the river. Subsequent generations of apple trees found in this area may still contain some of the genetic stock of the original apple trees introduced during the French regime.⁹ Known as the “French apple”, the apples were small, had white flesh with a bright, red skin and made excellent apple jelly. Florence McIntyre, born 1927, noted that her great grand father, John MacKinnon, planted the orchard on her property from seedlings grafted from the French apple trees (Florence McIntyre, personal communication).

            Louisbourg officials toured Ile Royale and reported on agricultural production, including fruit trees, as well as exotic plants and animals. Commissaire ordonnateur François Bigot, for instance, sent two large cages of ducks and another large cage of passenger pigeons to the king’s menagerie at Versailles on the ship Caribou during 1744. Bigot specifically entrusted Captain La Saussaye, commander of the vessel, with this special cargo.¹⁰ Established in 1662, the king’s menagerie was actually a farm with a dual function since it had a dovecote, barns, cowsheds and dairy as well as a small residence sheltering exotic animals and rare birds (Mabille 1991, 172- 4).