The county has many well cultivated farms.  It is one of the best agricultural counties in the Province.  It is well suited for dairying and sheep raising.  Of late years the dairy industry has rapidly expanded.  It has two creameries, both of which are doing an increasing business.

    According to the census of 1911, the county produced livestock, grain and dairy products, valued at $2,407,348, an amount which far exceeds its output of coal, large as that is, while it is more than twice the sum realized for brick, tile, pottery, logs, lumber, preserved fish and leather, which were valued that year at $1,014,430.

    The county has large deposits of coal, as well as iron, limestone and other mineral products.  The coal district embraces an area of some twenty square miles.  Under it are located seven or eight seams to a depth of nearly 2000 feet, the largest of which, called the "Big Seam" or main seam has a vertical thickness of forty seven feet eight inches.  The coal supply is almost inexhaustible and mined at the rate of 1,000,000 tons annually, will furnish coal on a paying basis for hundreds of years to come.

    Coal was first discovered in the county by Dr. James McGregor in 1798.  Nine years later John McKay discovered what has since become as the "Big Seam".  The organization of the General Mining Association, to whom all the reserved mines in Nova Scotia passed in 1825 opened a new era in coal mining operations.  They sank new shafts, equipped them with more modern machinery and on Sept. 6, 1827 raised their first coal, while by December they had the first steam engine in the Province in operation.

    To market the coal more advantageously, they constructed a railway on which the cars were drawn by horses to a point a little below New Glasgow, from where the coal was conveyed in lighters to the loading ground, opposite the town of Pictou, for loading it into ocean vessels.  In 1839 the company began the construction of a six mile steam railroad from the mines to the loading ground.  It cost $160,000 and was the first steam railway built in Canada.  With the railway completed the company extended its mining operations over a tract of land covering some 40 acres.  In 1872 the General Mining Association sold all its rights in Pictou County to the Halifax Company, retaining only a territory of four square miles, situated on both sides of the East River from the Albion Mines to New Glasgow.

    About this time too, James D. B. Fraser, of Pictou, discovered the well known Stellar coal.  The discovery gave a new impetus to coal mining in the district.  He organized the Acadia Coal Company and began working the original McGregor seam and the Acadia seam, discovered about two miles southwest of the Albion seam.  With the years the company further extended its operations, while the Intercolonial, Vale, and some eight more companies were formed.  All of these, with the exception of the Intercolonial, however, have been abandoned or merged with the Acadia Coal Company, which with the Intercolonial, employ about 2100 men and mine a little over 700,000 tons of coal in the county yearly, the greater part of which is sold throughout Quebec and the Maritime Provinces.

    The county also has large deposits of iron.  The district along Sutherland River has a valuable deposit of spathic iron ore.  Near Springville in the East River valley is a vein of Lemonite from five to twenty-five feet wide, 65 per cent of which is metallic iron.  Eastward from New Lairg near Glengarry a vein of specular iron has been traced, containing from 64 to 69 per cent of metal.  The county has large deposits of limestone, as well as fine fire clay suitable for brick, pottery, and terra cotta products.  It has an abundance of silica sands for the manufacture of glass, while moulding sand of the finest quality is plentiful along the East River and its tributaries.

    Pictou is the center for the lobster trade of northern Nova Scotia.  The lobster season continues from about April 25 to June 25th, and during that time about 85,000,000 lobsters are caught in Canadian waters, the greater number of which come from Northumberland Strait.

    The town not only has a number of packing horses, but the Strait shore further away and the islands adjacent have some nine to ten additional factories.  Of these Logan and Murdock's plant, located at Spring Point, Caribou Harbour packs about 800 cases each season.  The industry includes the factory, packing plant, boarding house and dwellings for their employees and families, the former of whom numbering about 50 men.  The industry with its numerous houses is very attractively located, and besides handling lobster, have a good opportunity for packing fish of which the adjacent waters offer an ample supply.

    Burnham & Morrill own eleven factories about Northumberland Strait and buy the output of nine more, handling in a season about 1,000,000 cans of lobsters.  Fred Magee Limited, puts up about 7000 cases.  J. W. Windsor packs about 5000 cases and J. Atkins & Co., 1100 cases, during the season, while George Smith & Co., in addition to lobsters, also pack salmon and herring.

    The Canadian Government maintains a lobster hatchery, established in 1891 at Bay View, about 6 miles from Pictou.  Work at the hatchery begins about the first of May and continues until the 15th of July, and during that time 100,000,000 fry are hatched and distributed in and about Pictou Harbour.

    The Strait shore also abounds in Cod, Mackerel and other deep sea fish as well as clams and oysters, which find not only a ready market in Nova Scotia, but are also shipped with its large output of lobsters to Upper Canada and to foreign countries in increasing quantities.