WHYCOCOMAGH, Nova Scotia —When a land-rich family in sparsely populated Cape Breton wanted toattract workers for its understaffed country store, it offered free land toanyone who would come and work for five years.

新斯科舍省怀科马——人烟稀少的布雷顿角岛(Cape Breton)上有一户人家拥有大量土地，为了吸引工人来自己缺少人手的乡村商店，他们向任何来这里工作五年的人免费赠送土地。

They expected a few dozenresponses; more than 50,000 poured in — and the calls keep coming.

他们原本以为会收到几十条回复，结果却有五万多人打来电话，而且还有电话不断打来。

“I expected a response, justnot one as huge as this,” said Sandee MacLean, a woman with multiple tattoosand copper red hair, who came up with the idea with her sister.

“我料到能得到回应，只是没想到反响这么大，”珊迪·麦克林(Sandee MacLean)说。她有一头铜红色头发，身上有多处纹身，她和姐妹一起想出了这个主意。

Of course, Canada has a lot ofland, but not a lot of people, and economically sleepy regions like Cape Bretonin Nova Scotia have steadily leaked population. The island, a scenic4,000-square-mile patch of rolling forest and farmland jutting into thenorthern Atlantic Ocean, has only about 130,000 residents and has been losingwell over 1,000 people a year for the last two decades.

加拿大当然不缺土地，但人口稀少。在新斯科舍布雷顿角岛这种经济不活跃的地区，人口在不断流失。这个小岛风景优美，面积4000平方英里，有着起伏的森林和农田，延伸至北大西洋。但它只有约13万居民，在过去20年里，每年流失1000多人。

As Cape Bretoners becomeincreasingly frantic about stemming the tide of outward migration, giving awayland just might be a solution.

布雷顿角岛人越来越疯狂地想要阻止人口外流，赠送土地也许是一个解决办法。

“It is validation that land isan attraction,” said Chris van den Heuvel, president of the Nova ScotiaFederation of Agriculture. He hopes the strong response to the giveaway willhelp his group’s effort to create a land bank that would make farmlandaffordable and bring newcomers to the province.

“土地肯定具有吸引力，”新斯科舍农业联合会(Nova Scotia Federation ofAgriculture)主席克里斯·范登赫费尔(Chris van den Heuvel)说。他希望土地赠送引发的强烈反响能对他的组织创立地产银行带来帮助——地产银行将让人们买得起田地，吸引更多人来这个省。

Several economically depressedcommunities in the United States have tried the same idea in recent years,including towns in Iowa, Kansas and Minnesota.

近些年，美国几个经济低迷的社区也尝试过同样的方法，包括艾奥瓦州、堪萨斯州和明尼苏达州的一些小城市。

There is a long history of givingland away. European powers that wanted to populate their New World possessions,as well as Canada and the United States in their youth, gave land to anyone whowould settle on it and make improvements.

土地赠送历史悠久。当年欧洲强国为了吸引人们移民到它们在新世界占领的土地——包括早期的加拿大和美国——向所有愿意在那些土地上定居并作出改进的人赠送土地。

But in Nova Scotia, theoverwhelming response is also a measure of how many people, unmoored by theglobal economy, are hungry for a sense of community. To many, the proposalseemed to present a connection to a famously rich regional culture full ofScottish fiddling, community suppers and square dancing.

但是，新斯科舍引发的强烈反应也说明，很多人因全球经济衰退而流离失所，渴望获得社区归属感。对很多人来说，这项提议似乎意味着，他们可以与一个非常丰富的地方文化产生联系，它包括苏格兰小提琴演奏、社区晚餐和四方舞。

All of that was far from mindwhen Jim and Ferne Austin decided to turn their store over to their daughtersthis year. For the two women, Ms. MacLean and Heather Austin Coulombe, the mostimmediate concern was where to find employees.

今年，吉姆和费恩·奥斯汀夫妇(Jim and Ferne Austin)决定把商店交付给两个女儿打理。现在发生的一切完全出乎他们的意料。对麦克林和希瑟·奥斯汀·库隆布(Heather Austin Coulombe)这两个女人来说，最迫切的问题是去哪里找雇员。

“We were in a panic, we wereso short staffed,” Ms. Coulombe said.

“当时我们很恐慌，因为我们急需人手，”库隆布说。

The Austins opened thebusiness, the Farmer’s Daughter Country Market, in 1992 in Whycocomagh, NovaScotia, after a life spent dairy farming. The combination bakery, producemarket, ice cream parlor, fudge factory and gift shop now occupies a collectionof barn-red buildings along the side of the road on a quiet stretch of theTrans-Canada Highway.

奥斯汀夫妇干了大半辈子乳制品工作，1992年在新斯科舍怀科马开设了这个名叫“农夫女儿乡村市场”的公司。它包括面包房、农产品市场、冰激凌店、乳脂软糖厂和礼品店，位于跨加拿大高速公路(Trans-Canada Highway)一个安静地段旁边的一片谷仓红建筑群里。

Mr. Austin’s father, also adairy farmer, had amassed more than 600 acres; after sell-offs, about 200 acresremain. The land that is left is mostly mountain woodland — pretty to see, butnot of much value unless it were logged. No one in the family wants to shavethe hillsides for that.

吉姆·奥斯汀的父亲也是奶农，曾经积累了600多英亩土地，卖了一些后还剩下约200英亩，大部分是山间林地。它们看起来很美，但是如果不把树砍掉就没有什么价值。家里没人想为此砍掉山坡上的树。

By the end of this summer, thecountry market was down by three full-time workers, making it difficult to meeta local grocery chain’s demand for baked goods from the Farmer’s Daughter. Thebaking business helps the operation stay afloat in the bleak winter months.

今年夏天快结束时，这个乡村市场只剩下三名全职工人，所以“农夫女儿”商店很难满足当地连锁杂货店对烘焙食品的需求。烘焙生意帮助他们在寒冷的冬季维持生计。

Ms. MacLean and Ms. Coulombetried hiring locally, but said capable and dependable hands were not available.The visa process for foreign workers was too cumbersome, too.

麦克林和库隆布试过在当地进行招聘，但她们说，找不到能干又可靠的人。招聘外国工人的签证手续又太繁琐。

That is when they came up withthe idea of giving away land.

这时她们想出了赠送土地的办法。

The women put together aquestionnaire that emphasized commitment and values and made it clear that theland they were giving away was remote and well off the grid.

两个女人设计了一个调查问卷，强调自己提供的承诺和价值，同时也明确说明，赠送的土地位置偏僻，没有电力供应。

At around 10 p.m. one Sundayin late August, the sisters posted a gentle appeal on the market’s Facebookpage under the title, “Beautiful Island Needs People.”

去年八月一个星期天的晚上，10点左右，姐妹俩在该市场的Facebook主页上发了一条温和的恳求贴，名叫“美丽的小岛需要人”(Beautiful Island NeedsPeople)。

In about 500 words theyoffered a job, community and two acres of land to anyone who would come andwork at the market for five years. They have since raised the offer to three acresto allow for a septic system.

她们的帖子大约500字，向任何愿意来这个市场工作五年的人提供一个工作机会、一个社区和两英亩土地。后来她们还把赠送土地的面积增加至三英亩，以便能够建立化粪池系统。

By morning, the appeal hadbeen shared 200 times. By afternoon, a local radio station had called for aninterview. Soon national radio and television stations were calling and theland offer was the top trending news story on the Canadian BroadcastingCorporation’s website. When the report was picked up around the world, thefloodgates opened.

到第二天早上，她们的帖子已被转发200次。到了下午，当地一家电台打来电话，要求进行采访。很快，全国电台和电视台也打来电话，土地赠送成了加拿大广播公司(Canadian BroadcastingCorporation)网站上最热门的新闻故事。这则报道在全世界流传开来后，一发不可收拾。

The sisters had already zeroedin on several candidates well before their appeal went viral. Within a week ofthe original post they had interviewed the people they eventually hired.

早在姐妹俩的帖子被疯狂转发之前，她们已锁定了几位候选人。在原贴发出一周内，他们已经面试了最终招聘的人。

The newcomers consist of threefamilies: the Andersons, the Walkinses and the Taits, who arrived in time forCanada’s Thanksgiving on Oct. 10. The Austins, the parents of the sisters whoare taking over the store, invited them all to their home for a traditionalfeast, the biggest Thanksgiving dinner they had ever put on, they said.

新来者包括三个家庭：安德森一家(Anderson)、瓦尔金斯一家(Walkins)和泰特一家(Tait)。他们来的时候正好赶上加拿大10月10日的感恩节。接管这个商店的两姐妹的父母奥斯汀夫妇邀请所有人到家里享用了一顿传统晚宴，她们说这是他们准备过的最盛大的感恩节晚宴。

Over plates of turkey andturnips and local condiments like the Farmer’s Daughter Cape Breton chow (arelish made with green tomatoes), the families appeared to blend effortlessly.

面对一盘盘火鸡、芜菁和当地调味品，比如“农夫女儿布雷顿角美味”（一种用绿番茄做成的调味品），这几家人似乎轻松融入进来。

All three families said thatit was the promise of community in a simpler, beautiful place that was thebiggest attraction. Each parcel of land is worth only a few thousand Canadiandollars, and Cape Breton has plenty of land for sale.

这三家人都说，最吸引他们的是在一个更单纯而又美丽的地方融入社区的承诺。每块地只值几千加元，布雷顿角岛有大量土地出售。

“I never even asked about theland,” said Sonja Anderson, a former mortgage banker who drove nine days acrossthe country from Vancouver, British Columbia, with her 10-year-old daughter andtwo dogs.

“我甚至从未问过地的事儿，”索尼娅·安德森(Sonja Anderson)说。她曾是一名抵押贷款银行业者。她带着十岁的女儿和两条狗从不列颠哥伦比亚省温哥华市开了九天车，穿过整个国家来到这里。

Micah Tait said that he andhis wife, Trish, had long dreamed of making such a move. “Everything wasexactly what we were hoping to work toward and we just took a sort ofshortcut,” he said.

迈卡·泰特(Micah Tait)说，他和妻子特里什(Trish)一直梦想这么做。“一切正是我们所向往的，我们只是抄了捷径，”他说。

Both said they missed the“feeling of belonging” in their life in Vancouver, where they worked assecurity guards.

两人都说，他们在温哥华做保安时一直缺乏一种“归属感”。

When Brett Walkins lost hisjob in British Columbia as a project manager building wastewater treatmentplants, he and his wife, Kerry, sold their house, bought a truck and acamper-trailer and headed down the North American coast.

布雷特·瓦尔金斯(Brett Walkins)曾在不列颠哥伦比亚做项目经理，修建废水处理厂。失去工作后，他和妻子克丽(Kerry)卖了房子，买了一辆卡车和一个露营拖车，向北美海岸驶去。

Months later, having traversedthe continent with two children and two dogs, they were on Prince EdwardIsland, west of Cape Breton, biting their nails over bidding on a new house.

几个月后，他们带着两个孩子和两条狗穿越整个大陆，来到布雷顿角岛以西的爱德华王子岛省(Prince Edward Island)，怀着紧张的心情竞拍一座新房。

“An hour after we found outsomeone else had bought the house, I saw the Farmer’s Daughter post,” Ms. Walkinssaid. Mr. Walkins emailed that day under the subject line, “communityopportunity.”

“在我们发现有人已经买下那所房子后一个小时，我看到了‘农夫女儿’的帖子，”瓦尔金斯夫人说。瓦尔金斯先生当天就发了邮件，主题是“社区机会”。

“That’s what spoke to me,” hesaid. “To be welcomed into what we could tell was a close-knit family.”

“我看中的就是那一点，”他说，“感觉自己被欢迎加入一个在我们看来非常亲密的家庭。”

Mr. Walkins has already walkedon the land, accessible by a muddy logging road, looking for a building site,while his wife has taken up her duties baking pies and making fudge. The coupleplan to construct a solar-powered, self-sustaining home.

通过一条泥泞的木板路，瓦尔金斯已经可以在自己的土地上行走，寻找一个建设地点，而他的妻子已经承担起烘焙点心、制作乳脂软糖的工作。夫妻俩计划修建一所利用太阳能发电的自给自足的房子。

The new arrivals havechallenges ahead. They arrived in the midst of Cape Breton’s beautiful fallfoliage display, but a long frigid winter and then the region’s famous blackfly season await.

新来者也面临着一些挑战。他们到来时，正值布雷顿角岛树叶飘落的美丽秋季，但是紧接着是漫长寒冷的冬季和这个地区著名的黑蝇季。

Along with an uptick inbusiness, the publicity has had other consequences for the Farmer’s Daughter. Alocal couple have offered the sisters 42 acres they do not use. Televisionproducers have called to talk about a possible reality show or, more to thesisters’ tastes, a documentary series tracking the newcomers’ integration intothe community and their development of the land.

除了对生意的提振，这次宣传还给农夫女儿商店产生了其他影响。一对当地夫妇把自己不用的42英亩土地送给了姐妹俩。一些电视节目制作人打来电话，询问是否可以做一个真人秀节目或者一系列记录新来者融入社区和开发土地的纪录片——后者更合姐妹俩的口味。