This document is significant because it covers a period of substantial change in the marsh economy on the Tantramar. The demand for marsh hay declined dramatically in the first decades of the twentieth century, mainly as a result of the huge increase in automobiles after World War I, but also as a result of the Tantramar economy being exposed to competition from other agricultural producers. The Walter Dixon cashbook captures many of these changes, as seen through the eyes of a Commissioner of Sewers and reflected in the statistics of work done on marsh dyking and drainage. Dixon’s accounting of work and expenses on the King’s Marsh between 1922 and 1930 is particularly interesting. Assessed taxes per acre had fallen and with the exception of 1926 when a new dyke was built and expenditure increased substantially, spending was in decline. The cashbook also contains some insights into changes in methods of dyke maintenance. The hauling of brush is mentioned frequently as a material to shore up the edges of the dyke, presumably with earth then laid on top. There are references to horse-drawn drags, to the use of a portable steam engine, and discussion of greater mechanisation. The statistics reflect the difficulties of the marsh hay economy: prices for hay fell from approximately $28 per ton in 1920 to closer to $6 per ton in 1938. The response in the marsh landscape was that marshland was taken out of production and the work of the commissioners of sewers was almost abandoned as levels of investment of both capital and labour could not be sustained through the difficult years of the 1930s. Competition from producers in other parts of Canada made it difficult for Tantramar farmers to move back into the livestock, grain and potato production that had been the staple products prior to marsh hay. As later documents note, the abandonment of the marsh economy was to become an issue of national significance, leading in the 1940s to the involvement of both provincial and federal governments in economic recovery and regional development plans similar to those developed for Canada’s prairie provinces.