DIFFICULTIES OF RIMOUSKI.

351

It is a mark of the condition of agriculture in these countries, that the old word muck, (never mentioned now to ears polite,) which means the same thing as manure, should have obtained a specific application to this black earth. It shows not only how much in general has been neglected among them, but to what kind of muck of nature's making, when they at length found it necessary to apply something to their land, they were content to intrust the safety and productiveness of their crops.

It was already becoming dark when I reached the town of Rimouski, and I was driven up in succession to several French houses where strangers were said to be received, but was dismissed unceremoniously from one after another. At length I pulled up at a shop kept by an Irishman, where strangers were accustomed to lodge; but here, too, I was told that no entertainment could be had. Through the kindness of my friend, Professor Horan, of the seminary at Quebec, I had been provided with a letter of general recommendation to the Roman Catholic clergy on my route, which I meant to use only in case of an emergency arising; and I was about to order my cocher to drive to the presbytère, which was large, comfortable-looking, and near at hand, when a female caine to the door of the house. The sound of an English tongue in her ears soon smoothed all difficulties, and I was speedily admitted, and made as welcome as her means would admit, But her husband was a sad screw, and provoked me much by the detention he caused on the following morning, in failing to procure for me, according to promise, the means of advancing on my journey.

The reason of my being bandied about from house to house proved to be, that my French companion took me from one French house to another, where they refused to receive me because I was English; and then, when I got to the Irishman's house, I was refused again, because,

352

SCOTCH SETTLERS AT MITIS.

till I began to speak for myself, I was believed to be French.

Oct. 5.-After an unpleasant delay in procuring a conveyance, I was again on my way from the little town of Rimouski towards Mitis. A tolerably good road-the latter part of it close to the river-a good horse and an intelligent driver, made the morning's drive agreeable, and I reached Mitis about one o'clock. By the way were many French settlements scattered at intervals, and now and then a superior-looking house. My driver, himself a thriving farmer, informed me that here, as elsewhere, his countrymen often built houses beyond their means. Passing one of more than ordinary pretension, which had cost £500, he remarked that the owner had contracted much debt in building it, and that, when his farm came to be sold, it would not bring more than the sum which the new dwelling-house alone had cost.

Around Mitis, which is not even a village, there is much good hardwood-maple-land. About thirty years ago the first house was built in this neighbourhood, and now there is a large settlement of prosperous farmers, the greater part of them Scotch, who settled here a number of years ago. Few settlers from Scotland have come to this place during the last few years; but the habitants are flocking to it from the higher parts of the St Lawrence, partly because the land is good and crops excellent, and partly because some of it at least can be obtained in freehold. The greater part of the land around Mitis is held from the seigneur, but the Government also possesses land which is sold at from 1s. to 4s. an acre. From the conversations I had with the natives, they seemed to value highly the freedom from annual payments, and from the droits de vent, or as they expressed it, "being the seigneurs of their own land."

Mitis lies at the northern extremity of what is called the Kempt Road, which connects the waters of the

THE KEMPT ROAD.

353

Restigouche with those of the St Lawrence. Along this road there are as yet scarcely any settlements, the population of the Lower St Lawrence being chiefly confined as yet to a stripe of a few miles broad along the river. The extra produce in grain, &c., is shipped to Quebec, from whence all necessary supplies are obtained in return. A merchant located at Mitis, and with whom I took up my quarters, serves as the medium of communication between the farmers of the district and the importers of Quebec. In autumn he gathers in his debts, in the form of produce, from his neighbours; and in return for these, obtains his winter's supply of tea, coffee, and clothing from the capital of the province.

These supplies, during the winter and spring, he again sells chiefly on credit, and waits for his payment till harvest comes. The system is worse for the farmer than the merchant, whose profits are large.

I found it necessary here to engage a horse and light waggon to take me all the way across the peninsula traversed by the Kempt Road, a distance of eighty miles, as neither horse nor conveyance were likely to be obtained by the way. I was glad to find that nothing was said as to the practicability of conveying myself and my portmanteau along this route, which my friends in New Brunswick had assured me I should find next to impossible. But difficulties always lessen when you look them fairly in the face; and I had afterwards occasion to find that, in regard to many other things having a relation to their own country, the New Brunswickers knew quite as little as I did myself.

I found it impossible, however, to arrange for proceeding further to-day, and was therefore obliged to postpone my departure from Mitis to an early hour to-morrow morning.

VOL. I.

Z

Ꮓ

CHAPTER XIII.

Ideas generally entertained of American fertility and agricultural resources.-Reports of travellers.-Desire to obtain accurate information.-Condition of agriculture as an art in North America.— Contrast between Europe and America.-General effect of an exhausting culture upon the soil.—Effect sometimes produced very slowly.— Instance of old abbey-lands.- Claim of monasteries to the manure of their tenants' stables.-Effect of general exhaustion on the production of staple crops.-Its effect on the wheat-lands of North America.Their retreat towards the west.-Liability of plants to disease on impoverished lands. — Remarkable change of cultivation in Lower Canada during the last twenty years.-Great diminution in the wheat and increase in the oat crop.-Loss and disaster which must have accompanied such a change.-Effect of this change on the cornmarkets of the world.-Lower Canada become wheat-importing and oat-consuming. Disastrous effect of the potato failure. Similar changes threaten to follow similar modes of culture in other parts of North America.—The wheat-exporting capability will diminish— Manuring system of Scottish farmers who sell or carry off their crops as is done in America. - Possible continued and extensive supply of Indian corn.-Import-duty in the United States upon corn from Canada: should it be removed?- Would it on the whole be beneficial to Canada?-Zeal for improvement in Upper Canada.Why do Rochester millers compete with the Canadian in Liverpool, in flour made from Canadian wheat?-Occasional low freights of the New York liners.-Use of Canadian wheat for mixing. Alleged large mercantile profits expected in Canada,-Profits derived from dealings in land.-Profit of a direct trade in flour between Montreal and Liverpool.-Growth of flax in Canada, and export of linseed.Instance of the close relation of discoveries in science to the profits of agriculture, and the agricultural capabilities of a country.—Comparative freights by the St Lawrence to Liverpool, and by the Erie Canal through New York.-St Lawrence the natural outlet of the lake-bordering countries. Great expertness with which the Erie

HOME NOTIONS OF AMERICAN FERTILITY.

355 Canal is worked.-Overflow of traffic upon that canal. Great exertions of Canada in the construction of canals.-The Welland Canal. -Canals along the rapids of the St Lawrence; their extent and cost. -Energy of Canada compared with that of New York.-St Lawrence route now takes less time than that by the Frie Canal.-Money cost of transport is also less.-Ohio wheat will take the St Lawrence instead of the Mississippi route. Importance of this route to the political independence of the free North-western States.-Difficulties in the navigation of the Lower St Lawrence.-Structure of its bed and channels.-Risks, and high insurance.-Need of lighthouses and depots of stores at the mouth of the river.-Traffic by the Richelieu Canal and Lake Champlain.-Rising importance of this.-Projected new ship-canal.-Future prospects of the St Lawrence navigation.

BEFORE I leave the shores of the St Lawrence, there are a few points in connection with the agriculture and national economy of Canada which have been the subjects of observation and of interesting consideration to myself, and which most of those readers who have accompanied me thus far in my book will not regret to have their attention drawn to. Until I personally visited North America, my own notions as to the agricultural condition, capabilities, and resources of the several new provinces and States, were, I now find, notwithstanding all I had heard and read, of the crudest, most general, and indefinite character. The exaggerations of interested natives and settlers, and the repetition of such exaggerations by travellers who knew nothing of agriculture themselves, and, like myself some dozen years ago, could scarcely distinguish bad land from good— these were all the information our journals and yearly literature afforded us. That wheat and Indian corn poured in upon us at times from those regions, we knew that some portions of the country were rich and fertile, we could not doubt; and the general conclusion in the public mind was, that these new countries were generally fertile that inferior land was the exception-that large crops were everywhere reaped-that the fertility of the whole region was inexhaustible-that the supply of