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I CANADA AND ILLINOIS

.*•

COMPARED!

BEING AN ANSWER TO CAIRO'S

SLANDERS ON CANADA.

BY THE LATE WILLIAM IIUTTOX, ESQ., SECRETARY TO THE
BUREAU OF AGRICULTURE.

i(|

•i

•J

FIFTH EDITION.

PRICE, FIVE CENTS.

ON SALE AT EOWSELL's BOOK STORE, KING ST. EAST, AND AT THE BOOK
BTALL AT THE H09SIN HOUSE.

1862.

■1^ '

ii I

|?S..

.^s<

To the Editor oj the ''Old Countryman,'^

Mr. Editor, —

Goethe has said, "It is not by attacks on the false, but by the calm
exposition of the true, that good is to be done." Taking the above as an
excellent rule of action, I have given Mr. Caird's pamphlet, entitled,
"Prairie Farming in America," a very attentive perusal; and I think
Mr. Caird deserves much credit for the candid way in which he haa
treated the subject of the British settlers' prospects in Illinois, in very
many points of vital importance. The inferences, however, which may
be fairly drawn from the facts and figures he has given us, are in many
instances calculated to produce widely different results from those which
he appears to have anticipated, and no doubt expects his reader to arrive
at. Without dwelling upon the report that Mr. Caird is personally and
largely interested in the Illinois Central Railroad Company, and their
lands, I proceed to examine the merits of his pamphlet.

The prevalence of ague, to which Mr. Caird has alluded in pages 11,
12, 28, 29, 40, 59, G4, 75, 95 and 9G, New York edition, especially in
pages 95 and 96, where he gives the experience of a leading physician
of twenty years' practice, cannot fail to be very apalling to intending emi-
grants who carefully peruse his work, especially as this physician plainly
states that in his opinion " old people ought not to come (to Illinois) at
all, as the ague is very fatal to them;" and adds by way of solace, that
" Chicago (being an older settlement) was now almost free from ague,
that typhus had taken its place in a greatly modified extent, and that
pneumonia and rheumatism were the only other diseases that were
severe." Candid and explicit as these warnings are, it may be fairly
added, that the very great prevalence of ague, and the total prostration
with which it is accompanied, often extending oven to weeks and months
together on these prairie lands, is not sufficiently portrayed. It not

>n*

unfrequently happens that whole families are so prostrated, that it is
with difficulty any one member of it can be found able to alleviate the
sufferings of the rest; and in remote situations it is often extremely diffi-
cult to procure aid from other families. The effects of this prostration
are often very seriously felt in the delay and even non-performance of
the necessary farm-work, the neglect of cattle, and often the partial loss
of a season's crops. For this reason, if farmers are determined to settle
on prairie land, they should make arrangement for three or four or more
families to settle together, and, in charity, Mr. Caird should have sug-
gested this ; but it is my purpose to shew that settlers in the bush of
Canada have much better prospects in every way than in the prairies of
Illinois, not only as regards the comparative freedom from ague, but for
acquiring actual prosperity and speedy independence. In endeavouring
to show this I will take Mr. Caird's own representations as the basis ;
although very great errors have crept into his work, seriously affecting
the general character of Canadian soils and Canadian farming. The quo-
tation of a few passages will serve to show how hurried must have been
his ride through the country, how very erroneous the ideas which he
formed. At page 20 he says : " From Prescott to Kingston, and thence
to Cobourg, the country is but partially cleared ; very often the train
shoots for many miles together through the primeval forest, a path hav-
ing been cut in the woods for the railway track, and the felled tiv. a ard
branches still lying where thrown on botli sides of the line." This latter
assertion may be literally tnie, but Mr. Caird himself, as well as his
readers, will be surprised to learn, that at least seven-eighths of this very
route is through a remarkably fine agricultural country ; through lands
held by the very best and most successful farmers, having very large
clearances, comfortable dwellings, and out-houses, and good orchards.
The counties from Prescott to Cobourg, through which Mr. Caird's route
lay, contain 240,000 inhabitants. For twenty years there have been fine
herds of Ayrshire and Durham cattle little inferior to the best cattle in
England, and even 40 miles back of the frontier may be seen farms of
from 200 to 400 acres, well cultivated, heavy crops, excellent horses,
cattle and sheep. The railway track passes through the rear part of their
farms, purposely reserved "a primeval forest," for firewood; three-
fourths, more probably, of their large farms being under cultivation.
The railway company purchased the land in rear because the farmers
did not wish their farms to be intersected by railroads, and they sold the
land in the rear cheaper than they would have sold any other part of
their farms. The quotation above given, shows the great danger of
judging a country merely by a railroad ride ; and the danger of publish-
ing the impressions thus erroneously acquired, especially by so well
known a man as Mr. Caird, is greater still.

This may be further illustrated by extracts from pages 26, 27, 28, and
29 ; and it is certainly much to be regretted that Mr. Caird remained so
short a time in Canada, and took such a very cursory glance of the col-

that it is
viate the
ely diflS-
'ostration
Imance of
rtial loss
to settle
jr or more
have sug-
bush of
Irairies of
I, but for
lavouring
le basis;
affecting
The quo-
ave been
hich he

d thence
he train

•ath hay-

*v.,8 ard

•is latter

1 as his

his very

?h lands

ry large

rchards.

's route

9en fine

attle in

rms of

horses,

>f their
three*

i^ation.

irmers

Id the

irt of

er of

blish.
well

and
ed so
I coI«

-^/

ony. Many of his rem irks are truthful and valuable, but no individual, tra-
velling as Mr. Caird did, could form a correct opinion of the agricultural
status and prospects of Canada. At page 26, &c., he says, "the country
from Hamilton to Paris is undulating, and seems an easier and more
fertile soil ; very little of it is wholly cleared ; certainly more than half
is still an unbroken forest, but the trees are immensely tall, and show
the rapid growth which only a fertile soil could produce. Though this
district is quite within the limit profitable of the culture of Indian Corn,
a small proportion only of the land seems to be occupied by that crop.
Its great value is every where admitted, but on this description of soil its
cultivation demands too much labour. The last grain crop can hardly
have been great, for in very few instances indeed are ricks to be seen
outside the bams, and they are not capacious enough to contain large
crops," &c.

Had Mr. Caird journeyed through this country in any other way than
by railway, he would have formed a much more correct opinion of the
extent under cultivation : this he has very much underrated. Fully three-
fourths of this whole district of country is cleared and enclosed, and a
large portion of it highly cultivated. If there was little Indian Com in
1868, it was because other crops promised to pay better, and the spring
of 1868 was peculiarly wet and cold; but there is a very large extent of
it this year, and although a little late it will prove an abundant crop.
The absence of ricks outside the barn, as alluded to by Mr. Caird, is
owing to the great abundance of timber, and the great facility with which
Canadians construct large barns, quite sufficient to hold even very luxu-
riant crops. Every good Canadian farmer provides substantial covering
for his whole crops, instead of having recourse to ricks with their tem-
porary covering of straw. The material, except nails, they have within
themselves, and most of them can help to build them. The work of
building a barn 60 feet by 30, and 18 feet post, can be done for £40 ster
ing; and most farmers have two if not three of these large bams,
besides long sheds in which to store hay, &c.; so that the u -sc nee of ricks
is no criterion of deficiency; but, on the contrary, their presence is
rather a sign that the farmer is a aew settler, and as yet unable to put up
the permanent covering for his produce, which old and successful farm-
ers universally provide. As to Mr. Caird's assertion that on this " easier
and more fertile soil" the cultivation of Indian corn demands too much
labour, it may be safely urged that labour is cheaper in Canada than in
Illinois, and that the corn crop is nearly as productive in the district he
alludes to as it is in Illinois, and being of a much superior quality sells
at a much higher price. The fact is, that wheat m this district has been
hitherto so fine, and selling at such high prices, that the growth of Indian
Cora has been neglected too much for the welfare of the farmer. This
very part of Canada which Mr. Caird describes in the above quotation
is noted for producing the very finest samples of wheat, weighing 62 lbs.,
and even 63 lbs., to the Winchester bushel, and has for years carried off

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1 1

1 1'

1 1 1

the Canada Company's prize of 100 dollars; and it was in this distr ic
that the prize wheat exhibited nt the Crystal Palace in England was
grown. There are often from 50 to 150 acres of wheat on one farm in
this section. The great inducement to sow wheat has hitherto caused
many farmers to trespass too much, perhaps, upon the properties of the
soil required for this crop ; but if Mr. Caird were this year to visit this
part of the country, and view it (not from a railway car window) he
would find more extensive fields of his fa\ ourite crop, and likely to pay a
higher acreable profit than the Illinois prairie land, because the prices
in Canada are almost double those of Central Illinois, where the corn is
of a coarser description. This perseverance in the growth of wheat is
an evil that time will remedy ; especially as the growth of other grain,
and also sheep and dairy farming, are more certainly remunerating.
Another extract from page,2S gives a remarkable instance of misguided
judgment and grievous misrepresentation, the first clause, however, of
the extract being perfectly true.

Mr. Caird says, " a light sandy loam of good quality, only half cleared,
is still valued at from £7 to £S an acre, (sterling no doubt, as all his
pounds are sterling throughout the pamphlet.) It is this comparatively
high price of land in addition to the cost of clearing off the timber, that
forces the emigrant westwards to a country where better soil with equal
facilities of transport, can be bought for less than the mere cost of clear-
ing this of its timber."

Taking the word ''westwards" to mean Central Illinois, which seems
to be the summit of Mr. Caird's American predilections, it may be most
safely asserted that the soil there is not better, that the facilities of trans-
port are not equal, and that even supposing land in Illinois could be
bought for less than the mere cost of clearing in Canada, (say £3 lOs.
sterling per acre,) Mr. Caird has omitted to state the value of the timber
cleared off. He will be surprised to be told that many pine trees on these
very farms are and were worth from 6s. to 15s. each. It it not unusual
for one tree to produce five saw-logs of twelve feet long each, worth 48.
to 5s. sterling, each log. The timber alone, of well-grown cedar swampg
in all the settled districts of Canada West, is worth £4 to £5 per acre,
on the spot ; and even if the hard wood is all burnt to ashes, the ashes
of three acres will, with very little outlay of capital or labour, produce a
barrel of potash worth £6 sterling. T le value of the timber on our wild
lands in good situations, where saw-mills, or rivers to float saw-logs, are
accessible, is very considerable. Our forests, instead of being a bugbear
to the intelligent emigrant, are a very great source of wealth, and enable
him to pay for his land, and erect the required buildings, and supply
fence rails, and fuel, sugar, &c., which the settler on the prairie has to
purchase, and sometimes at very high rates. That the soil is not better
in Illinois than in Canada West can be easily proved. Which gives the
largest crops of wheat per acre of the best quality ? Decidedly Canada
West. The probable average of Illinois is stated by Mr. Caird, at pages

65 and 89, as twenty bushels per acre, but at page 64 he gives the pro-
bable yield at eighteen to twenty, and the real yield ''nothing but shrivel-
led husk;" and again at page 52, as nearly a total failure, and six
hundred acres killed by frost, and at pages 75 and 76, he gives the yield
of 1857 as little more than six bushels per acre ; and according to the
United States Census of 1850-1, Illinois did not yield ten bushels per acre,
whereas the average of all Canada West that year was 16, 14-60 ; and of
the counties to which Mr. Caird alludes to in the above extract, the aver-
age was twenty-one bushels. Then as to quality of wheat, that of Cen-
tral Illinois is notoriously inferior. Merchants in Toronto import large
quantities of it at about half the price of Canada wheat for distillery pur-
poses, not being fit for making flour, except what is denominated by the
Americans "stump-tailed flour," being of a third or fourth rate quality, and
this is the general character of the prairie wheat in Central Illinois.
Then as to price, Mr. Caird quotes it in several places at 3s, sterling,
(75 cents.) At the very time Mr. Caird quotes this as being the price
in the Illinois markets, Canada wheat was selling in Toronto and Hamil-
ton and all our frontier markets, at exactly double that amount, 6s. ster-
ling, (li dollar;) and at this date Upper Canada wheat is selling in our
markets at double the price of Illinois wheat in Illinois markets.

Let old country farmers remember this, that evon supposing the yield
of bushels per acre to be the same, the price in Canada is double, and of
course the value per acre double, and giving Mr. Caird's own averages,
20 bushels per acre, and his own prices, 3s. sterling per bushel, the Cana-
dian farmer would pocket £3 sterling per acre more than the prairie far«
mer in Illinois ; and this £3, be it remembered, is good interest for £50
on every acre of land sown in wheat, say one sixth of the whole arable
land, or £8 6s. 8d. per acre on all the wheat-producing land on the farm.

As far, therefore, as the culture of wheat is concerned, the settler in
Canada West has a vast advantage over the settler in the Illinois prairie,
the yield, the quality, and the price, being all superior in Canada West.
The peninsula of Upper Canada consists of soils similar to those of the
Genesee valley, in the state of New York, distinguished for the finest
quality of wheat, which the American miller eagerly buys to mix with
the coarser wheats of the western states. Canadian wheat makes the
very finest flour, whilst western wheat makes only second and third rate
qualities. The area of the fine wheat-growing lands on this continent is
very limited, and Upper Canada occupies a large portion of it.

But, says Mr. Caird, ''Indian corn is a great staple in Illinois." Let
us take him at his own showing, and let us see the result. The average
produce he gives in two places is 50 bushels per acre, and at another 40.
The price at page 61 is 8d. per bushel; at page 74, lOd.; and at another
place, page 51, one farthing per pound, or Is. 3d. per bushel; at
page 87 and 89, is Is. 8d. per bushel. Taking the price at Is. 3d.
sterling on the spot, and the produce per acre at 50 bushels, (which
is far too high an average, 40 ^being much more like the truth,)

l! i1

WO hftve £3 2s. 6d per acre the produce of a good average com
crop in Illinois. The cost of twice ploughing, planting, horse-hoeing,
&c., is at least £2 2s. 6d. per acre, and the prairie farmer has £1 per
acre at this showing for himself for interest on his purchase money, fenc-
ing, buildings, Ac. Mr, Caird ha-s truly and admirably said (page 54): —
"If a man buys GOO acres and has not the means of cultivating more than
60, the 540 acres are a dead loss to him. He has to pay either the price
or the interest of the price of this large, unproductive extent of land.
The produce of the sixty acres is called upon to bear not onK 'ts own
burden, but that of the nine-tenths which are idle. The lean ki o thus
eat up the one fat one." Probably four-fifths of the settlers buy what is
called one quarter section, (being 160 acres,) and are not able for two or
three years to cultivate more than the fourth of it ; thus, the forty or
eighty acres under cultivation, or whatever it may be, have to pay the whole
interest on the purchase money of the 160 acres, and buildings erected.
The rent or interest of course will vary, but taking the price at £3 ster-
ling, and the fencing at lOs. per acre, and the buildings, Ac, at £100,
the rent of forty acres cropped, with house built, would be about £42
lOs., — thus:

First cost of land, at £8 per acre £480

Cost of fencing 160 acres, at 16s. per acre, being 640 rods, at

4s. sterling 128

Buildings, Well, &c., &c 100

£708
This £708 at six per cent, would be about £42 10s., or 21s. 3d. sterling
per acre, leaving the farmer minus Is. 3d. sterling per acre, on the
actual cost, giving him barely labourer's wages, and no interest for his
working-cattle, implements, &c., &c. The fencing of 160 acres requires
■640 rods of fence, which at a very low calculation, is worth $1 per rod,
or 4s. sterling. Mr. Caird makes the expense of fencing £60 per mile
(see page 55 ;) but considering that price too high, I have taken £40 per
mile. If a whole section is purchased (a mile square,) the outside fence
on all sides would be four miles, and the acreable cost of enclosing would
be much less than where only a quarter section is purchased ; but every
prairie farmer as well as every other farmer requires subdivisions of his
farm, and 16s. sterling per acre is a very low estimate of the cost of
fencing on any farm. So that Mr. Caird's represention at pages 89 and
90, where he says, " The third year begins by the prairie farmer finding
himself the unencumbered owner of his land, all fenced and improved,
with a stock of horses and implements, and the whole of his original
capital in his pocket," is a monstrous delusion, calculatcl to do immense
injury to his readers, who may be thereby tempted to settle on the aguish,
treeless, shelterless, and arid prairies of Illinois. The idea, too, expressed
at page 90,;that " he may continue to crop his farm with Indian com,
from which he will reap very large returns on his capital," is, to say the

■age corn
•hoeing,
s £1 per
ley, fenc-
:e 6i) :-_
lore than
•he price
of land,
ts own
ki thus
y what is
3r two or
forty or
he whole
erected.
£3 ster-
at£100,
)out £42

?8
)0

. sterling
on the

t for his

requires

per rod,

)er mile

£40 per

le fence

? would

It every

s of his

cost of

89 and

finding

iroved,

'riginal

imense

iguish,

tressed
corn,

ay the

least of it, a much too glowing and sanguine view of the prairie farmer's
prospects. At page 00 ho gives the opinion of a Mr. Brown, an old far-
mer in the country, "that more money has boon made, and may be made
in this state by stock farming than by corn-growing ;" and adds, (pago
61,) "but he has not found short-horned stock so succesafnl on the
natural prairie grass, of which, on his own lands, ho has no longer any."

To give us an idea of stock farming, Mr. Caird leiis us (page Yl) that
" oxen of three years old, largo and in what we should reckon fair con-
dition for sUvll feeding, are valuod here, i. e., Central Illinois, at not more
than £4 I" And again at page (51), ho quotes the price of beef at 2d. per
lb.; and at page 72, a Kentucky farmer admits that two acres of his best
bine grass land in Illinois were noeded to fatten a three-year old short
homed ox. At these prices stock farming cannot be profitable at all,
and if better than corn-growing, what inference may we draw ? The
story of the ox and two hogs eating a hundred bushels of Indian corn
(page Y4,) and then being sold at 2d. per lb., is not calculated to give
very favourable views of prairie farming. It is well Mr. Caird has so
frankly represented these facts to enable British farmers to judge for
themselves. It may be well to state hero that cattle, shcop, beef, mutton,
pork, and grain of all kinds in Canada, are fully double the prices quoted
by Mr. Caird as being the prices in Central Illinois; and intelligent
British farmers will no doubt govern themselves accordingly, especially
as all other crops, except Indian com, are more productive in Canada
West, and labour quite as cheap. These high prices may be supposed to
militate against mechanics and manufacturers, but where agricultural pro-
ducts are high, mechanics find more employment and better wages than
when they are low. The farmers being more prosperous, are better able
to carry on improvements of all kinds. Mr. Caird, at page 50, quotes
the wages of a journeyman carpenter at 4s. por day, with his board ;
these wages are rather lower than in Canada, but the colony has suffered
80 severely by the late exceptional reverses, that there is little employ-
ment for tradesmen at present at high wages. If we have a good harvest
and an average crop, times will improve rapidly ; but it may be safely
stated that it is not probable that either Illinois or Canada will ever again
reach that state of inflated prosperity, caused by the late expenditure of
millions of dollars in the purchase and formation of railway routes. The
benefit of the colony will be permanent and substantial, but the first
pioneers of the benefit will probably be severe sufferers. Mr. Caird has
well said, and it appears true with regard to Canada also, that, "the de-
velopment of railway accommodation has been too rapid, and has for the
present outrun the immediate requirements of Illinois."

I have alluded to the fact that wheat and all other grain, except Indian
com, are more productive in Canada West than in Central Illinois. The
circumstances of climate are, perhaps, the chief cause of the superiority
of Canada West. The great wheat-producing countries of Europe lie be-
tween the 50th and 59th degrees of north lattitude, where the summer

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temj)erature is from 55 ° to C5 ° ; but in Central Illinois, where the lati-
tude is about 38 ° , the summer heat is 78 ° , and often as high in ihe
shade as from 90 to 100 ° in June, July, and August. This climate is
too hot for the profitable culture of European grains or grasses ; they
grow there, it is true, but are generally of a very inferior description.
The wheat this year (1859) is fortunately a very tolerable sample, and
the yield a fair average ; much of it was harvested the first week of July :
one very large field, I was told by a farming friend who witnessed the
operation, was cut with a "heading machine," i. e., the heads of the
wheat were cut off immediately bolow the ear, and dropped into a box
which was emptied into waggons accompanying the machine. The straw
being of little value was left standing.

As far as regards the wheat crop, this year is an improvement upon
several of the past years ; but as to other crops, barley, oats, rye, and
peas, there does not appear to be much change for the better., With
the exception of Indian corn, they are not ])y any means extensively or
successfully cultivated.

By the last census of Canada, token in 1851-52, her population was
about 1-13 of that of the Union, her occupied acres about l-17th ; yet
her growth of wheat ^vas very nearly one-sixth of that of the whole Union,
of barley it was more than one-fourth, and of oats one-seventh. Of all
grain, exclusive of Indian corn, Canada produced one-sixth of that of the
whole Union, territories included.

These are important facts for the consideration of British emigrants,
who, instead of settling on the bleak prairies of the United States, may
wish to enjoy a climate not very different from their own, and decidedly
healthful ; and who may wish to cultivate the same species and description
of grain that they have been used to, or to continue their dairies, or to
indulge in their beef and mutton producing tendencies, with a fair hope
of remuneration.

The prospect of having but little fruit in Central Illinois, is another
very important consideration. The land wliere trees do not naturally
grow, can scarcely be expected to be very congenial to fruit trees. It is
only too true that in many parts of Illinois fruit trees will not thrive.

Another extract fiom Mr. Caird (page 29) is worthy of comment, as it
portrays a great want of knowledge of facts with regard to the relative
increase of population in Canada and Illinois, and is calculated to mis-
lead his readers. Mr. C. says, " Canada West is richer than Canada
East, and is more populous ; but there is a richer territory still farther
west, where labour is yet more productive, and, though in the present
state of the country the risk of health is greater, it is ten times more po-
pulous, for men push on to the land in which they can most quickly and
easily earn an independence."

What will Mr. Caird himself say, when he is told that Canada West has
increased in population in a much greater ratio than his favourite state of
Illinois I

|the lati*
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ssed the
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be straw

It is

By the United States Census of 1850, it appears that the three states
of Ohio, Michigan, and Illinois, contained in 1830, 1,126,851, and in
1850, 3,505,000 ; a little over 320 per cent, in twenty years. Canada
West contained in 1830, 210,437 ; in 1850, 791,000, which is over 375
per cent, for the same period of twenty years ; so that the increase in
these choice states was fifty-five per cent, less than that of Canada West
during the same time. Some of our counties in Canada West, viz., Huron,
Perth, and Bruce, have increased 571 per cent, in ten years.

Comparing the last decade of Canada West with that of the United
States, we find that the increase during the ten years from 1840 to 1850,
was 35*27 per cent., whilst that of Upper Canada was 104*58 per cent.

We have had no census in Canada since 1851-52 ; but there is every
reason to believe that t'.ie ratio of increase, not including immigration,
has continued very muca the same, and there is a certainty that Mr.
Caird's representation as to comparative increase of population in Illinois
is entirely erroneous. Immigration to the United States has fallen off
quite as much in proportion as that into Canada. The statement that an
independence can be more quickly and easily earned in Illinois than in
Canada West, is simply a delusion, and has been frequently proved by the
return of settlers, who, like Mr. Caird, were attracted by the more iuviting
appearance of prairies to old-country eyes. But as Mr. Caird has given a
Dr. and Cr. for Illinois, at page 89, I will give a similar one for Canada.
Let old-country capitalists who can command the required sum (say £7 50
sterling) diligently compare the two, and keep in mind the permanent
difference in the quality and prices of produce, and the healthfulness of
Canada, and the choice between the two will be no difficult matter to
decide, even in the matter of dollars and cents, without alluding to our
British Constitution, our British feeling, British tone of morality, our
British social atmosphere, &c., which Britons always appreciate more
highly after a short residence in the United States.

Mr. Caird thus gives the probable Dr. and Cr. of 100 acres of land for
two years in Central Illinois.

Dr.

Cash price of 100 acres, sterling £200

Contract price of fencing, breaking, sowing with wheat, reaping
and threshing, and building a labourer's cottage, and stable

and shed 250

Capital invested in the purchase of four horses, implements and

harness 110

£560
2nd year, wages of 2 men, horse-keep, taxes and accounts 200

£760

r ''

|i '

I." I

1^'

Cr.

Ist crop wheat, 2000 bushels at Ss. 6d., £350 ; 2nd crop Indian

corn, 5000 bushels, at Is. 8d., £416 766

Surplus after second crop, besides the value of land and stock. .£600

In Canada West the Dr. and Cr. arc on the same basis. Taking 100
acres brought into cultivation, they would stand thus: Capitalists can
bring 100 acres into cultivation in Canada, as well as in the United States,
although such is seldom or never done that I am aware of.

Dr.

Cash price of 100 acres of land, at 3s. 3d £16 6

Contract price for clearing, fencing, and seeding, at £3 10s. per

acre 350

Contract price for building a small hcuso or shed. 60

Capital invested in oxen, (two yoke) chains, &c 34

Capital invested in potash kettle. 10

Capital invested in labour making potash and barrels 40

Second year, board and wages of 3 men and 5 in harvest, ox

keep, &c 180

£680 6
Cr.

Potash, 20 barrels, at £0 £120

Pine timber, say 100 trees, at Gs '. 30

(Where the timber is good for making potash there
is not much pine, for this reason I have set
down a small sum.)

First crop of wheat, 2000 bushels, at 5s 500

Second crop, barley, rye, oats, peas, and potatoes,

at £3 per acre, average 300

950

Surplus after the second crop, besides land, &c ..£269 15

This comparison, which is justly and fairly given, shews that the Cana-
dian capitalist has the advantage over the prairie capitalist of £269 15s.
sterling in two years ; and to shew that these representations are by no
means overdrawn, I give below the official published returns by our
Government agent, on the Ottawa, of the total produce of 800 acres of
newly cleared land, for the yenr 1858, with the prices which he has
attached, and which are not, as may be deemed, exceptional.

Mr. French says : — "Upon those 800 acres there were raised:

5726 bushels of wheat, at $1 per bushel $5726 00

2916 ** oats, at 40 cents per bushel 1166 40

Carried forward $6892 40

->:^

fng 100

lists can

States,

)

) 6

)

Cana-
9 15s.
bj no
y our
res of
e has

!6 00
i6 40

'2 40

Brought forward ....$6892 40

149 bushels of barley, at 60 cents per bushel 74 60

168 « Indian corn, at $1 per bushel 168 00

16799 «' potato at 10 cents per bushel 6718 30

6360 " tuiu ,it 10 cents per bushel 635 00

87 tons of hay, a'. •. dollars per ton 435 00

260 tons of straw, at 4 dollars per ton 1040 00

4012 lbs. of sugar, at 10 cents per lb 401 20

108 barrels of potash, at 24 dollars per barrel 2522 00

9169 bushel of ashes, at 8 cents per bushel 739 92

Making a total of $19626 32

And showing the average value of each acre to be something over
twenty-four dollars sixty cents, or £5 sterling for one year," an amount
far above Mr. Caird's representation of the Illinois prairies. For three
of the above articles, viz., potatoes, hay, and straw, a market could not
be found on a prairie farm ; and three other articles, potash, ashes, and
sugar, could not be produced. Mr. French has omitted to give credit
for the timber used iu their houses and sheds, or sold to timber mer-
chants.

1. t old-country farmers carefully compare these two statements, and
lemember also that they are likely to have good health in Canada, good
water, and plenty of it, and no necessity of Artesian wells 127 teet deep j
good apples and pears and small fruit, and vegetables of every kind in
abundance, good markets for every thing they grow, good timber for
their houses and fences and fires, and a good Government that provides
handsomely for the education of their families — even much better than
in the United States ; and if they will be guided by the honest opinion of
a man of twenty-five years' experience in Canada as an agriculturist,
they will pause before they prefer the prairies of Central Illinois to the
woods of Canada. The woods modify the heat of summer and cold of
winter, whilst the prairies of Illinois are subject to temfic winds and
storms and snow in winter, and often most dreadful and devastating fires
— and the ever-falling leaves of our woods arc ever depositing a rich
compost, far superior to that of the long thin prairie grass. There is
still another very important consideration regarding these level prairie
lands, that is, that many of them cannot be settled on till drained of the
sour and unwholesome surface water ; and, from the nature of the coun-
try, draining is a very expensive operation, and not unfrcquently entirely
impracticable. Deep permanent springs are often very difiicult to find,
and there is much suQering both by man and beast for want of reallf
good pure water.

To corroborate what I have said, with regard to the deficiency of the
yield of wheat, and other crops in the United States, I give below a quo-
tation from a very late and very clever publication by John Jay, being
" A Statistical View of American Agriculture, ita Homo Resources and

;»

I' )

I it

Foreign Markets, &c., in an address delivered at New York before the
American Geographical and Statistical Society, on the Organization of
the Agricultural Section," New York, 1869. " The average number of
bushels of wheat to the acre in Alabama and Georgia is five ; in North
Carolina, Virginia, and Tennessee, seven ; ranging upwards in the other
States until it reaches twelve m New York, Ohio, and Indiana; thirteen
in Maryland and Vermont ; fourteen in Iowa and Wisconsin ; fifteen in
Florida, Pennsylvania, and Texas j and sixteen (the highest average) in
Massachusetts. Oats range from ten bushels to the acre through various
intermediate gradations, to thirty.five and thirty-six bushels, which is the
highest." The Journal of the Highland Society of Scotland thus
observes : " If the above statement, as given by Mr. Jay, be correct,
the state of farming in many parta of America must be indeed in a
wretched condition — the American maximum corresponds to our mini*
mum;" adding, however, the following, v/hich appears to be only too true
with regard to late years, but reports of this year's crop indicate that
the evil is not progressing. "We believe," says the Journal, "that
the wheat crop has recently suffered much from the increased ravages of
insects, and from various diseases to which it seems to be becoming more
and more subject."

Since the above was written, the prospects of the wheat crop in the
United States this year appear to be more promising than usual, and in
Canada there is every prospect of a very handsome return. From all
quarters of Canada West, reports have been sent to this office of
expected large crops of wheat, say from thirty to forty bushels per acre ;
and of spring grain most abundant supplies, including that of Indian
corn : and corroborative of what I have stated, with regard to the yield
of this grain in Illinois not exceeding forty bushels per acre, I again
quote Mr. Jay's statements, as given by the same journal : " Commenc-
ing," he says, "at eleven bushels per acre, the returns of produce of
Indian corn range through various gradations in the difiFerent States, up
to thirty-two in Vermont and Iowa ; thirty-three in Missouri ; thirty six
in Ohio, and forty in Connecticut." This last is the highest return
given.

1 am, Sir,

Yours, with respect,

Toronto, July 22, 1859.

WILLIAM HUTTON,
Secretary to Bureau of Agriculture.

UHlYERSmr OF WINDSOR UBRARf

/3o

777

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