rier; at Kingston, Upper Canada Herald, Spectator, and Chronicle; at Brockville, the Recorder and Antidote; at Prescot, the Grenville Gazette; at Cornwall, the Observer; at Perth (where there was not a house within many miles of it 18 years ago) are two newspapers; at Niagara, the Gleaner and another paper; at St. Catherine's, the Farmer's Journal; at London, the Sun; at St. Thomas's, the Liberal, the Journal, and another paper; at Hamilton, the Free Press, and the Mercury; at Port Hope, the Telegraph; at Couburg, the Reformer and Star; at Sandwich, the Emigrant; at Belleville, the Phoenix. Many of these are semi-weekly; and there are several others, weekly and semi-weekly, which I have not a list of. The weekly and semi-weekly newspapers published in this province are about 35, besides a monthly magazine. Ten years ago, there were only four or five newspapers printed in the colony.

CHAP. XV.

AGRICULTURE.

OCCUPATIONS OF THE INHABITANTS. - DOMESTIC MANUFACTURES AND TRADE OF UPPER CANADA.

THE fertile lands, which occupy almost the whole surface of Upper Canada, are its solid and certain foundations of power and prosperity, of happiness and independence.

Agriculture, in all new countries, is necessarily conducted in a rude manner. For some years after the forests are levelled, husbandry is subjected to local peculiarities; and, perhaps, this circumstance, and that the necessaries of life, as well as its comforts and many of its luxuries, are more easily procured in Canada than in England, occasions, generally, in the farmer, an absence of that order and skill in husbandry which so greatly delight those who travel over the agricultural districts of Great Britain.

That slovenly cultivation is generally apparent in Upper Canada, as well as in all the British colonies, cannot be denied; neither do the early settlers willingly relinquish old and rude modes of husbandry. In new countries, however, time and example are sure to accomplish improvements; and these will hereafter probably unfold themselves rapidly in a province so eminently blessed with natural advantages as Upper Canada.

Agricultural societies have been established for some time; and improvements in husbandry, by the introduction of knowledge and skilful farmers, are evidently prevailing in every district of the province. While travelling, we observe many large and wellcultivated farms, rich orchards, fine meadows, commodious dwelling-houses, large barns and cattlehouses. Dairies are also much better attended to than formerly; and implements of husbandry, carts, and waggons, are generally made in a workmanlike and convenient form. When we also consider the extraordinary increase of population, in a great measure occasioned by emigration from the agricultural counties of the United Kingdom, and the wellknown natural advantages of this colony for farming, we may feel assured that the cultivation of the soil will hereafter be attended to with much the same attention and skill as in England.

Wheat, which will always form the great staple agricultural production, is raised in large quantities, and of the very best quality; above Kingston it is generally sown in the fall. The returns are from twenty to sometimes forty bushels per acre; no grain appears so well adapted to the soil and climate.

Barley, except in the more humid districts, does not grow so well as wheat, and it is not so generally cultivated. Rye grows best on the high light lands. Indian corn thrives well, and forms an important production. Pumpkins are grown intermixed among the Indian corn plants. Oats grow, but the climate may be considered too hot for its general culture. Millet and small grains and seeds generally answer well. Flax and hemp may be cultivated with advantage. Buckwheat is also cultivated. An acre of good land will produce from 200 to 250 bushels of potatoes; but this most useful root, if cultivated in rich heavy land, is inferior in quality to the potatoes grown in Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, or in Lancashire, England. Peas thrive in the fields. The summer is rather too hot for beans. The principal grass is Timothy (Phleum pratense), the roots of which are very hardy: white and red clover grow well among it. Parsnips, carrots, vegetable marrows, cucumbers, water melons, and common melons of delicious flavour grow in abundance. A kind of coarse rice (Zizania aquatica), gathered by the Indians, grows naturally on wet grounds, near lakes.

Apples, pears, peaches, apricots, nectarines, and most of our garden fruits will grow abundantly, and are all deliciously flavoured.

Tobacco is grown in large quantities; it is considered not so good as that of Virginia, but this is attributed to negligence or want of skill in its cultivation.

Grapes ripen in the open air, and their culture was commenced in 1830, by some Germans who lately followed, from the banks of the Rhine, a number of their friends, who were soldiers in the British service during the American war.

It is considered by many that Upper Canada is not so well adapted for grazing as for grain. This cannot, however, be proved, until the country is more generally opened. Newly cleared lands, it is true, and all forest countries are for some time unfavourable to rearing sheep; but horses and horned cattle thrive remarkably well; so do swine, and poultry of all kinds.

The inhabitants of the province are generally employed in agricultural pursuits, much in the same way as those of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. Seed-time is a little earlier, as spring opens

above Kingston a week or two sooner than below. Haymaking and harvest commence about the same time in all the colonies. On old cleared farms, ploughing, harrowing, forming inclosures, gathering the hay and harvest, preparing for winter, thatching corn, feeding cattle, during that season, form the principal occupations of the farmers. Cutting down and burning the forests, preparing the ground for seed, and gathering the crops afterwards, with various local pursuits, claim the incessant attention of new settlers.

The quality of the land may always be ascertained by the timber it produces; deciduous trees of the maple, beech, oak, ash, elm, walnut, plane, tulip, and hickory tribes intermixed, grow in rich soils. Terebinthine trees, unmixed with others, always indicate a cold or sandy soil. The best lands seldom require manure; and the lighter soils, by applying gypsum, which is abundant, yield fine crops of clover, Indian corn, wheat, and potatoes.

Domestic manufactures are few. Coarse woollen and linen clothes are made by the farmers' wives and daughters. Distilling of whisky, the iron-works at Marmora and Charlotteville, a few breweries, and some founderies at York and some other places; a paper manufactory, tobacco manufactories, manufacturing flour and meal, making potashes and pearlashes; manufacturing square timber, deals, and staves; navigating steam boats, sloops, and river craft; public works, &c. afford sources of abundant occupation. It will be long before Upper Canada can become a manufacturing country; nor is it the interest of the inhabitants to establish factories, while the soil and the forest afford them more certain sources of independence.