CHAPTER XIV.

Rapid Increase of Population—Mineral Wealth—Cereals—Imports and Exports—Climate—Agriculture—A Settler’s Life—Reciprocity Treaty—Report of the Committee of the Executive Council—Mr. Galt—Senator Douglas—A Zollverein—Terms of the Convention—Free Trade, and what is meant by it—Mr. Galt’s opinion on the subject—Canadian Imports and Exports.

The rapid increase of population and settlements in Canada, and the growth of cities and towns, are among the great marvels of the last and of the present century, so rich in wonders of the kind. It is not too much to say, that any approximation to a similar rate of increase will make British North America a great power in the world. The direction of emigration has not been favourable. The Germans and the Irish have rather sought the United States. The emigrating powers of Scotland are rapidly decreasing, and the few English who emigrate prefer Australia, New Zealand, even the States of the Union, to a country which suffers from the early neglect of the home government, the studied aspersions and misrepresentations of powerful agencies, and the ignorance of the poorer classes who seek to improve their condition by going forth in search of new homes.

Mr. Sheridan Hogan, the writer of a prize essay onCanada of no ordinary excellence, has devoted some of his pages to show that the growth of Canada in population has been overlooked in the scope of the wondering gaze which Europe has fixed on the development of the United States, although, in fact, the increase of Canadians in the land has been quite as astonishing as that of Americans south of the St. Lawrence. In 1800, he says the population of the United States was 5,305,925. In 1850 it was 20,250,000. The increase was therefore 300 per cent. nearly. In 1811 the population of Upper Canada was 77,000, and in 1851 it was 952,000, an increase of over 1100 per cent. in forty years. Within the decade up to 1855 the rate of increase in the United States was 13·20 per cent. In Upper Canada it was 104 per cent. from 1841 to 1851. Upper Canada exhibited in forty years nearly four times the increase of the United States in fifty years. Even the population of Lower Canada increased 90 per cent. from 1829 to 1854. In a table in the same work it appears that the Irish in Lower Canada were more than double the English and Scotch together, and that they equalled both in Upper Canada. The writer says:—

“The ‘World’s Progress,’ published by Putnam, of New York,—a reliable authority,—gives the population and increase of the principal cities in the United States. Boston, between 1840 and 1850, increased forty-five per cent. Toronto, within the same period, increasedninety-fiveper cent. New York, the great emporium of the United States, and regarded as the most prosperous city in the world, increased, in the same time, sixty-six per cent., about thirty less than Toronto.“The cities of St. Louis and Cincinnati, which have also experienced extraordinary prosperity, do not comparewith Canada any better. In the thirty years preceding 1850, the population of St. Louis increased fifteen times. In the thirty-three years preceding the same year, Toronto increasedeighteen times. And Cincinnati increased, in the same period given to St. Louis, but twelve times.“Hamilton, a beautiful Canadian city at the head of Lake Ontario, and founded much more recently than Toronto, has also had almost unexampled prosperity. In 1836 its population was but 2,846, in 1854 it was upwards of 20,000.“London, still farther west in Upper Canada, and a yet more recently-founded city than Hamilton, being surveyed as a wilderness little more than twenty-five years ago, has now upwards of ten thousand inhabitants.“The City of Ottawa, recently called after the magnificent river of that name, and upon which it is situated, has now above 10,000 inhabitants, although in 1830 it had but 140 houses, including mere sheds and shanties; and the property upon which it is built was purchased, not many years before, foreighty pounds.“The Town of Bradford, situated between Hamilton and London, and whose site was an absolute wilderness twenty-five years ago, has now a population of 6,000, and has increased, in ten years, upwards ofthree hundred per cent.; and this without any other stimulant or cause save the business arising from the settlement of a fine country adjacent to it.“The Towns of Belleville, Cobourg, Woodstock, Goderich, St. Catherine’s, Paris, Stratford, Port Hope, and Dundas, in Upper Canada, show similar prosperity, some of them having increased in a ratio even greater than that of Toronto, and all of them but so manyevidences of the improvement of the country, and the growth of business and population around them.“That some of the smaller towns in the United States have enjoyed equal prosperity I can readily believe, from the circumstance of a large population suddenly filling up the country contiguous to them. Buffalo and Chicago, too, as cities, are magnificent and unparalleled examples of the business, the energy, and the progress, of the United States. But that Toronto should have quietly and unostentatiously increased in population in a greater ratio than New York, St. Louis, and Cincinnati, and that the other cities and towns of Upper Canada should have kept pace with the Capital, is a fact creditable alike to the steady industry and the noiseless enterprise of the Canadian people.“Although Lower Canada, from the circumstance already alluded to of the tide of emigration flowing westward, has not advanced so rapidly as her sister Province, yet some of her counties and cities have recently made great progress. In the seven years preceding 1851, the fine County of Megantic, on the south side of the St. Lawrence, and through which the Quebec and Richmond Railroad passes, increased a hundred and sixteen per cent.; the County of Ottawa, eighty-five; the County of Drummond, seventy-eight; and the County of Sherbrooke, fifty. The City of Montreal, probably the most substantially-built city in America, and certainly one of the most beautiful, has trebled her population in thirty-four years. The ancient City of Quebec has more than doubled her population in the same time, and Sorel, at the mouth of the Richelieu, has increased upwards of four times; showing that Lower Canada, with all the disadvantages of a feudaltenure, and of being generally looked upon as less desirable for settlement than the West, has quietly but justly put in her claim to a portion of the honour awarded to America for her progress.”

“The cities of St. Louis and Cincinnati, which have also experienced extraordinary prosperity, do not comparewith Canada any better. In the thirty years preceding 1850, the population of St. Louis increased fifteen times. In the thirty-three years preceding the same year, Toronto increasedeighteen times. And Cincinnati increased, in the same period given to St. Louis, but twelve times.

“Hamilton, a beautiful Canadian city at the head of Lake Ontario, and founded much more recently than Toronto, has also had almost unexampled prosperity. In 1836 its population was but 2,846, in 1854 it was upwards of 20,000.

“London, still farther west in Upper Canada, and a yet more recently-founded city than Hamilton, being surveyed as a wilderness little more than twenty-five years ago, has now upwards of ten thousand inhabitants.

“The City of Ottawa, recently called after the magnificent river of that name, and upon which it is situated, has now above 10,000 inhabitants, although in 1830 it had but 140 houses, including mere sheds and shanties; and the property upon which it is built was purchased, not many years before, foreighty pounds.

“The Town of Bradford, situated between Hamilton and London, and whose site was an absolute wilderness twenty-five years ago, has now a population of 6,000, and has increased, in ten years, upwards ofthree hundred per cent.; and this without any other stimulant or cause save the business arising from the settlement of a fine country adjacent to it.

“The Towns of Belleville, Cobourg, Woodstock, Goderich, St. Catherine’s, Paris, Stratford, Port Hope, and Dundas, in Upper Canada, show similar prosperity, some of them having increased in a ratio even greater than that of Toronto, and all of them but so manyevidences of the improvement of the country, and the growth of business and population around them.

“That some of the smaller towns in the United States have enjoyed equal prosperity I can readily believe, from the circumstance of a large population suddenly filling up the country contiguous to them. Buffalo and Chicago, too, as cities, are magnificent and unparalleled examples of the business, the energy, and the progress, of the United States. But that Toronto should have quietly and unostentatiously increased in population in a greater ratio than New York, St. Louis, and Cincinnati, and that the other cities and towns of Upper Canada should have kept pace with the Capital, is a fact creditable alike to the steady industry and the noiseless enterprise of the Canadian people.

“Although Lower Canada, from the circumstance already alluded to of the tide of emigration flowing westward, has not advanced so rapidly as her sister Province, yet some of her counties and cities have recently made great progress. In the seven years preceding 1851, the fine County of Megantic, on the south side of the St. Lawrence, and through which the Quebec and Richmond Railroad passes, increased a hundred and sixteen per cent.; the County of Ottawa, eighty-five; the County of Drummond, seventy-eight; and the County of Sherbrooke, fifty. The City of Montreal, probably the most substantially-built city in America, and certainly one of the most beautiful, has trebled her population in thirty-four years. The ancient City of Quebec has more than doubled her population in the same time, and Sorel, at the mouth of the Richelieu, has increased upwards of four times; showing that Lower Canada, with all the disadvantages of a feudaltenure, and of being generally looked upon as less desirable for settlement than the West, has quietly but justly put in her claim to a portion of the honour awarded to America for her progress.”

Save and except coal, the want of which is to a considerable extent compensated by the vast stores of forest, of bog and of mineral oils in the Provinces, Canada is very rich in many minerals of the first importance. Iron is deposited in exceeding abundance in the Laurentian System—lead, plumbago, phosphate of lime, sulphate of barytes, and marbles are found in the same wide-spread formation of gneiss and limestone.

The Huron System of slate, &c., contains copper, silver, and nickel, jaspers and agates. The Quebec group in the East promises to be equally valuable. The bases of metallic and ochreous pigments, every description of marble and slate, minerals, and substances useful in chemistry, in arts, in agriculture, in architecture, are scattered throughout the land, from Lake Superior to Gaspé. Notwithstanding the long winter, Upper Canada yielded, according to late averages, 21 bushels of winter wheat and 18½ bushels of spring wheat to the acre; Lower Canada, where agriculture has not received the same development, yields a smaller proportion to the acre, but the wheat is of excellent quality. In Upper Canada the yield of oats is about 30 bushels to the acre; in Lower Canada it is 23 bushels. Barley is a little less in Upper, and about the same as oats in Lower Canada, and Indian corn is about as much as oats. The potato yields from 125 to 176 bushels per acre. All these crops, as well as those of roots of every description, are increasing rapidly, and itis calculated that the value of the farms of Upper Canada is no less than 60,000,000l.sterling, whilst the live stock in the same Province was estimated to be worth nearly 9,000,000l.In 1860 the value of the timber exported was, 1,750,000l., and the forest yielded altogether just 2,000,000l.sterling. As there is reason to know that in 1851 the value of agricultural exports was 6,000,000l., it may be assumed with some degree of certainty as a near approximation that Canada sends abroad about ten millions’ worth of forest and farm produce. It is estimated that the imports of the same year were worth eighteen millions sterling.

There are many other illustrations of the rapidity of Canadian increase, but the foregoing must suffice for the purposes of this volume. It is only surprising that the Provinces should have advanced at all, considering the misrepresentations which have been circulated concerning their climate, condition, and prospects, and the attractions held forth to emigrants by the United States.

The popular idea as to the barrenness and cold of Canada would be most effectually dispelled by a glance at garden products and cereals in autumn only, or by the experience of a winter in New York and a winter in London or Hamilton. The author of a pamphlet, published by authority of the Bureau of Agriculture, observes:—

“The most erroneous opinions have prevailed abroad respecting the climate of Canada. The so-called rigour of Canadian winters is often advanced as a serious objection to the country by many who have not the courage to encounter them, who prefer sleet and fog to brilliant skies and bracing cold, and who have yet tolearn the value and extent of the blessings conferred upon Canada by her world-renowned ‘snows.’“It will scarcely be believed by many who shudder at the idea of the thermometer falling to zero, that the gradual annual diminution in the fall of snow, in certain localities, is a subject of lamentation to the farmers in Western Canada. Their desire is for the old-fashioned winters, with sleighing for four months, and spring bursting upon them with marvellous beauty at the beginning of April. A bountiful fall of snow, with hard frost, is equivalent to the construction of the best macadamised roads all over the country. The absence of a sufficient quantity of snow in winter for sleighing, is a calamity as much to be feared and deplored as the want of rain in spring. Happily neither of these deprivations is of frequent occurrence.“The climate of Canada is in some measure exceptional, especially that of the Peninsular portion. The influence of the great Lakes is very strikingly felt in the elevation of winter temperatures and in the reduction of summer heats. East and West of Canada, beyond the influence of the Lakes, as in the middle of the states of New York and Iowa, the greatest extremes prevail,—intense cold in winter, intense heat in summer, and to these features may be added their usual attendant, drought.“Perhaps the popular standard of the adaptation of climate to the purposes of agriculture is more suitable for the present occasion than a reference to monthly and annual means of temperature. Much information is conveyed in the simple narration of facts bearing upon fruit culture. From the head of Lake Ontario, round by the Niagara frontier, and all along the Canadianshores of Lake Erie, the grape and peach grow with luxuriance, and ripen to perfection in the open air, without the slightest artificial aid. The island of Montreal is distinguished everywhere for the fine quality of its apples, and the island of Orleans, below Quebec, is equally celebrated for its plums. Over the whole of Canada the melon and tomato acquire large dimensions, and ripen fully in the open air, the seeds being planted in the soil towards the latter end of April, and the fruit gathered in September. Pumpkins and squashes attain gigantic dimensions; they have exceeded 300 pounds in weight in the neighbourhood of Toronto. Indian corn, hops, and tobacco, are common crops and yield fair returns. Hemp and flax are indigenous plants, and can be cultivated to any extent in many parts of the Province. With a proper expenditure of capital, England could be made quite independent of Russia, or any other country, for her supply of these valuable products.“The most striking illustration of the influence of the great Lakes in ameliorating the climate of Canada, especially of the western peninsula, is to be found in the natural limits to which certain trees are restricted by climate. That valuable wood, the black walnut, for which Canada is so celebrated, ceases to grow north of latitude 41° on the Atlantic coast, but under the influence of the comparatively mild Lake climate of Peninsular Canada it is found in the greatest profusion, and of the largest dimensions, as far north as latitude 43°.”

“It will scarcely be believed by many who shudder at the idea of the thermometer falling to zero, that the gradual annual diminution in the fall of snow, in certain localities, is a subject of lamentation to the farmers in Western Canada. Their desire is for the old-fashioned winters, with sleighing for four months, and spring bursting upon them with marvellous beauty at the beginning of April. A bountiful fall of snow, with hard frost, is equivalent to the construction of the best macadamised roads all over the country. The absence of a sufficient quantity of snow in winter for sleighing, is a calamity as much to be feared and deplored as the want of rain in spring. Happily neither of these deprivations is of frequent occurrence.

“The climate of Canada is in some measure exceptional, especially that of the Peninsular portion. The influence of the great Lakes is very strikingly felt in the elevation of winter temperatures and in the reduction of summer heats. East and West of Canada, beyond the influence of the Lakes, as in the middle of the states of New York and Iowa, the greatest extremes prevail,—intense cold in winter, intense heat in summer, and to these features may be added their usual attendant, drought.

“Perhaps the popular standard of the adaptation of climate to the purposes of agriculture is more suitable for the present occasion than a reference to monthly and annual means of temperature. Much information is conveyed in the simple narration of facts bearing upon fruit culture. From the head of Lake Ontario, round by the Niagara frontier, and all along the Canadianshores of Lake Erie, the grape and peach grow with luxuriance, and ripen to perfection in the open air, without the slightest artificial aid. The island of Montreal is distinguished everywhere for the fine quality of its apples, and the island of Orleans, below Quebec, is equally celebrated for its plums. Over the whole of Canada the melon and tomato acquire large dimensions, and ripen fully in the open air, the seeds being planted in the soil towards the latter end of April, and the fruit gathered in September. Pumpkins and squashes attain gigantic dimensions; they have exceeded 300 pounds in weight in the neighbourhood of Toronto. Indian corn, hops, and tobacco, are common crops and yield fair returns. Hemp and flax are indigenous plants, and can be cultivated to any extent in many parts of the Province. With a proper expenditure of capital, England could be made quite independent of Russia, or any other country, for her supply of these valuable products.

“The most striking illustration of the influence of the great Lakes in ameliorating the climate of Canada, especially of the western peninsula, is to be found in the natural limits to which certain trees are restricted by climate. That valuable wood, the black walnut, for which Canada is so celebrated, ceases to grow north of latitude 41° on the Atlantic coast, but under the influence of the comparatively mild Lake climate of Peninsular Canada it is found in the greatest profusion, and of the largest dimensions, as far north as latitude 43°.”

This subject is well illustrated by the subjoined table, showing the mean temperature and rainfall at Toronto from 1840 to 1859:—

Tableof Mean Monthly and Animal Temperature at Toronto, Canada West, from 1840 to 1859, taken from the Records of the Provincial Magnetic Observatory, by Professor Kingston.

The Rev. Mr. Hope, who has been indefatigable in his efforts to promote the interest of his adopted country, quotes the following passage from the TorontoGlobeof September 21st, 1860, to show that people at home are much mistaken in considering Canada a region of frost and snow.

“The display of fruit, in quantity and quality, surpassed what has been shown at any previous Exhibition. The results in this department were very satisfactory, proving that the climate of Canada admirably adapts it for the raising of many of the most valuable kinds of fruit. One of the principal exhibitors was Mr. Beadle of St. Catharine’s nurseries. On one side of the central stand in the Crystal Palace, he had 115 plates of apples, pears, peaches, &c., and 30 jars of cherries, currants, raspberries, blackberries, &c. Mr. Beadle exhibited ten varieties of peaches grown in the open air. Several of these varieties were of very large dimensions, and were much admired for the delicate richness of their tints. He exhibited also numerous varieties of apples; 41 in one collection of three of each sort, and 20 in another collection of six of each sort. He had also a large show of pears, comprising a large number of varieties. Among the varieties of open-air grapes shown by Mr. Beadle, were the Blood-blacks, the Delaware, the Diana, the Northern Muscadine, the Perkins, Sage’s Mammoth, and the Wild Fox.”

In 1828, when the whole population of Upper Canada amounted to 185,500 inhabitants, the number of acres under agricultural improvement was 570,000, or about 3-1/14 for each individual; in 1851 the average for each inhabitant was very nearly four acres. Thecomparative progress of Upper and Lower Canada, in bringing the forest-clad wilderness into cultivation, may be inferred from the following table:—

Hence, in a period of twenty years, Lower Canada increased her cultivated acres by ·75, and Upper Canada by 3·5. Before proceeding to describe in detail the progress of agriculture in Upper Canada, it will be advisable to glance at the efforts made by societies and the Government of the Province to elevate the condition of husbandry in all its departments, and to induce the people at large to join hand in hand in the march of improvement.

The Board of Agriculture for Lower Canada took decisive steps during the year 1862 to secure the proper disbursements of the provincial grant, and to devote liberal awards of public money to the promotion of agricultural industry in all its important branches. The Lower Canadian Provincial Shows had previously partaken more of the character of an agricultural festival than of a meeting for the purpose of securing the progress of the Science and Art of Agriculture by fair and open competition and peaceful rivalry. In this respect they differed materially from the same annual expositions in Upper Canada, where astonishing advances in the proper direction had been made. The Board determined to establish an Agricultural Museum, and to give assistance tocounty societies towards the importation of improved breeds of horses, cattle and sheep. The Board is willing to advance to any society funds for the purchase of stock, retaining one-third of the annual government allowance for three successive years to discharge the debt thus incurred. If this new spirit of enterprise should continue, the progress of agriculture in Lower Canada will be much accelerated. Although it must be acknowledged that in the face of many difficulties, national prejudices, and peculiarities of character, a very marked improvement has taken place in many departments of husbandry, and in many parts of the Lower Province, much, very much, remains to be done. The influence exercised by the Agricultural School at St. Anne is already favourably felt, and this establishment appears likely to work a beneficial change in Lower Canadian husbandry. The details of its operations show its great utility.

The indirect assistance given by the Imperial Government to Agriculture in Upper Canada dates from a much earlier period than the encouragement given to Agricultural Societies by the Provincial Government; for we find among the donations of George III. to the U. E. Loyalists the old English plough. It consisted of a small piece of iron fixed to the coulter, having the shape of the letter L, the shank of which went through the wooden beam, the foot forming the point, which was sharpened for use. One handle, and a plank split from a curved piece of timber, which did the duty of a mold-board, completed the rude implement. At that time the traces and leading lines were made of the bark of the elm or bass-wood, which was manufactured by the early settlers into a strong rope. About theyear 1808 the “hog-plough” was imported from the United States; and in 1815 a plough with a cast-iron share and mold-board, all in one piece, was one of the first implements, requiring more than an ordinary degree of mechanical skill, which was manufactured in the province. The seeds of improvement were then sown, and while in the address of the President at the Frontenac Cattle Show in 1833, we observe attention called to the necessity for further improvement in the ploughs common throughout the country, we witness, in 1855, splendid fruit at the Paris Exhibition. In a notice of the trial of ploughs at Trappes, theJournal d’Agriculture Pratiquemakes the following reference to a Canadian plough: “The ploughing tests were brought to a close by a trial of two ploughs equally remarkable—to wit, the plough of Ransome and Sims, of Suffolk, England, and that of Bingham, of Norwich, Upper Canada. The first is of wood and iron, like all the English ploughs, and the results which it produced seemed most satisfactory, but it appeared to require a little more draught than the Howard plough. Bingham’s plough very much resembles the English plough; it is very fine and light in its build; the handles are longer than ordinary, which makes the plough much more easy to manage. The opinion of the French labourers and workmen who were there, appeared, on the whole, very favourable to this plough.”

The following extracts from Mr. Hogan’s book are as truthful as they are eloquent:—

“Great as has been the prosperity of America, and of the settlements which mark the magnificent country just described, yet nature has not been wooed in them without trials, nor have her treasures been won withouta struggle worthy of their worth. Those who have been in the habit of passingearly clearingsin Upper Canada must have been struck with the cheerless and lonely, even desolate appearance of the first settler’s little log hut. In the midst of a dense forest, and with a ‘patch of clearing’ scarcely large enough to let the sun shine in upon him, he looks not unlike a person struggling for existence on a single plank in the middle of an ocean. For weeks, often for months, he sees not the face of a stranger. The same still, and wild, and boundless forest every morning rises up to his view; and his only hope against its shutting him in for life rests in the axe upon his shoulder. A few blades of corn, peeping upbetween stumpswhose very roots interlace, they are so close together, are his sole safeguards against want; whilst the few potato plants, in little far-between ‘hills,’ and which struggle for existence against the briar bush and luxuriant underwood, are to form the seeds of his future plenty. Tall pine trees, girdled and blackened by the fires, stand out as grim monuments of the prevailing loneliness, whilst the forest itself, like an immense wall round a fortress, seems to say to the settler,—‘how can poverty ever expect to escape from such a prison house.’“That little clearing—for I describe a reality—which to others might afford such slender guarantee for bare subsistence, was nevertheless a source of bright and cheering dreams to that lonely settler. He looked at it, and instead of thinking of its littleness, it was the foundation of great hopes of a large farm and rich cornfields to him. And this very dream, or poetry, or what you will, cheered him at his lonely toil, and made him contented with his rude fire-side. Theblades of corn, which you might regard as conveying but a tantalising idea of human comforts, were associated by him with large stacks and full granaries; and the very thought nerved his arm, and made him happy.“Seven years afterwards I passed that same settler’s cottage—it was in the valley of the Grand River in Upper Canada, not far from the present village of Caledonia. The little log hut was used as a back kitchen to a neat two story frame house, painted white. A large barn stood near by, with stock of every description in its yard. The stumps, round which the blades of corn, when I last saw the place, had so much difficulty in springing up, had nearly all disappeared. Luxuriant Indian corn had sole possession of the place where the potatoes had so hard a struggle against the briar bushes and the underwood. The forest—dense, impenetrable though it seemed—had been pushed far back by the energetic arm of man. A garden, bright with flowers, and enclosed in a neat picket fence, fronted the house; a young orchard spread out in rear. I met a farmer as I was quitting the scene, returning from church with his wife and family. It was on a Sunday, and there was nothing in their appearance, save perhaps a healthy brown colour in their faces, to distinguish them from persons of wealth in cities. The waggon they were in, their horses, harness, dresses, everything about them, in short, indicated comfort and easy circumstances. I enquired of the man—who was the owner of the property I have just been describing? ‘It is mine, sir,’ he replied; ‘I settled on it nine years ago, and have, thank God, had tolerable success.’“There is, perhaps, no class in the world who livebetter—I mean who have a greater abundance of the comforts of life—than men having cleared farms, and who know how to make a proper use of them, in Upper Canada. The imports of the country show that they dress not only well, but in many things expensively. You go into a church or meeting-house in any part of the province which has been settled for fifteen or twenty years, and you are struck at once with the fabrics, as well as the style of the dresses worn by both sexes, but especially by the young. The same shawls, and bonnets, and gowns which you see in cities, are worn by the women, whilst the coats of the men are undistinguishable from those worn by professional men and merchants in towns. A circumstance which I witnessed some years ago, in travelling from Simcoe to Brantford—two towns in the interior of the province—will serve to convey an idea of the taste as well as the means of enjoyment of these people. At an ordinary Methodist meeting-house, in the centre of a rural settlement, and ten miles from a village or town, there weretwenty-three pleasure carriages, double and single, standing in waiting. The occasion was a quarterly meeting, and these were the conveyances of the farmers who came to attend it. Yet twenty years before, and this was a wilderness; twenty years before, and many of these people were working as labourers, and were not possessed of a pair of oxen; twenty years before, and these things exceeded even their brightest dreams of prosperity.“The settler who nobly pushes back the giant wilderness, and hews out for himself a home upon the conquered territory, has necessarily but a bony hand and a rough visage to present to advancing civilisation.His children, too, are timid, and wild, and uncouth. But a stranger comes in; buys the little improvement on the next lot to him; has children who are educated, and a wife with refined tastes,—for such people mark, in greater or less numbers, every settlement in Upper Canada. The necessities of the new comer soon bring about an acquaintance with the old pioneer. Their families meet—timid and awkward enough at first, perhaps; but children know not the conventionalities of society, and, happily, are governed by their innocence in their friendships. So they play together, go to school in company; and thus, imperceptibly to themselves, are the tastes and manners of the educated imparted to the rude, and the energy and fortitude of the latter are infused into their more effeminate companions. Manly but ill-tutored success is thus taught how to enjoy its gains, whilst respectable poverty is instructed how to better its condition. That pride occasionally puts itself to inconvenience to prevent these pleasant results, my experience of Canada forces me to admit; and that the jealousy and vanity of mere success sometimes views with unkindness the manner and habit of reduced respectability—never perhaps more exacting than when it is poorest—I must also acknowledge. But that the great law of progress, and the influence of free institutions, break down these exceptional feelings and prejudices, is patent to every close observer of Canadian society. Where the educated and refined undergo the changes incident to laborious occupations—for the constant use of the axe and the plough alters men’s feelings as well as their appearances,—and where rude industry is also changed by the success which gives it the benefit of education,it is impossible for the two classes not to meet. As the one goes down—at least in its occupations,—it meets the other coming up by reason of its successes, and both eventually occupy the same pedestal. I have seen this social problem worked out over and over again in Upper Canada, and have never known the result different. Pride, in America, must ‘stoop to conquer;’ rude industry rises always.“The manner of living of the Upper Canadian farmer may be summed up in few words. He has plenty, and he enjoys it. The native Canadians almost universally, and a large proportion of the old country people, sit at the same table with their servants or labourers. They eat meat twice, and many of them thrice a day: it being apparently more a matter of taste than of economy as to the number of times. Pork is what they chiefly consume. There being a great abundance of fruit, scarcely a cleared farm is without an orchard; and it is to be found preserved in various ways on every farmer’s table. Milk is in great abundance, even in the early settler’s houses, for where there is little pasture there are sure to be large woods, and ‘brouse,’ or the tops of the branches of trees, supply the place of hay. The sweetest bread I have eaten in America I have eaten in the farmers’ houses of Upper Canada. They usually grind the ‘shorts’ with the flour for home consumption, and as their wheat is among the finest in the world, the bread is at once wholesome and exceedingly delicious. Were I asked what is the characteristic of Canadian farmers, I would unhesitatingly answer ‘Plenty!’”

“That little clearing—for I describe a reality—which to others might afford such slender guarantee for bare subsistence, was nevertheless a source of bright and cheering dreams to that lonely settler. He looked at it, and instead of thinking of its littleness, it was the foundation of great hopes of a large farm and rich cornfields to him. And this very dream, or poetry, or what you will, cheered him at his lonely toil, and made him contented with his rude fire-side. Theblades of corn, which you might regard as conveying but a tantalising idea of human comforts, were associated by him with large stacks and full granaries; and the very thought nerved his arm, and made him happy.

“Seven years afterwards I passed that same settler’s cottage—it was in the valley of the Grand River in Upper Canada, not far from the present village of Caledonia. The little log hut was used as a back kitchen to a neat two story frame house, painted white. A large barn stood near by, with stock of every description in its yard. The stumps, round which the blades of corn, when I last saw the place, had so much difficulty in springing up, had nearly all disappeared. Luxuriant Indian corn had sole possession of the place where the potatoes had so hard a struggle against the briar bushes and the underwood. The forest—dense, impenetrable though it seemed—had been pushed far back by the energetic arm of man. A garden, bright with flowers, and enclosed in a neat picket fence, fronted the house; a young orchard spread out in rear. I met a farmer as I was quitting the scene, returning from church with his wife and family. It was on a Sunday, and there was nothing in their appearance, save perhaps a healthy brown colour in their faces, to distinguish them from persons of wealth in cities. The waggon they were in, their horses, harness, dresses, everything about them, in short, indicated comfort and easy circumstances. I enquired of the man—who was the owner of the property I have just been describing? ‘It is mine, sir,’ he replied; ‘I settled on it nine years ago, and have, thank God, had tolerable success.’

“There is, perhaps, no class in the world who livebetter—I mean who have a greater abundance of the comforts of life—than men having cleared farms, and who know how to make a proper use of them, in Upper Canada. The imports of the country show that they dress not only well, but in many things expensively. You go into a church or meeting-house in any part of the province which has been settled for fifteen or twenty years, and you are struck at once with the fabrics, as well as the style of the dresses worn by both sexes, but especially by the young. The same shawls, and bonnets, and gowns which you see in cities, are worn by the women, whilst the coats of the men are undistinguishable from those worn by professional men and merchants in towns. A circumstance which I witnessed some years ago, in travelling from Simcoe to Brantford—two towns in the interior of the province—will serve to convey an idea of the taste as well as the means of enjoyment of these people. At an ordinary Methodist meeting-house, in the centre of a rural settlement, and ten miles from a village or town, there weretwenty-three pleasure carriages, double and single, standing in waiting. The occasion was a quarterly meeting, and these were the conveyances of the farmers who came to attend it. Yet twenty years before, and this was a wilderness; twenty years before, and many of these people were working as labourers, and were not possessed of a pair of oxen; twenty years before, and these things exceeded even their brightest dreams of prosperity.

“The settler who nobly pushes back the giant wilderness, and hews out for himself a home upon the conquered territory, has necessarily but a bony hand and a rough visage to present to advancing civilisation.His children, too, are timid, and wild, and uncouth. But a stranger comes in; buys the little improvement on the next lot to him; has children who are educated, and a wife with refined tastes,—for such people mark, in greater or less numbers, every settlement in Upper Canada. The necessities of the new comer soon bring about an acquaintance with the old pioneer. Their families meet—timid and awkward enough at first, perhaps; but children know not the conventionalities of society, and, happily, are governed by their innocence in their friendships. So they play together, go to school in company; and thus, imperceptibly to themselves, are the tastes and manners of the educated imparted to the rude, and the energy and fortitude of the latter are infused into their more effeminate companions. Manly but ill-tutored success is thus taught how to enjoy its gains, whilst respectable poverty is instructed how to better its condition. That pride occasionally puts itself to inconvenience to prevent these pleasant results, my experience of Canada forces me to admit; and that the jealousy and vanity of mere success sometimes views with unkindness the manner and habit of reduced respectability—never perhaps more exacting than when it is poorest—I must also acknowledge. But that the great law of progress, and the influence of free institutions, break down these exceptional feelings and prejudices, is patent to every close observer of Canadian society. Where the educated and refined undergo the changes incident to laborious occupations—for the constant use of the axe and the plough alters men’s feelings as well as their appearances,—and where rude industry is also changed by the success which gives it the benefit of education,it is impossible for the two classes not to meet. As the one goes down—at least in its occupations,—it meets the other coming up by reason of its successes, and both eventually occupy the same pedestal. I have seen this social problem worked out over and over again in Upper Canada, and have never known the result different. Pride, in America, must ‘stoop to conquer;’ rude industry rises always.

“The manner of living of the Upper Canadian farmer may be summed up in few words. He has plenty, and he enjoys it. The native Canadians almost universally, and a large proportion of the old country people, sit at the same table with their servants or labourers. They eat meat twice, and many of them thrice a day: it being apparently more a matter of taste than of economy as to the number of times. Pork is what they chiefly consume. There being a great abundance of fruit, scarcely a cleared farm is without an orchard; and it is to be found preserved in various ways on every farmer’s table. Milk is in great abundance, even in the early settler’s houses, for where there is little pasture there are sure to be large woods, and ‘brouse,’ or the tops of the branches of trees, supply the place of hay. The sweetest bread I have eaten in America I have eaten in the farmers’ houses of Upper Canada. They usually grind the ‘shorts’ with the flour for home consumption, and as their wheat is among the finest in the world, the bread is at once wholesome and exceedingly delicious. Were I asked what is the characteristic of Canadian farmers, I would unhesitatingly answer ‘Plenty!’”

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