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Nor need we travel far to find them still flourishing in all their original imperfections and want of adaptation to the end in view.

The narrowness of the French Canadian farms has led to those seemingly interminable lines of neat whitewashed cottages which border the main roads, or fringe the river St. Lawrence, wearing the aspect of a continuous village. A stranger, steaming down the noble river, sees with admiration and delight an uninterrupted thread of white cottages, fronting the water, with here and there the broad, glittering tinned roof of the parish church, and in the background the primeval forest; he gazes upon a beautiful picture, suggesting pleasing associations, and thoughts of rural contentment and prosperity, susceptible of increase as elsewhere in the world. Such is the outward show, but let him take a nearer view and examine in detail. He will find little or no change save in increase of numbers, between what he now surveys and what he might have seen one generation or even two generations ago. Improvement is progressing, but with snail-like progress, where ancient habits and customs are preserved, and where families cling to the soil on which they were born, and divide and subdivide their farms until they become narrow strips not much wider than a modern highway, with the house fronting the river, and "the land all longitude."

The following table will show the progress made in Lower Canada between 1827 and 1852, a period of twentyfive years, and it will strikingly illustrate the fact that, ten years since, real improvement was scarcely visible in aggregate results, while in some instances a retrograde movement seems plainly discernible.—

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* 183,972 calves or heifers not included under the head cows.'

The diminution of oxen and sheep is remarkable; the small increase in the production of wheat is probably owing to the "fly." In two articles only do we recognize any advance commensurate with the increase of population in twenty-five years, viz., in oats and flax. The area under crop in 1827 was 1,002,198 acres, in 1852, 2,072,341 acres, or more than double, yet while the area under crop had doubled, the yield appears to have uniformly diminished, a fact strongly shown in the subjoined comparative table of average produce per acre in Upper and Lower Canada in 1852, according to the census of 1851-2:

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In 1851-2, each person in Lower Canada cultivated 4 acres, 0 roods, 8 poles; in Upper Canada, 3 acres, 3 roods, 20 poles; and while each family in either section of the province had on an average 2 cows, in Upper Canada 53 pounds of butter per cow was produced, and in Lower Canada the quantity was only 33 pounds. With respect to cheese, the proportion was as 7 is to 13, or about 4 to 1 in favor of Upper Canada.

While the stagnation, or rather retrograde movement, in the farming industry of the habitans in Lower Canada was taking place during the twenty-five years under review, the

most striking proofs were simultaneously afforded at the different agricultural exhibitions at Quebec and Montreal, of the fitness of the soil and climate of the country for agriculture in its broadest acceptation. Scattered throughout Lower Canada there are numbers of excellent farmers whose practice can not be surpassed. In the results they have produced, and the example they have shown, they have proved beyond doubt what can be accomplished throughout the length and breadth of settled Lower Canada, from the Bay of Chaleurs to Montreal, and redeemed it from those unfavorable impressions which a survey of the cultivated productions of its soil under the hands of the habitans of the old school is adapted to create.

AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES IN LOWER CANADA.

In April, 1862, there were no less than seventy-two of these useful associations in the Lower Division of the province. The progress which might fairly have been anticipated from such a large number of distinct bodies, organized for the purpose of mutual assistance and encouragement, has not been satisfactory. This state of things has arisen in many instances from a most unusual and novel mode of distributing the annual government grant. We can not do better than transcribe the description of this singular disposal of public money, given in a recent number of the Lower Canada Agricultural Review, written by the editor on the occasion of a visit to different parts of Lower Canada to collect the best specimens of agricultural productions for transmission to the International Exhibition at London. "In many counties the societies have only distributed the funds among the local farmers, and this has been the case year after year, and we have often raised our voice against this sort of family compact. We need not here repeat our arguments, for wherever we have suggested the employment of the funds for any other purpose, we have generally met

with the entire approbation of the enlightened farmer; and we have often met conscientious and intelligent men whose only aim is the advancement of agriculture. But these men are often bound hand and foot in their actions, being opposed by a majority who have no reason, and are only guided by their own narrow notions and the following of old customs; happily this majority is day by day losing their strength and influence, and we predict a triumph, at no distant day, of progressive and improved agriculture."

The Board of Agriculture for Lower Canada have taken decisive steps during the present 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 have partaken more of the character of an agricultural festival, hitherto, 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 have differed materially from the same annual expositions in Upper Canada, where astonishing advances in the proper direction have been made. The Board has now taken steps to establish an Agricultural Museum, and to give assistance to county 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 continues, the progress of agriculture in Lower Canada will be much more rapid than it has been of late years, 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, but much, very much remains to be done.

The influence exercised by the Agricultural School at St. Anne is already favorably felt, and as this establishment appears likely to work a beneficial change in Lower Canadian husbandry, a few details respecting it may be both appropriate and acceptable.

THE AGRICULTURAL SCHOOL AT ST. ANNE.

At this establishment there are two departments, one devoted to theoretical training, the other to the cultivation, upon the most approved principles, of a tract of land, to serve as a model farm, and a nursery for stock. The beneficial effect of the model farm is already felt in the neighborhood, farmers having generally adopted the cultivation of root crops, and sought with avidity for the improved breeds of animals which have been reared by the College. During the year 1860 there were eight pupils attending the school. In 1861, there were only four; but as this department is yet in its infancy, there is good ground for the expectation that it will receive increased encouragement, as the influence of the College becomes more widely felt.

The steps taken by the provincial government for the encouragement of agriculture in the Province at large, will be described in the narrative of the progress made in Canadian husbandry in Upper Canada, to which we now turn with more encouraging results before us.

CHAPTER III.

UPPER CANADA.

AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES IN UPPER CANADA.

WE have already stated that eighty years ago that part of the province of Canada which is now most densely peopled, was a forest wild. Upper Canada dates its existence as a distinct Province previously to the Union from the

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