safety of the harvest of 1848 in the United States on account of the remarkable prevalence of the insect in the previous year, the crop of 1848 proved to be one of the best ever grown, so remarkable and mysterious are the laws which govern the increase and decrease of insects destructive to vegetation.

Other wheat insect depredators are comparatively harmless with the exception of the wire-worm. Upwards of sixty species of the larvae of beetles belonging to the genus Elater are known to entomologists. They feed upon the roots and underground stems of wheat, Indian corn, and the grasses generally. Sometimes the wire-worm is found in such destructive abundance that it cuts off the young crops as fast as they appear two or three inches above the surface.

Rust is justly considered one of the greatest enemies to the wheat crops of this continent. Its attacks are often so unexpected and universal that it has been likened to a whirlwind of blight, which sweeps over thousands and tens of thousands of square miles in the short space of a single night. In 1837, 1840 to 1846, 1849, 1850 and 1855, this fungus was very destructive in many states of the Union and in different parts of Canada. Draining, and early sowing with properly prepared seed, are the best preventives of rust. As, in most other cases, good husbandry is the surest mode of withstanding the attacks of this minute vegetable organism, whose seeds or sporules are always floating in the air during the summer season and instantly vegetate when those climatic conditions occur favorable to "rust." The only plan is to have the wheat plant strong enough to bear its attack when it comes, and the soil in such a state that it will not foster its growth by an unhealthy condition of the plant.

Averages per Acre.-According to returns to circulars sent by the Bureau of Agriculture in 1860 to the Presidents of the different Agricultural Societies in the Province,.

the following data with reference to the yield of wheat has been collected:

The total average for the Province is 21 bushels of winter wheat to the acre, and 183 bushels of spring wheat. The number of acres of winter wheat now cultivated in Upper Canada is only about one-third of the whole cropped with wheat. Five years ago there was not one acre of spring wheat for every ten of winter wheat. This change has been brought about by the ravages of the wheat midge. No doubt when draining becomes more generally adopted, farmers will return to the cultivation of winter wheat.

In Lower Canada the county of Laval returned 18 bushels to the acre of winter wheat, Ottawa 15, Pontiac 20 and 15 bushels. Of spring wheat in Terrebonne the average is stated to be 20, Megantic 18, Grantham 17, Leeds 16. The total average of spring wheat for Lower Canada being 13 bushels to the acre. The midge was destructive in several counties in Lower Canada in 1859, destroying from 25 to 50 per cent. of the crop.

The wheat crop of 1858 was very deficient; it averaged for winter wheat not more than 12 bushels to the acre, or about 33 per cent. less than the general yield of 18 bushels to the acre. The yield of spring wheat in 1858 was 13 or 15 per cent. below the general annual average. The wheat midge was found to prevail in every county on the lake shores of Upper Canada. Rust was this year about as

destructive as the midge, although the Fife wheat was stated not to be injured by rust. Generally the wheat crop of 1858 was about 25 per cent. below the average. The pea crop was beyond the average, the potato crop 25 per cent. below.

In 1857 the wheat crop was 31 per cent. below the general annual average. These deficient crops will explain without further comment the small exportations of wheat from Canada during 1858 and 1859; they will also show that the western peninsula, although nearly surrounded by vast bodies of fresh water which exercise a marked and beneficial influence upon its climate, is scarcely less liable to the terrible visitations of the midge, the Hessian fly and rust, than those parts of the United States, where wheat has been partially abandoned as a farm crop in consequence of these destroyers. In good husbandry only can we hope for a remedy against the attacks of insects and of rust, but there is no doubt that by draining, the selection of early varieties of wheat, and sowing very early or late, the wheat destroyers can be overcome. The lessons taught in 1858 and 1859, have been productive of great good to the country; they have opened the eyes of a great number of farmers to the necessity of due attention to the first and leading principles of good husbandry, namely, draining and rotation of crops.

OATS.

The total average of oats in Upper Canada was 341 bushels per acre in 1859; in 1858 the average was only 32 bushels. In Lower Canada the returns show an average of 22 bushels per acre.

BARLEY.

The average return of this grain in Upper Canada is 27 bushels to the acre; in Lower Canada it is 23 bushels.

The growth of barley is very much on the increase in Lower Canada. Winter barley is coming into extensive use; as much as 60 bushels to the acre have been produced in the county of Maitland.

RYE.

The average return in Upper Canada is 18 bushels to the acre; in Lower Canada 13 bushels.

INDIAN CORN.

Thirty bushels to the acre is the average for Upper Canada in 1859. In Lower Canada, Indian corn, peas, and buckwheat seem to be very little cultivated, and with indifferent

success.

PEAS.

The average for Upper Canada is 23 bushels per acre; the curculio, which for many years had been very destruc tive in the Province previous to 1858, appears to have disappeared in 1859, affording another instance of the vicissitudes of insect life.

POTATOES.

In Upper Canada the average was 125 bushels to the acre in 1858; in 1859 it rose to 176 bushels. In Lower Canada the average was 175 bushels in 1859, about 50 per cent. greater than in 1858.

HAY.

Hay is a better crop in Lower than in Upper Canada, the averages for the eastern half of the Province being about 2 tons to the acre, whereas in the western division it is not more than 1 tons.

TURNIPS.

The cultivation of this valuable vegetable is increasing in Canada, and some magnificent crops are produced in both sections of the Province.

INVASION OF THE WILDERNESS.

A sketch of the progress of agriculture in Canada would be incomplete if the manner in which the vast wilderness in the rear of the thickly settled parts of the country is yearly invaded by thousands of hardy and industrious settlers. In Upper Canada the country between Lake Huron and the upper waters of the Ottawa River has been penetrated by colonization roads, on the line of which free grants of land are made to actual settlers. In Lower Canada, the valley of Lake St. John and the St. Maurice, the peninsula of Gaspé, and the shores of the estuary of the St. Lawrence below Quebec, are intersected by roads cut by government through the wilderness, and free grants made to actual settlers, as in Upper Canada. In illustration of what has been done on these colonization roads, two examples are selected, one from each division of the Province.

On the Ottawa and the Opeongo colonization road in Upper Canada, 1,090 acres of free grants were allotted in 1859; in 1860 the area amounted to 1,468 acres. The number of acres cleared up to the 31st of December, 1859, was 2,016; in 1860 it reached 2,623, showing that on one road alone 607 acres of forest fell before the settler's ax in one year. Upon 1,468 acres actually cropped in 1860, there were raised: