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" Of the Manner of Cultivation, and of lUi defects,'' 1 can say but little. The 

 old French settlers, when the Americans first came among them, wrought things 

 as their fathers did two hundred years before. To yoke oxen, they tied a pole 

 across the back of their horns. They had no waggDns, and their one-horse carts 

 were without tires, boxes, or skenes on the axles. They usually put in only 

 spring crops. Their wheat, oats, bai-ley, and peas, were sown on the ground, 

 with no other preparation than burning off the weeds, stubble, and grass, of the 

 last year's growth, and ploughed in — the ploughing being usually in the same 

 direction — no crossing, and no manuring. 



The ground cultivated was in a narrow strip at the foot of the bluffs, where 

 was the best soil, say from forty to eighty rods wide, and enclosed in one com- 

 mon field from five to seven miles long, having but one fence on the west side, 

 and across each end — the bluffs on the east answering for a fence on that side. 

 The corn planted was of the early Indian variety, which ripens in the early part 

 of September ; yielding from thirty to fifty bushels per acre, according to the 

 mode of cultivation. The wheat, oats, barley, and peas, being harvested in 

 August, and the corn in September, the field was usually thrown open in October 

 as soon as the potatoes were gathered, as common pasture. If wood was 

 searce in the ensuing winter, or before the ice became good for procuring it from 

 the islands and bottom lands of the river, most likely the fence would be used in 

 their stoves, being dry, and the place of the rails would be supplied before spring 

 by new and green ones. These annual changes of the rails, rendered it of little 

 consequence whether they were made of oak, ash, maple, or willow, the three 

 latter being usually the easiest obtained, composed the most of the fencing mate- 

 rial of the farms. 



The grain cradle was not known here until the arrival of Americans, the scythe 

 and sickle being the only instrument used for that purpose. The French bind 

 their grain with wiUow withs to this day. In other respeets, they have availed 

 themselves of the improvements introduced by the American immigrants, and 

 some of them are now amonsf our best fai-mers. Most of the new inventions for 

 ploughs, harvesters, and threshing machines, are now in use. 



" The Markets are good, and also the facilities for reaching them." From 

 the earliest settlement of the country, the military and Indian departments, in- 

 cluding the fur trade, always furnished a good market for our surplus produce, 

 until a short time since when the amount produced has been greater than the 

 demand from that source. To supply the deficiency, the lumber trade since 1838 

 has kept the demand more than equal to the supply ; add to this, the demand 

 growing out of the immigration ; so that hitherto the demand for every thing, 

 except wheat, in the two last years, has much more than equalled the home 

 supply. And our prospects for a market are good for a long time to come in our 



