550 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



1859. 



January 137 



February 49 



March 292 



April 127 



May 56 



June 60 



July 179 



August 324 



From Sept. 1, 1858, 

 to Sept. 1,1859.. 2,599 



1860. 



Jauuary 864 



February 408 



March . . , , 448 



April 466 



May 301 



June 905 



July 991 



August 884 



From Sept. 1,1859, 

 to Sept. 1.1860.. 7,542 



BUTTER EXPORTS BY SEA FROM MONTREAL. 



To October, 1860. To October, 1859. To October, 1858. 

 22,828 firkins. 7,871 firkins. 4,534 firkins. 



The exports froai Montreal do not represent the aggregate 

 Canadian exports, but only a small portion. They represent 



the increase of the year, however, as fully as tlic airgregata 

 will do when fully ascertained. 



Such an increase in the dairy produce of one year may be 

 'said to be without example. Nor is there any doubt as to the 

 ratio of increase being maintained in future years. The 

 Canadian farmer may turn unlimited herds of cows into the 

 bush to feed in summer ; and the Western farmer has even 

 more scope and less trouble upon the prairies. Cheese and 

 butter can be produced in America without limit, and at a less 

 cost to the farmer than in any other country ; and now that 

 the production is being taken in hand in a spirited way, the 

 supply will be enormously increased. Nearly 7,000 tons 

 more dairy produce have been received this year than last ; 

 and there is every reason to believe that the quantity to be 

 received next year will at least be doubled. 



THE MONTREAL GRAIN TRADE. 



Montreal is the commercial capital of Canada, and pos- 

 sesses great natural facilities for trade. So great are the 

 facilities, that it has long been considered practicable to divert 

 the whole European carrying trade of Canada and the 

 Western States past New York to the St. Lawrence and Mon- 

 treal. The St. Lawrence recommendations are — a shorter 

 distance and cheaper form of transport, the navigation to 

 New York being, for three-hundred-and-fifty miles, by the 

 Erie canal. One of the St. Lawrence obstacles is — insufHcient 

 lockage on the Welland canal, between Lake Ontario and 

 Lake Erie, and an inadequate depth of water for sea-going 

 vessels on the St. Ciair flats, between Lake Erie and Lake 

 Huron. Another difficulty, and it is the greatest, is the hold 

 which New York has of the Western and Upper Canadian 

 trade. From its earliest beginnings that trade has been trans- 

 acted in New York, and facilities of every kind have been 

 created for it, while by the St. Lawrence route there may be 

 said to be no facilities at all, if shipments were to be made 

 direct to and from Europe. So serious a disadvantage is not 

 compensated by the shorter distance of the St. Lawrence and 

 the cheaper form of transport ; and as nothing is being done 

 to provide facilities, the natural advantages of Montreal are 

 not likely to be soon turned to account. But, even, were 

 Montreal to do as well for buyer and seller as New York, it is 

 not possible that a comparatively small provincial town could 

 ever hope to compete successfully with that city. And the 

 hopelessness of the case has no doubt prevented anything 

 from being done. One scheme has been brought forward after 

 another, survey after survey has been made, and books and 

 pamphlets written ; but, as will be shown presently, the grain 

 trade of Montreal this year— this year of great Western 

 abundance — is much the same as it was in 1857. The only 

 difference in the trade is, that the Montreal dealers, being 

 unable to divert Western trade their own way, have gone 

 westward in considerable numbers, and taken part in the send- 

 ing of grain to New York. In fact, the largest western grain 

 operators, sending grain to New York, are from Montreal — a 

 circumstance anything but favourable to the course of trade 

 being hereafter changed. 



The Montreal corn market is not therefore well supplied 

 with Western and Upper Canadian flour and wheat and corn. 

 Nor is it, for the best of reasons, well supplied with Lower 

 Canadian cereal products. Lower Canada does not produce 

 an excess of cereals, but depends to a considerable extent on 

 the up-lake supplies at Montreal for subsistence throughout 

 the year. This is not more owing to the severity of the winter 



and the lateness of the spring than to the poverty of the soil 

 and the heavily-timbered character of the province. Nowhere 

 has the emigrant more to contend with in the clearing of the 

 land ; and some of the lower counties cannot raise wheat at 

 aU. A light crop of light oats is what is usually produced, 

 and the farmer sends his oats to market and receives flour fur 

 household use in exchange. Such a system of farming in that 

 great tract of country, of which Montreal is the business- 

 centre, does not admit of great activity and of large quanti- 

 ties, even of oats, being sent to market; and, but for the 

 supplies received from Upper Canada and the West, the 

 Montreal grain trade would scarcely call for notice. 



And it is to be observed with regard to the up-lake sup- 

 plies at Montreal that the absence of those trade facilities 

 which are provided at New York make Montreal at all 

 times a disadvantageous market for the buyer. What has 

 been received at Montreal has been purchased at the up- 

 lake ports and paid for, while what has been received at 

 New York is in almost all cases the property of the up- 

 lake shippers in the hands of receivers. This difference, in 

 a falling or advancing market, leads to the Montreal holders 

 insisting on high prices, while the New York receivers move 

 at once with every turn that the market takes. The com- 

 paratively small supplies at one place and the large supplies 

 at the other are not without influence in this matter, as the 

 Montreal dealers may hold without inconvenience, while, as 

 a general rule, the New York receivers must sell out every 

 day. Montreal, in fact, does one kind of business only ; 

 orders for flour or wheat or corn are received from England 

 without limit as^to price, and 8uch|a business suits all parties 

 It suits the shippers, as it always secures a profit; audit 

 suits a class of buyers to whom probably it would be incon- 

 venient to buy elsewhere; but the fact remains that the 

 Montreal grain trade in a European point of view is of less 

 importance than is usually supposed. The Montreal 

 shippers are mere dealers at second hand. 



The following are the grain receipts at Montreal for the 

 past four years, to the 4th October,_1860, the 6th October, 

 1859, the 9th October, 1858, and the 10th October, 1857 : 



Flour brls. 



Wheat bush. 



Corn „ 



Barley „ 



Oats „ 



Peas „ 



1860. 1859. 



395,747 374,744 



1,787,909 381,837 



138,211 74,424 



21,661 10,1.53 



32,036 31.'ff!l 



385,592 27,v^ I 



