12 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



and materially lessened the weight of financial embarrassment. The total 

 production of wheat was not beyond 5,000,000 bushels, of which nearly 

 four-fifths, at that time, was raised in French Canada. The French 

 habitants carried on their agricultural operations with little energ}- or 

 skill, and from their ignorance of the sj'stem of the rotation of crop.s and 

 of the true i^rinciples of farming were rapidly impoverishing the soil, so 

 that in the course of a few j^ears their wheat crop diminished and its 

 quality became more inferior. Their farms were on the banks of the 

 St. Lawrence, deep, narrow strips, and their houses were crowded as near 

 the river as jsossible, as aftbrding the most satisfactor}- means of com- 

 munication in early times between the settlements. The most noteworthy 

 buildings were those belonging to the Roman Catholic Church, which 

 then, as now, dominated the province. The system of land tenure in 

 French Canada was one not calculated to stimulate industry and develop 

 the country. In early days the seigniorial tenure, established by 

 Eichelieu with the idea of founding a Canadian noblesse and encouraging 

 settlement, had had some advantages. It was a feudal system modified 

 to suit the circumstances of a new countr3\ It made the seigneur and 

 the habitant, or censitaire, equallj'" interested in the cultivation of the 

 soil. The dues and obligations under which the censitaire held his land 

 were in early times by no means onerous. The seigneur was obliged to 

 cultivate and settle certain portions of his land at the risk of losing it 

 within a fixed period ; a penalty frequently enacted under the French 

 regime. He was expected to erect a mill for the grinding of grain raised 

 in the district, but only in ver}^ rare cases was he able to afford the 

 expense of what must have been a great convenience to the early settlers. 

 But the system grew to be burdensome as the country became more 

 populous. The seigniorial exactions were found troublesome, and the 

 difficulties that arose in connection with the disposal of lands in the 

 numerous seigniories gradually retarded settlement and enterprise in the 

 province. In fact, the system under which lands were granted through- 

 out Canada was not adapted to the encouragement of settlement. With 

 the view, probably, of establishing a state church, the Imperial G-overn- 

 ment had by the Act of 1*791 granted large reserves, which were in the 

 hands of the Church of England, and much discontent had consequently 

 arisen among other Protestant denominations. Large tracts had also 

 been set apart for loyahsts and military men in different parts of the 

 province. The natural consequence of this extravagance was that some 

 of the most valuable districts of Upper Canada were kept idle and profit- 

 less for many years. The little island of Prince Edward had been nearly 

 all granted away by ballot to a few landlords in a single day, and until 

 very recent times its progress was retarded by a land question which 

 alwaj' s created much discontent and prevented settlement. The means 

 of communication in each province were very inferior, in the absence of 



