SOLON ROBINSON, 1851 511 



always make it a point to look in upon in a strange place, 

 did not indicate the best condition of agriculture in the 

 vicinity. 



I spent a day or two among the farms back of town, 

 finding much of the land bedded upon a rocky foundation, 

 only a few inches below the surface. Indeed the plow 

 often runs upon it for many rods together. The soil 

 seemed cold and wet, and is thickly set with that dread- 

 ful pest of Canada — the thistle. 



It was the 23d of August, and farmers were in the 

 midst of harvest and haying. The crops are spring 

 wheat, barley, oats, buckwheat, potatoes, peas, and a 

 little Indian corn. Hay is a leading crop, as large pro- 

 vision of winter forage has to be made for stock. Per- 

 haps this does, though it should not, deter farmers from 

 prosecuting the dairy business. On the opposite side of 

 the river are some of the best dairy farms in the United 

 States. The butter and cheese of Jeiferson County, N. Y., 

 are famed for their good quality, and those who make 

 most of it are famed for accumulating wealth. The Can- 

 ada farmers seem to me to be equally famed for a dispo- 

 sition to let their neighbors enjoy all the advantages of 

 industry and perseverance in making money out of a 

 cold, unpromising soil, while they sit and sigh for a 

 republican government, under the impression that it 

 would cure all evils, and bring wealth without labor. 



The common price of cows is about $14; butter, eight 

 to ten cents; and cheese, not enough made to establish a 

 price — that comes across the river. The timber is maple, 

 birch, hickory, butternut, elm, hemlock, pine and cedar — 

 the last in swamps. The orchards few, but well fruited. 

 As we go back from the river, the land improves and is 

 less rocky. 



A few miles from Brockville, I visited Coleman's tan- 

 nery,^ of 150 vats, where from 12 to 20,000 sides of 



' Three brothers, Richard, David, and Abel Coleman, emigrated 

 from Washington County, New York, to Canada in the eighteenth 

 century. Shortly after the Revolution, Abel and Richard settled 

 at Lyn, county of Leeds, Ontario. Abel farmed four hundred acres 



