332 CANADA. 



Canada. These grants, or concessions, were also of a fendal 



vation of 

 land*. 



character; and the grantees were the vassals of their 

 Division i or( j s> a s the lords were the vassals of the king. or 

 these lots there is seldom any price given by way of 

 purchase money ; and the rent paid by each tenant 

 is very inconsiderable, frequently not more than three 

 livres, (2s. 6'd.) a year, besides a bushel of wheat and a 

 couple of fowls ; but the seigneurs, who have many 

 inhabitants on their lands, derive a handsome revenue, 

 partly from these trifling rents, from the fees re- 

 ceived at his mills, to which his tenants are bound to 

 bring their grain, and from the fine which is due to 

 him upon every transfer of the lots by sale or long 

 lease. There are about 100 of these seigneuries in 

 Lower Canada, all subject to French law ; and the 

 proprietors might have attained considerable affluence, 

 had the estates been allowed to remain entire ; but, 

 according to the old French law, which is still in 

 force in the colony, the property of every individual, 

 who dies intestate, descends in certain proportions 

 to his widow and children ; and thus both the seig- 

 neuries themselves, and estates of much smaller ex- 

 tent, held in roture, have been so frequently subdi- 

 vided, that many of the proprietors of the former re- 

 tain little more than their title ; while the greater 

 part of the holders of the latter are so miserably 

 poor, as to have neither capital nor spirit for agricul- 

 tural undertakings. This law has been found to 

 have a very hurtful effect, also, in a moral point of 

 view, tending very much to weaken the natural af- 

 fection, which should subsist between parents and 

 children, as well as to introduce a general spirit of 

 litigation into families. Since the conquest of Ca- 

 nada by the British arms, all those parts of the lower 

 province, which had not been previously granted as 

 seigneuries, have been surveyed by order of govern- 

 ment, and divided into townships, which are about 

 ten miles square, and are granted to individuals to be 

 held by the English tenure of free and common so- 

 cage. These are situated in the more retired parts 

 on the south bank of the St Lawrence, between the 

 rivers Chaudiere, St Francis, Yameska, and Chambly, 

 extending to the 45th parallel of latitude, and subject, 

 like the upper province, to the law of England. The 

 persons to whom these townships are granted, are 

 bound to cultivate a certain number of acres within 

 a given time. The greater part of these lands lie 

 contiguous to the territories of the United States; 

 and are chiefly occupied by emigrants from thence, 

 who, before obtaining their grants, have taken the 

 oath of allegiance to his Britannic majesty. They 

 hold in general above 200 acres each; and are bound 

 to keep open the high ways passing through their 

 possessions. The first step in the process of culti- 

 vation, is to build a log-hut, and open a road of 

 communication with the nearest neighbours. They 

 next proceed to clear the land of the wood, and this 

 is done in various ways. One mode is, to cut down 

 the timber, to dig out the roots, and then to burn 

 the whole in heaps upon the ground ; which, when 

 thus laid open, is soon covered with vegetation, and 

 capable of grazing cattle ; but this method, besides 

 being very tedious, is attended with great expence, 

 and costs about thirty shillings per acre. The Ame- 

 ricans have introduced a more simple and economical, 

 and, at the same time, equally successful plan, viz. to 



cut down and burn the trees ; and, after turning up Canada, 

 the earth with a hoe or harrow, to sow the spaces "" " v ' 

 between the standing roots. A third method is to 

 set fire to the growing wood, to stop the growth of 

 the larger trees, by cutting a deep circle in the bark, 

 to sow the interstices with grain, and to remove the 

 decayed timber at leisure. In these cases, when the 

 underwood is thick, the blaze of the burning forest 

 is truly awful, continues for weeks together, and 

 often extends its progress far beyond the intended 

 space. In clearing the ground, however, a certain 

 portion of wood is always left standing, for supply- 

 ing fewel and other domestic purposes; and these 

 stripes of forest, while they serve as boundaries be- 

 tween the different lots, contribute to give even to 

 the cultivated districts, a wild and woody appear- 

 ance. The usual condition upon which farms are let, 

 are, that the proprietor furnish the cattle, supply the 

 utensils of husbandry, and incur the expence of clear- 

 ing, ditching, and fencing : the produce is then 

 equally divided between the tenant and himself. 



With the exception of a few cases, the Canadians Agricul* 

 are very deficient in agricultural skill. In conse- ture 

 quence of the law before mentioned, their farms are 

 small, and their capitals limited, so that they are not 

 at all able to attempt experiments. They are also 

 destitute of education, and ignorant of recent im. 

 provements ; much inclined to indolent habits, and, 

 like the peasantry of most countries, strongly averse 

 to admit any innovations. It is only of late years, 

 and to a very small extent, that they have begun to 

 adopt the application of manure, the rotation of 

 crops, and the use of artificial grasses. They have 

 begun particularly to employ the marl, which is 

 found in considerable quantities on the shores of the 

 St Lawrence ; but the general practice is to plough 

 the same field, and sow the same grain, twenty times 

 over ; while the only remedy for land exhausted in 

 this manner, is to leave them fallow for a few years. 

 Seed-time commences about the 20th of April, and 

 harvest early in August. The average produce of 

 the soil in Lower Canada has been estimated at 25 

 to 1 for oats ; 12 for barley ; 6 for pease ; and 11 

 for summer wheat. Barley, oats, Indian corn, and 

 other ordinary kinds of grain, are produced in con- 

 siderable quantities for home consumption, but sel- 

 dom in such abundance as to supply exportation. It 

 is but very lately indeed that barley has been known 

 in Canada ; and was introduced, with great difficulty, 

 by a gentleman who had established a distillery at 

 Quebec. That which is now produced, makes ex- 

 cellent malt ; and considerable quantities of ale are 

 exported to the West Indies. The soil and climate 

 ot Canada are very favourable to the growth of 

 hops, of which enough is raised to supply the wants 

 of the brewers, and which might easily be rendered 

 an article of exportation. Hemp has begun to be t 



cultivated with much success ; and government has 

 greatly encouraged the growth of that article. See 

 on this subject, a paper by William Bond, Esq. in 

 the 26th volume of the Transactions of the Society 

 for ike encouragement of Arts ^ Sec. 



At the time when Canada was first discovered, the Commerce, 

 inhabitants of Europe were so entirely engrossed 

 with the acquisition of those precious metals, which 

 had been imported from Mexico and Peru, that no 



