CO-OPERATIVE EMIGRATION. 33 



parsonage or the doctor's house. This sort of shabby 

 gentility is, I should imagine, more aggravating even 

 than downright seclusion. When a man makes up his 

 mind to emigrate, he emigrates not for amusement or for 

 society, but to make a living, and to provide for a family. 

 The only way by which men of this class can secure a 

 certain amount of congenial society for themselves and their 

 families is by co-operation. There are many fertile districts 

 in Canada West, where several improved farms can be 

 bought in a cluster, sometimes even two or three lying 

 alongside each other. These farms are in almost every case 

 too large for one man to farm well and thoroughly. Each 

 one of them might be subdivided into" farms of from 50 to 

 100 acres, and these smaller farms well cultivated would 

 yield more than the original farm badly cultivated. A 

 company of gentlemen, each one possessing a capital of 

 from 5007. to 1000?. up to any higher amount, might 

 associate together and purchase several contiguous farms 

 in a Canadian township, divide the land amongst them- 

 selves according to their means and inclinations, and in 

 addition carry out with them from England a certain 

 number of agricultural labourers with their families. By 

 this means not only might a little friendly society be 

 organized, but also expensive implements of agriculture 

 purchased for the joint use of the settlement, which would 

 be beyond the means of a single farmer. I feel convinced 

 that a day will come when Ontario will be farmed like 

 the richest districts of England, and when wheat will be 

 literally manufactured by steam power. 



Good farms can be rented in Ontario for very moderate 

 rents, but the leases given are short, and the system does 



