42 ONTARIO. 



not be too highly manured in which the plants are put. 

 To do the strawberry culture properly, and keep up a 

 rotation of crops, a man would require four fields, say of 

 four acres in each. The chief labour connected with 

 strawberry culture is picking the fruit. This is gene- 

 rally done by children, who pick at 1 cent the quart. 

 The demand for strawberries is so great that buyers come 

 to the country and give 8 or 9 cents a quart for the fruit 

 on the spot, thus saving the cultivator all trouble of 

 marketing. At the latter price I have known of $500 

 worth of strawberries being sold off one acre of land. The 

 variety of strawberry most in favour among fruit growers 

 is Wilson's Albany. The wages of a good man in Ontario 

 accustomed to this work is $1 per diem if hired by the 

 whole year, or $1 25 if hired for eight months of the year. 

 There are those who think that it is the fate of Canada 

 to be absorbed into the great Kepublic. I think it will be 

 found that the people who hold this opinion are (1) either 

 English or Americans who, for some reasons of their own 

 wish for this result ; or (2) people who are fond of theo- 

 rizing, but who have no knowledge of the circumstances 

 of the case. I believe, on the contrary, every day that 

 rolls by, instead of bringing the two peoples together, 

 helps to build up an impassable barrier between them. 

 In character and temperament, as well as in appearance 

 and physique, the two English-speaking peoples, Cana- 

 dian and American, diverge more and more. The lan- 

 guage is the only common ground between them, and 

 that, as we know, has not always proved itself a sure bond 

 of union. The native American is a compound of English, 

 Irish, German, Spanish, African, Indian, Chinese blood. 



