1 62 THE LANDED INTEREST. 



for the ports of the United Kingdom. This is 

 rendered practicable by the works now in pro- 

 gress for widening and deepening the canals 

 which pass the navigation clear of Niagara and 

 the lower rapids of the river. And this, with 

 the economy of fuel effected by the improve- 

 ments in marine engines, has immensely 

 diminished the cost of transportation. The 

 The natu- natural protection which the British farmer 



ral protec- 

 tion of long possessed fifteen years ago in the cost of 



carriage is 



bein s transport has thus been reduced, on the produce 



gradually 



reduced. o f an acre o f w heat, from 563. to 263. This is 

 still nearly equal to the rent, but the land, in 

 this country of old cultivation, must be regularly 

 manured and carefully and expensively culti- 

 vated ; while the farmers of those foreign lands 

 whose virgin soil is rich enough to yield corn for 

 many years in succession without manure, and 

 with little labour, are thereby able to compete 

 successfully with the British farmer in his own 

 market. It is the unexhausted natural fertility 

 of his soil which gives the advantage to the 

 prairie farmer of the north-west, and this is 

 constantly being aided by the increasing in- 



