NO EMIGRATION. 



73 



! left in wilderness and the roads uncleared, except the 

 settlers &quot; turn out&quot; and clear them. It was here the tavern 

 keepers and others had come five miles yesterday, to remove 

 trees that had fell acros the track, and which is often occur- 

 j ing. This is another instance and proof, I conceive, of the 

 injudicious system adopted hy government, in leaving the 

 public roads to he cleared by settlers. Passed some oak 

 plains, with so few trees on them, that if the brushwood 

 was moved off, they, would look like immense parks ! 

 There are a few small villages on these plains, scattered 

 at no great distance. Waterford, Simcoe, and Dover, 

 with from fifteen to thirty houses, have more of the rural 

 simplicity and neatness of English villages than any other 

 I have seen in this country. In a few years, when sheep 

 shall be more attended to, a new system of husbandry in 

 troduced, and farmers of capital emigrate to Upper Canada, 

 these plains will, I think, be some of the most valuable in 

 the province. Cut down some or all the few trees to rend 

 into rails for fences ; mow off the few bunches of willow 

 and sassafras brush with a strong scythe ; plough up the 

 ground (a sand) in the fall, and either sow winter tares, or 

 peas in the spring, harrowed in on the furrow ; the second 

 year, plant corn and well work it; third year, barley or oats, 

 and with it clover or sanfoin, and with turnips and plenty of 

 sheep, it may be made, 1 think, very profitable land, and 

 certainly easy and pleasant working, with healthy situations 

 for building-, and generally good water. Breakfasted at &quot; a 

 house of entertainment&quot; (houses that have no tavern license). 

 You eat, and drink whisky if you choose, it is set before 

 you, they charge only for the former, though not forgetting 

 the latter in the charge. Whisky at taverns is three-pence 

 halfpenny per gill, which is more than 500 per cent, profit ; 

 the same quantity, by the gallon, is about a halfpenny. 

 Licenses for taverns and stills in the province are rather 

 high, to prevent their extension to excess * Stills pay ac 

 cording to their capacity, 4s. 6d. per gallon yearly ; and as the 

 smallest stills that are in use, I believe, are forty gallons, 

 they of course pay forty dollars, or IQl. currency per year. 

 Taverns pay according to their situation for business, which 

 is determined yearly by the magistrates, from 25s. to 61. 



* Stills cost erecting from 60 . to 200/., which will distil from thirty 

 to sixty or eighty gallons of whisky per diem. 



