DUXV1LLE WHEAT CROPS. 101 



would ultimately weigh down the utmost industry. I felt for 

 their situation ; but the morning of first settlement shone so 

 brightly, that prognostics of a coming storm would have been 

 disregarded, and considered unkind. First crops on small clear 

 ances were half suffocated for w^ant of air, and what came 

 under notice, satisfied me that a settler in the forest, trusting 

 alone to his own labour, will have difficulty in raising sufficient 

 food for a family during the first three years. 



The wheat crop of Upper Canada is sown in autumn, 

 termed fall in this part of the world ; that of the Lower Pro 

 vince in spring. I was informed fall-wheat sown in spring 

 does not put forth the ear until that time twelve-months, 

 while the wheat of Lower Canada produces a good crop in 

 August following ; and in corroboration was shown, on the 7th 

 July, a crop of wheat just coming into ear of the spring wheat 

 of the country, while one from seed, brought from Roxburgh 

 shire, Scotland, sown under a parity of circumstance, was only 

 a few inches high, without indication of shooting into ear. 

 This appearing inexplicable, induced me to bring home samples 

 of fall and spring wheats, the plants from which were destroy 

 ed at Mungoswells by hares. I found, however, plants from 

 Scotch wheat sown in the garden did not show a disposition 

 to ear when sown in the middle of May. The effects of climate 

 on the non-earing of wheat seems the same in Britain as in 

 Upper Canada. 



Dunville is situated on the Ouse, or Grand River, four 

 miles from its mouth, and where the feeder of the Welland 

 canal branches off, by means of a dam eight feet high. There 

 are about twenty small wooden houses, a grist and saw-mill. 

 The river is navigable to the lake, and it is said to be in con 

 templation to render it so as far as Brantford by means of locks. 

 Dunville may increase in progress of time ; at present it stands 

 amidst stagnant waters, and is a perfect bullfrog and musquitto 

 nursery. 



It was my intention to have walked up the river, and across 

 the country to Hamilton, but learning that a friend, whose 

 dwelling I had passed, resided near the Falls of Niagara, induced 

 me to change my route. I left Dunville at five in the morning. 



