250 .AGRICULTURAL NOTICES. 



ries being altogether unoccupied, and I was told untaken-up 

 land, or such as had not been bought from government, existed 

 within a mile of Springfield. Proximity to forest is chosen 

 for the facility of obtaining building, fencing, and fuel timber ; 

 and a settler regards the distance of half a mile from forest an 

 intolerable burden. The dwelling-places are log-houses, 

 larger than those of Canada, and somewhat better finished. 

 Frequently a nail or piece of iron is not used in the whole 

 erection, the door is without lock or latch, and the beds in the 

 cock-loft lighted by chinks in the walls. In such places, the 

 owners of hundreds of acres and scores of cattle reside. How 

 powerful is habit and fashion in all things ! Labour is scarce 

 and highly remunerated. A good farming help obtains Si 20, 

 and an indifferent one Si 00 a-year, with bed and board. A 

 female help receives in private families a dollar a-week. The 

 hotel-keeper at Springfield pays two female helps each S2 

 weekly in cash, and told me if it were not for a desire young 

 girls have for fine clothes, he could not get one on any terms. 

 Board, at the hotel, with bed, is S3 for short periods, and for 

 long periods S2J per week. 



In the Springfield market, butter is worth eight cents per 

 pound, and eggs six cents per dozen. Beef, in small quanti 

 ties, is worth three, and pork two cents per pound, respectively, 

 and much cheaper by the carcass. Wheat sells for thirty-seven 

 and a-half, oats eighteen, and Indian corn ten cents per bushel. 

 Good muscovado sugar costs ten, and coffee twenty cents per 

 pound. 



