WANT OF PASTURAGE. 369 



period. This course of farming must, of necessity, have 

 been followed in Canada, as the forest does not yield a single 

 blade of grass, which is owing, perhaps, to the rays of the 

 sun being excluded from the surface of the earth throughout 

 the whole season, by winter s snow, the foliage of summer, 

 and the fallen leaves of autumn. The severity of winter 

 would also retard the keeping of animals, as an artificial sup 

 ply of food and shelter is necessary to their existence. So 

 defective is the pastoral farming of Upper Canada, that almost 

 every town or village of magnitude in the district is depen 

 dent on the United States for the sheep and cattle which are 

 slaughtered for the use of the inhabitants. Mr Somerville of 



o 



Whitby accounted for this, on the ground, that all oxen 

 reared in the country were required by new settlers to plough 

 the soil. It is, however, quite evident, that there is not a 

 sufficient extent of cleared surface on almost any farm to graze 

 breeding stock, and provide them with proper food for winter. 

 The rearing and fatting of animals in Canada must require 

 such a division of labour as did not come under my notice 

 while in the country, and the time has scarcely arrived when 

 it can be successfully adopted. The animals of every kind are 

 of an inferior description, and no great improvement can be 

 effected with them until proper winter food and shelter are 

 supplied. The working oxen are chiefly obtained from the 

 States. 



Most new settlers find difficulty in providing pasturage for 

 their milch cows ; and butter made from the cream of animals 

 roaming in the forest is often of the worst quality. I have 

 been at the residence of settlers who could not produce butter 

 of their own manufacturing at table in the fourth year of their 

 farming. The want of grass is one of the greatest privations 

 of first settlement. 



In the old cultivated districts manure is sometimes applied 

 to land. Gypsum is frequently used successfully to clover 

 and Indian corn, and Providence seems to have provided 

 most of the districts composed of sand with an inexhaustible 

 store of gypsum, to which soils it is chiefly applicable. I 

 could not learn that lime had been tried. The robbing sys- 



2 A 



