ILLINOIS AND UPPER CANADA. 4G I 



farmer, at the end of eighteen months, would raise 180 bushels 

 of wheat, and the farmer in Illinois 2000 bushels of Indian 

 corn and 1125 bushels of wheat. During this period the 

 Upper Canada farmer would neither have grass for cow nor 

 sheep, and perhaps scarcely food for a pig ; while in Illinois 

 stock of all kinds may have been kept. 



In assuming wheat in Upper Canada to yield eighteen 

 bushels per acre when land is first cleared, and wheat in 

 Illinois 221 bushels, the soil and climate are supposed to be the 

 same in both countries, and twenty per cent has been deduct 

 ed from the wheat of Upper Canada on account of the surface 

 occupied by stumps. Should it be contended that my esti 

 mate of the Upper Canada wheat crop is too low, I would 

 argue my estimate of the Illinois crop is still more so, and 

 maintain, that whatever produce the first wheat crops of Upper 

 Canada may yield, those of Illinois must be twenty per cent 

 better, from the ground being free from stumps. Indian corn 

 cannot be grown on a large scale amongst stumps ; and even 

 after they are removed, the effect of soil and climate will render 

 the crop nearly fifty per cent better in Illinois than in Upper 

 Canada. 



Mr Ferguson s calculations seem to me too favourable to 

 Upper Canada ; yet if the expenses of harvesting, thrashing, 

 and teaming be added to the expenses of the first wheat crop, 

 as stated by him, the value of the produce, which I think he 

 has greatly overrated, falls L.I, 7s. 6d. short of the expense 

 it has cost in raising ; and no statement which I received made 

 the value of the first crop cover the expense of producing 

 it. If is this circumstance which renders the farmers of Up 

 per Canada so poor after first settlement, and time and fruga 

 lity the only means of escaping from their wretchedness. It 

 is this circumstance, joined to the effects of accumulating in 

 terest, which renders inevitable the ruin of every farmer who 

 purchases on credit, and stamps with folly the recent proceed 

 ings of government in disposing of land. In Illinois the first 

 crops more than repay the expense of raising them. 



The commercial state of the two countries corroborates the 

 nature of the farming. A newly settled district in Upper 

 Canada continues to import flour and salt provisions for many 



