ILLINOIS AND UPPER CANADA. 463 



follows the same course throws away ten or twelve years of his 

 labour. 



However theoretical the view which I have ventured to take 

 of the first settlers in the two countries may appear to some 

 minds, it will be found to accord with practice. Throughout 

 all my peregrinations in Upper Canada, I did not visit or see 

 a settlement of seven or eight years standing possessing a stack 

 nor a herd of cattle. Ten or twelve acres of wheat, which was 

 put into a barn, formed the utmost extent of that crop on 

 one farm, and the patches of Indian corn seldom exceeded a 

 rood. The tables of the farmers were indifferently stored, fried 

 salt pork from the United States being served up in many 

 houses twenty-one times a-week. In Illinois the state of things 

 was very different with new settlers. Wheat and Indian corn 

 were seen every where in abundance, and the tables were am 

 ply stored with fresh provisions. In Upper Canada salt pork 

 was the standard dish at all meals, and in Illinois salted meat 

 was never placed before me. 



A British farmer can have little idea of the Canadian forest 

 from the trees of his own country, which are mere saplings 

 compared with those of Upper Canada ; and his notions of 

 drilled crops and rotations will ill accord with the disgusting 

 black stumps which disfigure the fields. In Illinois he may at 

 once pursue any system and perform any operation. The best 

 breeds of cattle and sheep will find suitable food in the coun 

 try, and the most improved implements of husbandry may be 

 employed. A reaping machine was used at Jacksonville in 

 1834, and it is on the lawned surface of the prairie where this 

 and almost every other description of agricultural machinery 

 can be introduced with advantage. On the forest farm of Ca 

 nada machinery cannot be used, nor stock kept. 



Since the prairies of Illinois possess such advantages over 

 Upper Canada in the present state of agriculture, what may 

 not be expected from them with the progress of science ? Al 

 ready the crops on nearly one hundred farms in East Lothian 

 are thrashed by means of steam, and its application to other 

 operations will in all probability be soon effected. The coal 

 field of Illinois is inexhaustible. With steam power to cultivate 

 the prairie, and to reap, collect the crops of grass and of wheat. 



