ILLINOIS AND UPPER CANADA. 465 



produce, diminished by the expense it costs in raising and mar 

 keting. 



I also found difficulty in ascertaining the yearly wages of an 

 agricultural labourer in Upper Canada, from the system 

 of cash and store pay, and the difference of summer and win 

 ter wages. Mr Somerville of Whitby states the cash wages 

 of the best labourer in Upper Canada at $80 a-year, while in 

 Illinois they are Si 00. Whether these sums are perfectly ac 

 curate, is of no great consequence, as it is universally admit 

 ted over all Canada that wages are lower there than in the 

 United States. Indeed it cannot be otherwise, produce being* 

 shared between the farmer and labourer, and land in Upper 

 Canada yielding so much less than in Illinois. 



Labour is more easily obtained in Upper Canada than in 

 Illinois, the difficulty w r ith which forest land is cultivated pre 

 venting labourers farming on their own account. Whether the 

 agricultural capitalist derives more profit from employing la 

 bour in Upper Canada than in Illinois, I cannot satisfactorily 

 determine ; but from what has been formerly stated, the invest 

 ment of capital in clearing forest in Upper Canada does not m 

 the first instance pay, while farming the prairie is at once 

 remunerating. From the great return of produce, it is proba 

 ble both the capitalist and labourer are better rewarded in Illi 

 nois than in Upper Canada. The higher wages in Illinois, 

 however, bring the farmer and hired labourer nearer each other 

 in the command of the necessaries of life than in Canada. But 

 this circumstance ought to form a source of enjoyment to the 

 capitalist, who should prize the bounty of God the more from 

 knowing it is also amply shared by the labourer. The land 

 holder of Upper Canada, who sets himself down in the forest, 

 toils hard for the first nine or ten years, and cannot command 

 the same comforts and necessaries of life as the labourer in Illi 

 nois. I refer to page 450 for evidence of the truth of this re 

 mark. 



As it is the ambition of every agricultural labourer who leave* 

 Britain for America to become a landholder there, I shall 

 endeavour to show what are the chances of attaining his object 

 in Upper Canada and Illinois. 



Supposing forest land in Upper Canada to be S3 per acre, 



2 G 



