472 EMIGRANT INFORMATION. 



It has already been mentioned, that a person possessing his 

 own land has nature for his servant ; and if the estimates of her 

 assistance in the different countries approximate to accuracy, 

 the farmer in Illinois receives from nature double the assist 

 ance of the Lower Canada farmer, and upwards of thirty per 

 cent more than the farmer in Upper Canada. 



The assistance which farmers in the different countries de 

 rive from nature on first settlement is not fully displayed by 

 the numbers two, three, and four. It has formerly been 

 assumed that a person in the Canadas may clear ten acres of 

 forest land in a year, and reap from it a crop of wheat at the 

 end of eighteen months, and that a person in Illinois may reap 

 in the same time a crop of Indian corn and a crop of wheat 

 from fifty acres. But the stumps of trees in the Canadas will 

 occupy two acres out of the ten, and thereby limit nature s 

 assistance to eight acres. Nature s assistance to the farmer 

 in eighteen months after settlement may be thus expressed : 

 In Lower Canada, 8 multiplied by 2 on a wheat crop, . 16 



In Upper Canada, 8 multiplied by 3 on a wheat crop, . 24 



In Illinois, 50 multiplied by 4 on an Indian corn crop, 2( 



200) 

 200 j 



50 multiplied by 4 on a wheat crop, nnn r 



From the preceding statement, the farmer in Illinois receives 

 from nature twenty-five times the assistance of the Lower 

 Canada farmer, and nearly seventeen times the assistance of 

 the farmer in Upper Canada. But if nature s contribution to 

 the advantages which the Illinois settler derives from the 

 prairie be estimated, he may be said to receive from nature 

 thirty, and twenty times the assistance of the farmer in Lower 

 and Upper Canada respectively. It is the assistance which 

 the farmer derives from nature in degree, as well as in extent, 

 which gives the prairies of Illinois such advantages over the 

 forests of Canada. 



The British emigrant reaches Lower Canada by the river 

 St Lawrence, the navigation of which is closed by ice from 

 November till May. Upper Canada may be reached by the 

 St Lawrence, or by way of New York and the Erie canal. 

 When the emigrant has a delicate family, and is encumbered 

 with heavy luggage, the route by New York is the best, 

 more especially if ^ the place of. his destination communicates 



