PRICE AND PRODUCE OF LAND. 291 



neglecting French Canadians, and the equally careless 

 British and Irish emigrant settlers. This rich hop-land 

 is worth £40 an acre. 



At a distance of twenty or thirty miles from the mar- 

 ket of Montreal, good land can be bought for £4 to £7 

 an acre ; but the buildings are generally bad. If these 

 happen to be good, the price is higher. The farms in 

 this district usually run in long stripes, the breadth of 

 3 acres in front, and from 30 to 50 back, or from 90 to 

 150 acres in all. The average produce on the farms of 

 the Canadian French is not more, as I was informed 

 here, than 8 to 10 bushels of wheat per acre — and for 

 this grain the soil is becoming poorer — and 20 bushels 

 of oats. They grow little hay, except on the natural 

 meadows, from which they reap 1 to 1\ tons an acre. 

 The system is to divide the farm in two, lengthwise, 

 and to crop the one and pasture the other alternately, 

 without sowing down — merely grazing the weeds that 

 spring up. 



This neglect of grass-seeds may be considered as a 

 fair indication of a low state of practical husbandry, in 

 nearly every coimtry which is blessed with a moderately 

 moist and temperate climate. It is far too general in 

 North America — the Provinces and States alike. Even 

 among our home-farmers, it is to be observed much 

 more frequently than those persons who never leave the 

 high-roads in their agricultural travels would readily 

 believe. 



Indeed, if we go a little out of the beaten track, we 

 may find, either in England or Scotland, all the vices of 

 American farming. Our home-farmers, indeed, may be 

 said to be the parents of them all. We have among 

 US still numberless farmers of the old school, possessed 

 of deep-rooted prejudices, who refuse to advance and 

 change their methods. It is chiefly such men who, 

 during the last twenty or thirty years, while those who 



