FORMERLY THE GRANARY OF CANADA. 311 



cluced rlcli harvests of wheat, and, over a very large 

 portion of then' surface, continued for many years to 

 yield abundant crops at little corapai*ative cost. Hence 

 the banks of the St Lawrence were deservedly called, in 

 former days, the granary of Canada. The lower province 

 could then afford, therefore, to export much grain ; and 

 among lesser articles of production, linseed was one of 

 which large quantities were at that time shipped to 

 Europe. Now, the shipment of either of these articles, 

 the produce of Lower Canada, may be said to have 

 virtually ceased. 



We need not inquire in Canada after any special 

 causes for a change almost equally marked in every 

 other part of north-eastern America which has been as 

 long under the cultivation of European settlers. Every- 

 where idleness, ignorance, and an avaricious spirit, on 

 the part of the cultivators, have led to the same results 

 in diminishing the ability or disposition of the soil to 

 produce good crops of wheat. To speak figuratively, 

 the spirit of fertility is every year retiring farther 

 towards the west, shrinking from the abusive contact 

 of European industry, towards the head-waters of the 

 Mississippi and the St Lawrence. 



And yet the peculiar tenure of land in Lower Canada, 

 if it be not necessary to account for the existing condi- 

 tion of the soil, may possibly both have aided in bringing 

 it into that condition, and may stand in the way of an 

 easy or rapid improvement or restoration of its produc- 

 tive capabilities. 



Of the whole lands in Lower Canada, only eleven and 

 and a half millions of acres have yet been disposed of; 

 and of these, seven and a half millions are grants in fief 

 and seigneurie by the crown of France. Of the remaining 

 four millions of acres of granted lands, many of which 

 are large grants — such as that of seven hundred thousand 

 acres in the eastern counties to the British American 



