324 RESERVED RENT OF LAND. 



Potatoes were almost the only crop I saw now remain- 

 ing in the fields. On his knees, working with a diminu- 

 tive hoe, I found a French Canadian digging, from what 

 appeared a good soil, a scanty crop of small-sized pota- 

 toes. The man seemed satisfied, and considered the crop 

 good — perhaps it was, in comparison with those of the past 

 years of failure. Their size reminded me of the graphic 

 if not elegant terms in which a New Brunswick farmer, 

 on his return from Maine, described the potato-crop of 

 that State to a friend of mine, in the autumn of 1849 : 

 " Why, sir, the potatoes in Maine — I could put fourteen 

 of them into your mouth, and sixteen into that of any 

 other man. I could, by thunder ! — I have said it ! " 



The peasantry obtain land from the farmers and pro- 

 prietors for their potato-crop — as is still the case in many 

 rural districts among ourselves — free from rent, on con- 

 dition of manuring and cleaning it. The owner takes a 

 crop of grain the following year, and again lets it for 

 potatoes on the same terms, if he can. Farther inland, 

 my informant said the land was let to tenants at so high 

 a rate that they were much kept down by it. On 

 further inquiry, he stated the rent to be a piastre the 

 arpent* — which meant a dollar for an arpent in front, and 

 perhaps thirty backwards — which is about twopence an 

 acre. What can be the condition of an agricultural 

 people, who, paying scarcely any taxes, feel themselves 

 weighed down by a rent of twopence an acre ? 



I was here in the county of Dorchester, and though it 

 was situated directly opposite to Quebec, there had not 

 come into the county a single new settler during the year 

 1 848. The value of cleared land varies from £1 to £10 

 currency. There are two reasons for the custom, pre- 

 valent in all Lower Canada, of running the farms back 

 from the roads, with a narrow frontage. Society is 



* Six ai'pents make about five imperial acres. 



