338 SPKEADING OF CORN TO DEY. 



for the introduction of a general thoroLigli-drainage. 

 The narrow nine-foot ridges so common in Canada, the 

 open furrows between them, and the large main-drains 

 or ditches around the fields, are all insufficient to remove 

 the water which falls and accumulates in the land. To 

 keep the two sets of open ditches in order must here, as 

 elsewhere, annually cost much more than the interest of 

 the suras which the construction of covered drains would 

 require. 



Yesterday {1st Oct.) I had seen much hay in the 

 act of being led, and to-day I passed many fields of oats 

 still uncut, and a few of wheat, barley, and pease. 

 Many of the fields of oats which were cut, but not car- 

 ried — and such was the case upon this flat — were spread 

 out in the fields, as in the grassing of flax, at the 

 mercy of the wet weather, which appeared now to have 

 set in. I did not see a single sheaf or stook during the 

 whole day. This method of spreading out, instead of 

 binding up the corn when cut, is nearly exploded, I am 

 told, even in the higher parts of Canada East ; but in 

 these lower counties it appears to be still universal. 



Five hundred pounds was stated to me to be the value 

 of a farm on this land, two arpents wide by forty deep. 

 This is £400 sterling for sixty-six acres, including house 

 and farm-buildings — or at the rate of £6 sterling an 

 acre. Along the coast from this point, indeed, this sum 

 was frequently named to me as the value of improved 

 farms, w^ith good houses upon them ; and it appears to be 

 a kind of average price among the French Canadians of 

 the Lower St Lawrence. 



Towards the northern extremity of the ridge of hills 

 which girdles this bay, and looking down upon the belt 

 of rich land of which I have spoken, stands the college 

 or seminary of St Anne. The building is large, hand- 

 some, and beautifully situated. It accommodates, and is 

 occupied by, about a hundred and eighty students. The 



