CHAPTEE XIII. 



Ideas generally entertained of American fertility and agricultural 

 resources. — Reports of travellers. — Desire to obtain accurate infor- 

 mation. — Condition of agriculture as an art in North America. — 

 Contrast between Europe and America. — General effect of an exhaust- 

 ing culture upon the soil. — Effect sometimes produced very slowly. — 

 Instance of old abbey -lands. — Claim of monasteries to the manure of 

 their tenants' stables. — Effect of general exhaustion on the production 

 of staple crops. — Its effect on the wheat-lands of North America. — 

 Their retreat towards the west. — Liability of plants to disease on 

 impoverished lands. — Remarkable change of cultivation in Lower 

 Canada during the last twenty years. — Great diminution in the wheat 

 and increase in the oat crop. — Loss and disaster which must have 

 accompanied such a change. — Effect of this change on the corn- 

 markets of the world. — Lower Canada become wheat-importing and 

 oat-consuming. — Disastrous effect of the potato failure. — Similar 

 changes threaten to follow similar modes of culture in other parts of 

 North America. — The wheat -exporting capability will diminish — 

 Manuring system of Scottish farmers who sell or carry off their 

 crops as is done in America. — Possible continued and extensive 

 supply of Indian corn. — Import-duty in the United States upon corn 

 from Canada : should it be I'emoved 1 — Would it on the whole be 

 beneficial to Canada 1 — Zeal for improvement in Upper Canada. — ■ 

 Why do Rochester millers compete with the Canadian in Liverpool, 

 in flour made from Canadian wheat 1 — Occasional low freights of the 

 New York liners. — Use of Canadian wheat for mixing. — Alleged 

 large mercantile profits expected in Canada, — Profits derived from 

 dealings in land.— Profit of a direct trade in flour between Montreal 

 and Liverpool. — Growth of flax in Canada, and export of linseed. — 

 Instance of the close relation of disco vei'ies in science to the profits 

 of agriculture, and the agricultural capabilities of a country, — Com- 

 parative freights by the St Lawrence to Liverpool, and by the Erie 

 Canal through New York.— St Lawrence the natural outlet of the 

 lake-bordering countries. — Great expertness with which the Erie 



