HOME NOTIONS OF AMERICAN FERTILITY. 355 



Canal is worked. — Overflow of traffic upon that canal. — Great exer- 

 tions of Canada in the construction of canals. — The Welland Canal. 

 — Canals along the rapids of the St Lawrence; their extent and cost. 

 — Energy of Canada compared with that of New York. — St Law- 

 rence route now takes less time than that by the P]rie Canal. — Money 

 cost of transport is also less. — Ohio wheat will take the St Lawrence 

 instead of the Mississippi route. — Importance of this route to the 

 political independence of the free North-western States. — Difficulties 

 in the navigation of the Lower St Lawrence. — Structure of its bed 

 and channels. — Risks, and high insurance. — Need of lighthouses and 

 depots of stores at the mouth of the river. — Traffic by the Richelieu 

 Canal and Lake Champlain. — Rising importance of this. — Projected 

 new ship-canal. — Future prospects of the St Lawrence navigation. 



Before I leave the shores of the St Lawrence, there 

 are a few points in connection with the agriculture and 

 national economy of Canada which have been the sub- 

 jects of observation and of interesting consideration to 

 myself, and which most of those readers who have accom- 

 panied me thus far in my book will not regret to have 

 their attention drawn to. Until I personally visited 

 North America, my own notions as to the agricultural 

 condition, capabilities, and resources of the several new 

 provinces and States, were, I now find, notwithstanding 

 all I had heard and read, of the crudest, most general, 

 and indefinite character. The exaggerations of inter- 

 ested natives and settlers, and the repetition of such 

 exaggerations by travellers who knew nothing of 

 agriculture themselves, and, like myself some dozen years 

 ago, could scarcely distinguish bad land from good — 

 these w^ere all the information our journals and yearly 

 literature afforded us. That wheat and Indian corn 

 poured in upon us at times from those regions, we knew ; 

 that some portions of the country were rich and fertile, 

 we could not doubt ; and the general conclusion in the 

 public mind was, that these new countries were generally 

 fertile — that inferior land was the exception — that large 

 crops were everywhere reaped — that the fertility of the 

 whole region was inexhaustible — that the supply of 



