362 EEMARKABLE CHANGE OF PRODUCE 



in the food of the people also, and in the kind as well as 

 quantity of the surplus produce they have been able to 

 bring to market. I know, indeed, of no well-ascertained 

 facts in the agricultural history of any country which are 

 more striking in these respects than those which are pre- 

 sented by a comparison of the quantities — relative and 

 absolute — of the different kinds of grain produced in 

 Lower Canada, at successive periods, during the last 

 twenty-five years. 



The following table, published by^ the Canadian Board 

 of Statistics in 1849, exhibits the amount of this produce 

 in bushels in the years 1827, 1831, and 1844, respec- 

 tively : — 



In this table we see that from 1827 to 1831, and pro- 

 bably somewhat later, a similar state of things existed, 

 and that a gradual increase took place in the amount of 

 all the crops raised ; a natural consequence of the 

 increasing population, and of the larger breadth of land 

 every year subjected to the plough. The wheat-crop 

 increased by 500,000 bushels, the oat crop by 800,000, 

 and the potato crop by 500,000. In these quantities we 

 see a slight tendency to an increase, in the proportion of 

 oats grown, above that of wheat or potatoes ; but in the 

 other crops there is nothing to arrest especial attention. 



In 1844, however, a very different state of things pre- 

 sents itself. During the interval of thirteen years (from 

 1831 to 1844,) the wheat-crop, instead of increasing 

 2,000,000 bushels, as it ought to have done, had dimi- 



