136 MOiNTIiLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



the price, we were told, " $1 50 — if it would sell for anything'''' ! So we paid 

 the demand, and behold ! we found this little work of 300 pages — worth $1 50, 

 " if it ivould sell at alV — to be full of agricultural literature and practical infor- 

 mation of a high cast, and such as ought to be in the library of every agricultur- 

 ist in Canada who is not content to degrade his own profession — the very busi- 

 ness of his life — by considering and following it as a mere drudgery— a work of 

 routine — in the management and conduct of which it is only necessary that the 

 man should be one degree raised above the brute he drives. For so every man 

 entitles himself to be denounced who would divest Agriculture of that elegance 

 and dignity which are only to be associated with intellectual exercise and the 

 charms of literature. 



To no such category does the author of this work belong. We had not time, 

 after getting his book, to seek the favor of a personal acquaintance with its au- 

 thor, William Evans, " Secretary to the Montreal Agricultural Society," — but it 

 requires very little observation to pronounce that, if communities are not im- 

 proved by the continued and enlightened labors of such Societies, it is never the 

 fault of such Secretaries. 



We had hoped to have found in this work some exact history of the origin and 

 introduction of the Canada Horse. A slight examination of it, however, has not 

 proved satisfactory in that respect. We noticed particularly, nevertheless, as 

 we went along, the horses of the country, such as are literally " the horses of all 

 work," in Montreal and Quebec ; and, with the exception of a few in private 

 carriages, procured from " the States," they are, almost loithout exception, of the 

 frame and character of what is understood with us as the " Canadian Horse," viz. 

 stout, close knit, and short jointed, with a rather large and (behind) crooked leg. 

 The muzzle not particularly coarse, but the jowl thick, and head and neck large 

 and heavy, with long mane, and uncommon widtii and flatness between the eyes ; 

 very few of them rising to 15 hands, but evidently very hardy, true to the draught, 

 and exceedingly strong. Contrary to the impression which prevails, we are now 

 satisfied that the specimens which have been brought to the United States do full 

 justice to this breed of horses, which to us appear to be well adapted to the climate 

 and labor of Canada. We agree on this point with Mr. Evans, that " the horse 

 best calculated for agricultural purposes here, in summer and winter, is one of 

 moderate size, strong, active, spirited, and of hardy constitution. Can any horse 

 more nearly come up to this description than a good-sized, well-shaped Canadian 

 horse?" We are, m fact, almost settled in an opinion we have elsewhere inti- 

 mated, that Nature will take care to adapt animals, as well as vegetables, to the 

 circumstances of the country ; and though Art, when working in harmony with ' 

 her, may do much to improve her productions, it must not too rudely cross and 

 oppose her purposes. 



In some conformity with our impressions on this subject, Darwin, in his Voy- 

 age of a Naturalist, elsewhere referred to, remarks : " It is curious to observe 

 how the seeds of grass and other plants seem to accommodate themselves, as if 

 by an acquired habit, to the quantity of rain which falls on different parts of this 

 coast ;" and in " Connection of the Physical Sciences," by Mary Somerville, 

 lately published, from the seventh London edition, by the Harpers, of New- 

 York, we find — " It is even said that a distance of 25*^ of latitude occasions a to- 

 tal change, not only of vegetable productions, but of organized beings." So we 

 are inclined to believe that if the high-bred south-eastern courser, or the coarse 

 Conestoga wagon-horse, were turned loose in Canada, in process of time they 



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