REVIEWS — THE CANADIAN ALMANAC. 513 



import, — £16,054, In an agricultural country, chiefly dependent for 

 its prosperity on the labors of the farmer, such statistics seem to point 

 to unexplored avenues of economy and ultimate wealth ; and to these 

 as weK as other useful facts accumulated in the highly practical pages 

 of the Canadian Almanac \ve invite the attention of Canadian readers. 

 The impolicy of Canada placing its whole dependence on the pro- 

 ducts of agriculture is justly dwelt upon ; but also, remembering how 

 essentially "Western Canada is an agricultural country, — may we not " 

 still more press the force of the statistics above referred to, and 

 ■deduce therefrom the impolicy of the Canadian farmer neglecting 

 stock, cheese, and butter ; and the Canadian agriculturist leayiag the 

 marJcet gardens of the neighbouring States to supply our markets 

 with pot-herbs to the value of £16,477, and our gardens and grounds 

 ■with plants and shrubs, stated among the imports of 1857 at £12,787. 

 So that, while real estate has been acquiring an extravagant, fictitious 

 value, on the faith of the permanent maintenance of the price of a 

 grain, which the experience of a very few years sufiices to show is 

 exposed to greater risks, and to wider fluctuations in market value 

 than almost any other commodity : our American neighbours have been 

 driving a profitable trade in supplying us with the common neces" 

 saries of life. It, no doubt, requires some laborious industry to 

 compete for the sum of ^€48,041, thus annually slipping into the 

 pockets of our shrewd and industrious neighbours over the line, for 

 the two simple articles of butter and cheese ; but it can be little else 

 than sheer indolence and folly in our farmers to allow £6,675 to slip 

 annually through their fingers for poultry and eggs imported from 

 the States. 



One other annual department of our Canadian Almanac always 

 interests us, and that is the section devoted to Canadian Patents. 

 Curious it is, in an inland, and so strictly agricultural Province, to 

 fijid such an annual expenditure of mechanical ingenuity, in the 

 majority of cases, we fear, with no great practical results. It proves, 

 however, the presence amongst us of elements which we may yet 

 confidently hope to see turned to good account in developing the 

 manufacturing resources of the country. We have here no less than 

 four new solutions of the problem of a perfect steamboat paddle ; 

 also "a self-loading cart;" "an improved spark arrester, chimney, 

 and peticoat pipe for locomotives ;" and other patented inventions o^ 



