336 Report on the American and Canadian Meat Trade. 
Canadian Resources. 
The superficial area of the Dominion of Canada which is 
adapted to farming purposes is said to be about 2,300,000 
square miles.* It is therefore; about one-third smaller than the 
United States. I am speaking now only of that portion of the 
Dominion which is habitable ; the " Wild North Land," beyond 
the limits of grains and grasses, is naturally out of all reckoning 
in this Report. The difference in size between the cultivable 
portion of the States and the cultivable portion of Canada is 
said to be more than made up on the part of the latter by her 
superiority over the former as a grazing country. Canada 
is less oppressed by a burning tropical sun, her summer is 
more temperate, and she enjoys a larger rainfall. These un- 
doubtedly are great advantages in the raising and feeding of 
stock, and in general farm operations. Her summers more 
nearly resemble those of England. She can successfully raise 
not only Indian corn and wheat, in which the States have been 
supposed to excel, but root-crops of all kinds, cereals, and arti- 
ficial grasses ; and her hay-crop is heavy and of superior 
quality. The States, on the contrary, except in few and 
favoured localities, do not and cannot produce satisfactory 
root-crops for cattle-food ; and, in the quality which is sup- 
plied by the finer natural and cultivated grasses, their hay- 
crop is inferior to that of the Dominion. Canadian farmers 
send hay to Chicago and the Gulf States, and still retain 
enough to feed their own immense herds through the winter. 
It must, however, be borne in mind that the Canadian winters 
are more severe, taking the country throughout, than are 
those of the States ; therefore, with regard to climate, Canada 
is placed at a greater or less disadvantage in reference to cattle- 
feeding. 
The following Table (p. 337) would seem to demonstrate that 
the agricultural development of Canada, in the thirty years pre- 
ceding 1871, relatively has been much more rapid than that 
of the United States during the same period. This is attri- 
buted in part to the better agricultural climate of the former 
country. 
To John Dyke Esq., Agent of the Canadian Government in 
Liverpool, 1 am indebted for the following interesting compa- 
* The total area of Canada is much larger than this, and probably falls little 
short of, if it does not exceed, the area of the United States. 
