CHAPTER X.

Kingston.-Soils of its neighbourhood.-Importance of agriculture in Canada.-Show of the Upper Canada Agricultural Society.—Porkraising in the provinces.-Adaptation of breeds to local circumstances. Implements in the show-yard.-Infancy of root-culture in the province.-Alleged difficulty in the turnip-culture.-Rocky Mountain beans.-Canadian coffee.-British sympathy with colonial grievances.-Alleged pusillanimity of the Governor-general.-Farming in Home district.-Wheat the surest crop in Canada West.— Excellence of the winter wheat.-Best wheat-belt round Lake Ontario.—Total produce of Canada West, and average yield per acre.— Large consumption of oats.-Less productiveness of the wheat-crop than in former times.-Cause of this.-Social position of the farming class in Upper Canada.-Means of improvement now in progress.— United Empire Loyalists.-Limited capital of the farming proprietors.-Condition of the grants made to the United Empire Loyalists.-Renting of land, and farming on shares.-Indian-corn whisky, and malt.-Extensive manufacture of such whisky at Cincinnati in Ohio.-Use of Indian corn in the Canadian distilleries, and of mixed rye and pease.--Whisky from pease.-Prospects of Kingston.-The Ten Thousand Isles of the River St Lawrence.-Descending the rapids.-The Sault St Louis.-Nature of this rapid, and of the descent.-Approach to Montreal.-Metamorphic limestone rich in phosphate of lime.-Agricultural value of this rock, and of the mineral phosphate as an article of export.-Deposits of mineral phosphate in the State of New York.-Origin or source of this mineral phosphate, and of garnet, graphite, and other minerals found in crystalline limestones.-Graphite and phosphate of lime in an altered rock, evidences of the former presence of organised bodies. -The crystalline limestone interstratified with gneiss.-Singular contortions exhibited by the limestone.-Dr Emmon's explanation of the cause.

SEPT. 19.-Kingston, on my arrival, partook of two different forms of excitement-one in common with the

NEIGHBOURHOOD OF KINGSTON.

265

whole province, arising out of the political differences and recent burnings at Montreal; the other peculiarly its own-connected with the show of the Agricultural Society of Upper Canada, which was to be held in its suburbs during the course of the week. The interest taken by all parties in the political question was great; and the comments on the procedure of the Government and the Governor-general, numerous and free. The influence of all this was not insensible upon the affairs of the agricultural meeting, at which, until almost the last hour, his Excellency's presence was expected. On the whole, however, the meeting went off very well, and very creditably to the agriculture of the province-though with the introduction, into the after-dinner speeches of more politics than would have been permitted by an experienced chairman on such occasions at home.

The neighbourhood of Kingston is an inferior agricultural district. A thin, generally light soil, rests on the Trenton limestone-a solid deposit of dark-blue fossiliferous rock, which here skirts the northern shores of the lake, and extends inland to a considerable distance. The richest lands of this division of Canada lie towards the north and west, a portion of the province which I regretted that my previous arrangements did not permit me to visit.

In Canada, every one is satisfied of the paramount importance of the agricultural interest; a very general desire exists, therefore, to advance it by every reasonable or available means. The superior class of settlers, of whom so many are scattered over Upper Canada, will greatly facilitate the adoption of such means of improvement as are usually employed, or are easily available by agricultural societies.

The Agricultural Society of Upper Canada had been in existence only three years, and the excited state of political parties had retarded that general union, even

266

AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.

upon the question of rural improvement, which, as men's minds sober down, must eventually take place. Still I was agreeably surprised, both at the extent of the preparations I saw making on my arrival, and with the appearance of the town and of the show-yard on the day of the exhibition. The latter was not so extensive nor so crowded as that of Syracuse, but much more numerously attended by well-dressed and well-behaved people, and rendered attractive by a greater quantity of excellent stock and implements than I had at all anticipated.

The best of the stock was brought from the western part of the province. Among them were superior Shorthorns, a few Devons, and some Ayrshires-all of pure blood. The greater number, however, were crosses, which, as in the States, are here called grades. The Leicester sheep were very fine, and the prize pigschiefly Berkshires-excellent.

The pig husbandry in Canada and in the province of New Brunswick, to be conducted economically, requires to be somewhat modified in comparison with the method adopted in Ohio, and the other large hog-growing and Indian-corn producing States. Of the vast number slaughtered at Cincinnati after harvest, the ages vary from a minimum of eleven to a maximum of nineteen months. They are generally kept over one winter, and packed before the next commences. In the provinces, the first difficulty which the settler has to overcome is that of laying in a sufficient stock of food for the long months of winter; and although the introduction of a better husbandry will by-and-by greatly lessen this difficulty, yet at present it is a main object with the farmer to get the winter over at as little cost of food as possible. The aim in regard to pigs is, therefore, to obtain a breed which shall litter in April, and can be fed to produce a barrel of pork (196 lb.) in November or December of the same year, and thus to

IMPLEMENTS IN THE SHOW-YARD.

267

save all winter keep, except for the breeders. As the lumber trade retires farther back, and becomes less extensive, the large and fat pork which was in demand for the lumberers becomes unsaleable, and a new form of the article-such as a civilised community are likely permanently to consume-is necessary to be produced.

Considerations of this kind render it necessary to look at stock in different countries with a differently instructed eye; and the opinions of a committee in offering, and of a judge in awarding, prizes, must be determined, not so much by the abstract excellence of this or that animal or breed, as by its special adaptation to local circumstances, and to the purposes for which it is reared.

Among the implements, which considerably exceeded in number and variety what is often to be seen at the shows of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, there were many excellent ploughs, harrows, cultivators, &c., manufactured in the province. Straw and corn-stalk cutters, and corn-shellers, were in considerable numbers; but an English visitor would be struck by the want of drill-machines, and root-cutters, and grain-crushers, now so abundant at our British shows. A few of the former, for drilling wheat, were the only implements of the kind which were to be seen. The roots exhibited-turnips, carrots, beet, mangoldwurzel, &c.-were all large and fine, showing the aptitude of the climate and soil to this culture. But here, as elsewhere in North America, the root-culture is still in its infancy. A rich virgin soil, producing crops for many years almost spontaneously, gave no stimulus to the preparation and preservation of manure among the first settlers; while the ready sale for wheat, and the difficulty of procuring hay for large winter stock, have hitherto prevented the attention of the existing farmers from being turned to the rearing of cattle.

Besides the fly-which, as with us, commits here also

268

ROCKY MOUNTAIN BEAN.

great ravages upon the young turnip-drought is said to prevail in this province more frequently than at home, at the time for sowing the seed. There is greater difficulty also, it is alleged, in keeping the roots during winter than with us. Such difficulties, however, appear more formidable at first; experience generally shows how they are to be overcome. The last-mentioned difficulty has often been put to me in the province of New Brunswick, chiefly by persons new to the turnip. Yet even there I have met many practical farmers, who had fairly entered upon the culture, and had experienced its benefits in the winter-feeding of their stock, to whom the preservation of their turnips, in cellars of a properly adjusted temperature, had presented no difficulty whatever.

Among the horticultural productions were two which were new to me. One was the Rocky Mountain bean, which had pods from 12 to 18 inches in length, growing in pairs, and about the thickness of a common French bean. The seed has the appearance of a small kidneybean. The other was labelled Canadian Coffee. It is a species of pea growing in a small inflated pod. It has the flavour of a pea, with a bitterish after-taste, and when roasted, has much of the odour and taste of coffee. It grew readily and ripened in the neighbourhood of Toronto, and may possibly come to be economically important.

On the whole, as I have said, this Kingston show was very creditable to the province of Upper Canada. The thousands of people who came to it, the stock and implements exhibited, the respectable appearance, the orderly behaviour, the comfortable looks and cheerful faced af both male and female, spoke for a state of thire, to t least not very unflourishing. The British can be turer in Upper Canada than in the State of New November-e, as I have already remarked, Dutch and