rupted enjoyment of liberty, and the enlivening anticipation of independence, these happy lords of the forest spend their days in toilsome pursuits, without a murmur. Every tree that falls by the force of their axe is, in reality, the removal of another obstacle to their increasing prosperity; and never fails to occasion a delightful reflection, which softens toil and sweetens labour. The vista which the woodman's axe has gradually opened through the forest, and the extended view which it reveals to the beholder, prefigure the scenes of the future part of his life, through which he may see the probable issue of his diligent endeavours, and the independence of his successors. They toil for themselves, fearless of the oppressor's grasp, and unawed by the menaces of a lordly master, or the more unfeeling threats of his upstart hirelings. . In several parts of the Midland District, and particularly about the Bay of Quinte, the quality of the soil is very good but it is only in the Gore, Niagara, London, and the Western Districts, that every township is composed of first-rate land. From the Bay of Quinte, to York, along Dundas Street, there is a great deal of rather inferior land. Between York and the head of Lake Ontario, on each side of the Great Western road, the settlements are very numerous; and the soil, though not exceedingly prolific, seems to be tolerably wellcultivated. Still pursuing the Western road, from the head of Lake Ontario to the reserves of the Six Nations, on the banks of the river Ouse, the land

is found to improve. In the neighbourhood of Ancaster, there are many extensive and wellcleared farms; but the soil is light and sandy, and consequently wanting in durability. From the river Ouse, to Lake St. Clair, the land is allowed by all unprejudiced persons, acquainted with the country, to be generally not inferior to any tract of equal extent on the American Continent. In most parts, a fine black vegetable mould, between. six and nine inches in depth, covers a bed of deep grey clay, or sandy loom, entirely free from stones. In other parts, the vegetable mould is laid upon a substratum of yellow clay, which, if turned up in wet weather, is very liable to bake.

Returning again to the head of Lake Ontario, and following the road which leads to Fort George, and thence to Queenstown, the land will in general be found of a quality superior to that between York and Ancaster, but not so good as that of the Western country. In many of the new townships in the neighbourhood of Lake Simcoe, the land is of an excellent quality: It is indeed universally acknowledged, that all the new surveys are, in point of fitness for the purposes of agriculture, greatly superior to the old ones, offering to settlers every inducement, but the primary one of watercommunication with the more distant parts of the country, an advantage of which the majority of these townships are entirely destitute.

I have not a doubt, but that there are millions of acres in the Province, which, if cultivated accord

ing to the system pursued by English agriculturists, and committed to the care of skilful and industrious labourers, would produce crops as abundant as those of any other country in the world. But I have never observed a single acre of land, in either of the Canadas, that was so cultivated as to produce more than two-thirds of the grain, which, under more judicious management, it would certainly have been found to yield. When the land is first cleared, it is either sown with wheat or planted with Indian corn. Crops of these descriptions succeed each other, without intermission or ploughing, for three or four years together: At the expiration of this period, weeds have grown apace, and the farmer is at length compelled to introduce the plough-share, which, it is true, is rather an awkward instrument among the stumps. It is however of essential service: It turns up a part of the soil that affords covering for another crop, which is always put in by the farmer without his bestowing a single thought concerning a summer fallow, or any thing of that nature: The next year, the roots of the trees become more rotten, and the plough consequently more efficacious. Another crop is tried, and so on for 15 or 20 years, without any admixture of manure, or the slightest attention to a regular rotation of crops, until the soil becomes completely exhausted. In this manner, thousands of acres of excellent soil have been rendered incapable of producing the most ordinary necessaries of life, land which,

instead of running out, would have become yet richer and more productive under a proper course› of tillage.

In every part of America, the quality of the soil is ascertained, more by the timber which it. produces, than by the appearance of its surface or the nature of its substrata. Land, upon which black and white Walnut, Chesnut, Hiccory, and Basswood, grow, is esteemed the best on the continent. That which is covered with Maple, Beech, and Cherry, is reckoned as second-rate. Those parts which produce Oak, Elm, and Ash, are esteemed excellent wheat-land, but inferior for all other agricultural purposes. Pine, Hemlock, and Cedar land is hardly worth accepting as a present. It is however difficult to select any considerable tract of land, which does not embrace a great variety of wood; but, when a man perceives that Walnut, Chesnut, Hiccory, Basswood, and Maple, are promiscuously scattered over his estate, he need not be at all apprehensive of having to cultivate an unproductive soil. While on the other hand, he whose unlucky stars have set him down amid huge Pines, wide-spreading Hemlocks, slender Cedars, and stunted Oaks, will do well to accede to the advice of the poet,

To-morrow to fresh fields and pastures new!

Along the banks of the St. Lawrence and on the shores of Lake Ontario, particularly, between York and the Western extremity of the Lake,

the barren sort of soil preponderates. In the London and Western Districts, and in many of the new townships in the Gore, Home, and Newcas-> tle Districts, there are not more Pines and Cedars than suffice for building materials and fencing timber for home-consumption. Indeed there are several townships in the Western Districts, entirely destitute of Pine timber,-a circumstance, which, though it argues much in favour of the soil, is nevertheless attended with many serious incon-ĭ veniences.