Notes on North America, agricultural, economical, and social

Front matter

NOTES ON NORTH AMERICA " In fro tofjat parttc of tjje mrlj that men titocll, outfjcr aboben or bfnetfien, It geemerj altoags to f>cm tfjat otoelltn tj)er« tfjat tljeD goto mow rigjt tfjart arts other foils." SIR JOHN MANDEVIXLE. t NOTES ON NORTH AMERICA AGRICULTURAL, ECONOMICAL, AND SOCIAL BY JAMES F. W. JOHNSTON M.A., F.R.S.S.L. & E., F.G.S., C.S., &c. i i- .M.i m IN LHKMIBTRY AND MINRRAMIOY U» THE UNIVERSITY OV DURHAM TWO VOLUMES VOL. I. WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS EDINBURGH AND LONDON 1IDCCCLI TO HIS EXCELLENCY SIE EDMUND HEAD, BART., LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR OF THE PROVINCE OF NEW BRUNSWICK, &c. &c. Dear Sir Edmund, I dedicate these volumes to you, partly because they contain, among other matters, the obser vations I made during a lengthened Tour through the pro vince of which you are the Governor, and in the prosperity of which you feel so lively an interest.

But I do so chiefly as a mode of testifying the respect and regard I entertain for yourself and your family, and as affording me au oppor tunity of expressing my sense of the many acts of kindness I experienced during a prolonged stay at Fredericton, under your hospitable roof. Believe me, dear Sir Edmund, with great respect, Your obedient Servant, JAMES F. W. JOHNSTON.

Preface

I HAVE given to the following volumes the title of " Notes," because I am conscious of the imperfect and hurried character of some of the observations they contain, and that mistakes, generally trivial I hope, and always unintentional, may be discovered in them by natives of North America. In recording my remarks and impressions, while I am sensible that I have regarded objects with the eyes and feelings of a " Britisher," and have generally written as if I were addressing British readers only ; yet I have endeavoured to speak fairly and with candour, both of the institutions and of the social condition of the States and Provinces through which it was my fortune to travel. While I have expressed my opinions freely, I have endeavoured to avoid either ridicule or causeless reproach. And although I caunot hope that my remarks will be always agreeable to my friends in the United States, yet I hope none will accuse me of a desire either to violate confidence, or to return bitterness of VI

PREFACE.

. speech for the respect and kindness which I every where experienced. In addition to the matters usually commented upon by those who visit foreign countries, the reader will find in these volumes a kind and class of observations which he will not have met with in other books of travels. And though I may appear to incur the risk of injuring their popularity with the general public by introducing agricultural remarks, yet, in the present condition of our own agricultural interest, there are few persons to whom some infor mation in regard to that of America will not be acceptable. These observations on rural matters are also so mixed up with remarks on other subjects as not, I hope, to fatigue even the ordinary readers of books of travels. It has long struck me as a vital defect in the accomplishments of most of our travellers in foreign countries, that the want of an agricultural eye has prevented them from giving us any of that positive and matter-of-fact information upon which alone a cc rrect estimate of the real character, capabilities, and future economical prospects of a country can be safely based.

I have been more detailed in my remarks upon the lower St Lawrence and the province of New Brunswick, because this is almost untrodden ground, and, so far as I am aware, we possess, in reality, no good account of this region by an eye-witness from

PREFACE.

. VII Great Britain. In the province of New Brunswick I spent four months, and travelled two thousand miles — penetrating to the confines of the settled land in nearly every direction. I owe it to the province, therefore, to make its own inhabitants, not less than those of Great Britain and of the United States, better acquainted with the real character and capa bilities of its surface. In this respect, I believe the following pages will form a historical document to which future provincial antiquaries will turn back for a description of the state of their country in the middle of the nineteenth century. ' Some persons in the United States, and perhaps not a few at home, may be inclined to controvert the opinions I have expressed in regard to the agriculture and to the productive capabilities of the wheat regions of North America.

I will not maintain that more knowledge might not somewhat change my views on these subjects ; but as these form in reality one of the points in my book upon which I have bestowed much deliberation, I have not put them upon paper without being fully satisfied that they are substan tially correct. It will not alter these opinions, that some American writers may dissent from them. My own experience has shown me, that the areas in regard to which individuals in the United States possess really correct and precise agricultural information are very local and limited; while the majority are insensibly inclined to give faith to exaggerations

PREFACE.

. VIII upon this as upon other topics, provided their tendency be the patriotic one of exalting the greatness of their country. I trust, however, that even where my observations do not wholly coincide with those of my American readers, they will at least acquit me of picking out deficiencies even in their agriculture, for the mere sake of finding fault, or of exposing them in a cen sorious spirit. I have spoken of the soil, and its treatment, as I would if I were describing a district of Great Britain ; and where I have pointed out defects in past or present practice, it has been for the purpose of mentioning along with them the remedies for past mismanagement, and the improvements of which existing methods are susceptible. If I may rely upon the testimony of my nume rous Transatlantic friends, my temporary residence in New Brunswick, New England, and the State of New York, has not been without beneficial results to the agriculture of those countries.

I trust that, while these volumes make my own countrymen better acquainted with these interesting regions, they will be found to contain not a few hints which may still further benefit and encourage the rural industry, both of Great Britain and of North America. I hope, also, that the general spirit which pervades them will tend to draw still closer the numerous bonds by which our kindred nations are already so intimately allied. Durham, February 1851. CONTENTS

Chapter I

A WEEK IN NOVA SCOTIA. Page Halifax in Nova Scotia. — Roman Catholic fate and precedence. — Coloured people and Indians. — Maritime commerce and fisheries. — Agricultural character of the coast line of North America. — Letters of Agricola. — Population and agricultural produce. — Road from Halifax to Windsor. — Soils and forests. — Pacing horses. — Gypsum quarries. — Alluvial lands of the Bay of Minas. — Their varieties and prices. — Sand plain of Aylesford. — Vale and town of Annapolis. — Ice-holes and iron-works. — Healthiness of the country. — Handiness and provincialisms of the Nova Scotians, ..... 1

Chapter II. Up The River St John In New Brunswick

— FROM THE CITY OF ST JOHN TO THE GRAND FALLS. Area and population of New Brunswick. — The lumber-trade, its benefits and evils. — City of St John. — Diminution in its import trade and in the provincial revenue. — River St John. — Rich river flats. — Average produce of QueeD's and Sunbury counties. — City of Fredericton.— Farm on the St John. — Intervale land, its different qualities and values. — Emigration fever. — Woodstock.— Quality and value of land in its neighbourhood. — Exhausting culture of first settlers. — Farming on Shares. — Charivari of the Mickeys of Woodstock. — Farm at Jackson- CONTENTS. X Page town. — Speculators in land. — Iron ore and iron smelting. — Itinerant lecturers.— Mouths of the Tobique and Aroostook rivers. — Potato breakfasts and meals in common.— Mellicete Indians on the Tobique. — Irish settlement and thriving settlers. — Grand Falls and town of Colebrook, 33

Chapter III. Up The St John To Little Falls, And Across The

PROVINCE FROM FREDERICTON TO MIRAMICHI. Upper St John.— Colonel Coomb's farm. — Growth and consumption of buckwheat.— Valley of the Madawaska. — Edmonston, or Little Falls. — Houses of the Acadian farmers. — Tea dinners. — Ascent of the river Tobique. — Rich upper lands of the river. — Why buckwheat is unfavourable to good husbandry. — Terraces of the St John River. — Autumnal tints of North America. — Time of growth of grain-crops in New Brunswick. — Sumach trees. — Apple-orchards. — Scotch settlement. — Making land at Fredericton. — Rising of stones under the influence of the frost. — Fire-weeds and Canada thistle. — Stanley, the settlement of the New Brunswick Land Company. — Price of farms. — Running fire in the fields. — Bilberry swamp. — Farm and opinion of an Aberdonian. — Raspberry hay. — Mare's-tail cut for hay. — Boistown. — Great fire of 1825. — Gloomy landscape. — Fires in the forest. — Nakedness of the cleared land. — Success of farmers in New Brunswick. — Price of farms on the Miramichi River. — Increasing consumption of oatmeal, 67

Chapter IV. From The Miramichi River To The City Of St John

BY SUSSEX VALE. Douglastown. — Great heat. — Mode of reclaiming forest land. Plague of grasshoppers — Average produce, prices and wages. — Chatham — Golden rod, a troublesome weed. — North American oaks.— European weeds on the cleared lands. — History of an Annandale settler. — Bay-du-Vin schoolmaster. Richibucto.— Buctouche River.— Sweet fern soils. — Patience and contentment of the French settlers. — Shediac, famed for its oysters.— The Bend-Bore of the river Petitcodiac— Height of high water above that of the Bay.— Case of Mr Nixon.— Use of river mud.— Greater industry of new settlers.— Burned Bridge. CONTENTS. XI Page — Beauty of Sussex Vale. — Mr Evanson's home-farm. — Mr Aiton's farm. — Hampton, and its conglomerate soils. — Fine looking yeomen of New Brunswick. — Price of farms. — A discontented Irishman. — Dyked marshes of St John and the Atlantic border. — Rate of wages for agricultural labour in the several counties of the province, . . . .102

Chapter V. From St John In New Brunswick To Syracuse In Western

NEW YORK. Steamboat from St John to Portland, in Maine. — Railway to Newhaven, in Connecticut. — Alleged rudeness of American manners. — Farming in Connecticut and Massachusetts. — Yale College. — Number of Students. — Expense of residence. — Inferior position of professional men. — Estimation of lawyers and medical men. — Favouring of quacks. — Medical schools in the United States. — Elm-trees of Newhaven. — Tree-toad. — Fairhaven ; its oyster-trade. — Two species of American oysters of large size. — Railway to Albany up the Housatonic Valley. — Post-tertiary clays and sands of the upper valley of the Hudson River and of Lake Champlain. — Natural forests which grow upon them.— Schenectady. — Valley of the Mohawk. — Rich bottoms of this valley. — Broom corn, (Sorghum saccharatum,) its extensive cultivation. — German flats. — Utica. — German population. — Change in the meaning of familiar words. — Choice of judges by popular election. — Titular judges and generals. — Popped corn. — Flour of Indian corn ; varieties in its colour. — City of Rome. — Mr Clay. — Verona. — Arrival at Syracuse, ....... 131

Chapter VI. The City Of Syracuse And Its Neighbourhood

Syracuse. — Its rapid growth. — Popularity of Mr Clay. — Show of the New York State Agricultural Society. — Agricultural implements. — What 'they teach. — Law against long leases.— Breeds of stock in New England, and in the Western States. — Merino sheep. — Trotting horses. — Condition of agriculture. — Fruit region of Western New York.— Profits of apple-growing.— Quantity of fruit exported.— Varieties of apples in the United States and in Normandy. — Apple-trees producing a CONTENTS. XII Page 157 19-2 crop every year — Gout de ten-ain. — Mr Geddes's farm. — Rich soils of the Onondaga salt group. — Rotation followed. — Exhausting effects of this rotation. — Average produce of the State and of its richest western counties. — Profits of farm ing. — Property confers no political privilege. — Experiments with gypsum. — Wages of farm-servants. — Section of the wheat region of western New York. — Beautiful relation of the soils to the rocks. — Quantity of salt manufactured at Syracuse. — Consumption of salt in the United States and in Great Britain.— Revenue from the salt springs. — Method of extracting the salt, ......

Chapter VII. From Syracuse To Buffalo At The Foot Of Lake Erie

Railway to Buffalo. — The Americans a clever people. — Joe Smith, founder of the Mormons. — His removal to Missouri, to Ohio, and Illinois. — Progress of his sect. — New State of Utah, on the Salt Lake. — Character of the book of Mormon. — Canandagua.— City of Rochester. — Genesee flour. — Value of farms on the Genesee River. — Profits of farming in this valley. — Mr Wadsworth's farms and farming. — Inducements to invest money in land in New York State. — Relative values of rural produce and of human labour. — Average produce of the Genesee country. — New York does not produce wheat enough for its own consumption. — North-east America not a dangerous competitor in the English wheat market. — Duty upon Canadian wheat. — Importance of the direct trade to Europe by the St Lawrence. — Erie Canal ; its traffic and revenue. — Number of emigrants from different countries. — Influence of New England on the development of the new States. — Democratic party. — Principles of the Old Hunkers and the Barnburners, ..... .

Chapter VIII. Buffalo And The North-western States

City of Buffalo ; causes of its rapid rise. — Influence of the growth of the Western States on the agriculture of western New York and Upper Canada. — Home ideas as to these new States. — Cheap wheat does not imply rich land. — Michigan. Average produce of this State, and of its several counties.— Can CONTENTS. XIII Page the export of wheat from these new States continue ? — Quantity of seed corn per acre sown in the several States. — Copper mines of Lake Superior. — Immense masses of native copper. — How they occur. — Ancient Indian workings. — State of Wisconsin. — Popular feeling in regard to the several new States. — Land sold in each in 1847. — Minnesota, the New England of the West. — Influence of these new States on the future traffic of the St Lawrence. — Wonders of the hog crop of Ohio. — Indian corn the staple of Ohio.— Hogs killed in the western States. — ■ How they are fed. — " Packing business" at Cincinnati. — Various marketable products of this business at Cincinnati, ..... 221

Chapter IX. From Buffalo To The Falls, And Down Lake Ontario To

KINGSTON IN LOWER CANADA. Case of American cleverness. — Butcher in Buffalo. — Influence of Europe on the progress of American cities. — Cause of difference in the progress of Canadian and New York cities. — Lake Erie. — Supposed periodical, rise and fall in the level of the great lakes. — Water discharged by the Niagara River. — Hotel at the Falls. — Coloured waiters. — Geological Section at the Falls. — Wearing action of the water. — Influence of the winds on Lake Erie. — Influence of the noise of the Falls on their impression upon the mind. — Railway to Lewistown. — View from the mountain ridge. — Voyage on Lake Ontario. — Profits of New York farming by a New York farmer. — City of Oswego. — Sackett's Harbour. — Railway to Canada. — Kingston in Upper Canada. — Character of the Upper Canadians. — Difference between a Canadian and a New York wife to a working man, .... 242

Chapter X. Kingston And Its Neighbourhood

Kingston. — Show of the Upper Canada Agricultural Society. — Implements in the show-yard. — Canadian coffee. — British sympathy with colonial grievances. — Alleged pusillanimity of the Governor-general. — Wheat the surest crop in Canada West. — Total produce of Canada West, and average yield per acre. — Diminished productiveness of the wheat-crop.— Social position of the farming class in Upper Canada. — United CONTENTS. Page 264 2S7 .Empire Loyalists. — Indian-corn whisky. — Extensive manufacture of it at Cincinnati in Ohio. — Whisky from pease.— Frospects of Kingston. — The Thousand Isles of the River St Lawrence. — Descending the rapids. — The Sault St Louis. — Approach to Montreal. — Metamorphic limestone rich in .phosphate of lime. — Agricultural value of this rock. — Deposits ■of mineral phosphate in the State of New York. — Origin of ,this mineral phosphate, and of garnet, graphite, &c. found in crystalline limestones.— Singular contortions exhibited by this limestone, ..••••• ■

Chapter XI. Montreal And Its Neighbourhood

Montreal. —New churches. — Ruins of the Parliament House. — Scotch farmers in the Island of Montreal. — Cultivation of hops. — Price of land. — French Canadian farms and farming. — Clerical obstacles to the settlement of Protestant farmers. — Importance of a better husbandry in Lower Canada.— Instruction in agricultural principles. — Excursion to St Hilaire. — St Lawrence and Atlantic railroad. — Maple sugar manufacture in Canada and the adjoining States. — Soil of the valley of St Lawrence. — Pigeon or stone weed, its prevalence. — What its history teaches. — Bellœil Mountain. — Beautiful view of the St Lawrence flats. — Exhaustion of this formerly fertile region. — Seignorial tenure of land. — Reserved rights of the seigneur. — Sherbrooke. — Lands of the " Canadian Land Company," in the eastern counties. — Their progress. — Voyage to Quebec. — The Ottawa River and District. — Its rising importance. — British and French in Montreal. — Parties in the city. — Why British members from Upper Canada voted for the Rebellion Losses Bill. — Explanation of one of their number,

Chapter XII. From Quebec Down The St Lawrence To The Mitis River

Land opposite Quebep. — Its quality and value. — Few immigrants into this region. — Roman Catholic seminary.— Self-sacrifice of the teachers — Falls of Montmorenci. — Sun-setting on Quebec. — Proportions of the different sects. — Comparative prosperity of Montreal and Quebec. — Fires in the latter city. — Journey down the St Lawrence. — Flat lands of St Thomas. — St Roque CONTENTS. XV Page des Annais. — Long farming streets. — Upper Bay of Kamouraska. — Price of farms. — College of St Anne. — Rapid increase of the French population. — Early marriages. — Healthiness of the climate. — Comparative births and deaths in Lower Canada and in England. — Kamouraska. — Village of Du Loup — Cacona. — Extent of wild land in these lower counties. — Large families of the peasantry. — Subdivisions of farms. — Resemblance of the poorer habitants to the poorer Irish. — Wages in the Rimouski district. — Longitudinal valleys parallel with the St Lawrence. — Bog-earth of North America. — Rimouski. — Irish landlord. — Scotch settlers at Mitis, ..... 322

Chapter XIII. The Agriculture And Wheat-producing Capability Of The United States And

CANADA — AND THE NAVIGATION OF THE ST LAWRENCE. Ideas generally entertained of American fertility and agricultural resources. — Agriculture as an art in North America. — Effect of general exhaustion on the production of staple crops. — Retreat of the wheat-exporting lands towards the west. — Remarkable change in Lower Canada. — Its effect on the corn-markets of the world. — Similar changes probable in other parts of North America. — Import duty on Canadian Corn. — Would its removal benefit Canada as a whole? — Why can Rochester millers compete with Canadian? — Large profits expected in Canada. — Growth of flax and export of linseed. — The St Lawrence the natural outlet of the Lake-bordering countries. — Exertions of Canada in the construction of canals. —Its energy compared with that of New York. — Ohio wheat will prefer the St Lawrence to the Mississippi route. — Importance of this route to the political independence of the free North-western States. — Difficulties and future prospects of the navigation of the St Lawrence, .... 354