118 MAPLE TIMBER AND MAPLE SUGAR, TOBACCO. that called the bird's eye, takes its name from its mottled hue; the curled maple is richly shaded in fibres, admits a high polish, and forms the ornamental work so much admired in the American packets. It is from a variety of the maple (acer saccharinum), that the celebrated maple sugar is made; the production of which, in Lower Canada, is about 25,000 cwts. annually. The tree is large and shadowy, with richly tinted autumnal foliage, and esteemed as timber for strength, weight, closeness of grain, waving fibre, and susceptibility of polish. The sugar is extracted by evaporation from the sap, which it yields abundantly when the bark and wood is wounded in spring; one tree yielding from a pint to two gallons per day. A plantation of maples is termed a suegari, and is justly considered valuable, as the sugar is rich and pleasant to the taste, and sells from 3d. to 6d. per pound. Many other trees and vegetable productions would claim notice did space permit ;* I must conclude the section with observing, that all European plants, fruits, vegetables, grain, legumes, &c. yield even in greater abundance than in the old world; sarsaparilla, ginseng, and other medicinals, are plentiful, but their virtues as yet imperfectly known.† Tobacco,+ * It is remarkable that in America, as also in New Holland, and other heretofore untilled countries, whenever the original forest is burnt or cut down, trees of a different species spring up, but seldom any of the sort growing previously to the application of fire. Thus also on the Malabar coast it is necessary to burn down the Cardemom and other spice plants before young trees will spring up in their place. In Canada indigenous grapes, not heretofore seen, spring up after the land is cleared of wood, and the banks of the Slave Lake, formerly covered wholly with spruce, fir, and birch, when laid waste by fire, produced subsequently and spontaneously poplar which had not been before seen. The nuns of Canada prepare a vegetable plaster which, it is said, never fails to cure inveterate cancer; the secret of preparation has not, however, been divulged. Tobacco was used by the Indians in Canada when discovered by the Europeans. Cartier, in his voyage of 1535 to Canada, describes, "a certain kind of herbe whereof in summer, they make a provision for all the year, making great account of it, and only men use of it; first they cause it to STAPLE PRODUCE OF LOWER CANADA. 119 hemp, hops, and other articles, may all be reared in any quantity the mother country requires, by attention to the subject. STAPLE PRODUCE.-The principal productions of Lower Canada may be partly judged of from the foregoing statements :-the colony is as yet decidedly agricultural, the principal exportable articles not coming under that denomination, being timber and ashes. The production of timber is very great, and capable of being continued for many years to come: an idea may be formed of its extent from the fact that the capital employed, in the lumber (timber) establishments and saw-mills in the neighbourhood of Quebec, is £1,250,000: this sum is laid out in erecting saw-mills throughout the country, forming log-ponds, building craft for the transport of deals, and forming a secure riding for the ships in the strong tide-way of the St. Lawrence while loading the timbers. The lumber trade is of the utmost value to the poorer inhabitants, by furnishing their only means of support during the severity of a long winter, particularly after seasons of bad crops (frequent in the lower provinces), and by enabling young men and new settlers most readily to establish themselves on the waste lands. There are manufactories of different articles established at Montreal and Quebec; soap and candles are now being exported, in 1831, soap, 81,819 lbs. and candles, 31,811, almost entirely to the other northern colonies, and the corn and flour trade of Canada promises to be a great source of wealth to the colonists. Horned cattle, sheep, swine, &c. multiply with astonishing rapidity, and the European breeds seem improved on being be dried in the sunne, then weare it about their neckes wrapped in a little beaste's skinne, made like a little bagge, with a hollow piece of stone or wood like a pipe; then, when they please, they make powder of it, and then put it in one of the ends of the said cornet or pipe, and laying a coal of fire upon it at the other end, sucke so long that they fill their bodies full of smoke, till that it cometh out of their mouth and nostrils, even as out of the tonnell of a chimney."-Haykluyt, iii. 224. 120 VALUE OF PROPERTY IN LOWER CANADA. transplanted to the American continent. The quantity of fish caught in the river and gulf of St. Lawrence, and in other streams is very great, and the consumption of this diet considerable in consequence of the tenets of the Roman Catholic faith. Fish oil is becoming an extensive article of export, as are also hides and horns. The peltry or fur trade (see Hudson's Bay territory chapter) has its outlet from the N. W. territories through Lower Canada. I hope to see ere long, tobacco, hemp, wool, wax, rape and other oils among the staple products of this fine colony. According to a manuscript furnished me from the Board of Trade, the following shows the amount of agricultural produce, and the number of acres under crop in growing the same, in 1828. Nature and quantity of Produce in Lower Canada in 1828. Year. Wheat. Peas. Oats. Barley. Rye. 1828 Bush. Bush. Bush. Bush. Bush. Bush. Bush. Bush. Bush. Cwt. 2,921,240 823,318 2,741,529 363,117 227,143 330,635 6,723,772 120,917 188,382 12,989 Nature of crop, and number of acres in each crop in Lower Canada. The last census of Lower Canada gives the agricultural produce of each county so completely that I am tempted to subjoin it, but before doing so, I request the reader's attention to the following estimate of property, moveable and immoveable, and annually created in the province ;-I give this table, as observed in my preceding volumes, as an approximation to truth, for the purpose of stimulating further inquiry into the subject, and with a view of showing the importance of the colonies in the mere light of property: I have endeavoured in every instance to make my estimate below rather than above the value. Wheat. PROPERTY ANNUALLY CREATED IN LOWER CANADA. Oats. 121 Barley. Buck Wheat. Indian Corn. bushels. bushels. bushels. bushels. bushels. bushels. 3404756, 3,142,274, 394,795, 106,050, 339,633, at 53. at 28. at 4s. at 48. at 48. bushels. bushels. 234,529, 984,758, 7,357,416, at 3s. at 48. at 1s. 6d. per bushel per bushel per bushel per bushel per bushel per bushel per bushel per bushel £851,689 £314,227 £78,958 £21,020 £67,866 £35,179 £196,951 551,806 Annually created £17,417,696; Moveable £34,413,870; Immoveable £26,556,358; Grand Total £78,387,924. Rye. Peas. Potatoes. Animal Food. Nature and Value of Property annually created, and also Moveable and Immoveable, in Lower Canada. PROPERTY ANNUALLY CREATED, AND IF NOT CONSUMED TURNED INTO MOVEABLE PROPERTY. Fish, fresh and salt. Butter, Cheese, Milk and Eggs. Fruit and Vegetables. Nature and Value of Property, Moveable and Immoveable, in Lower Canada. 600,000 mouths, at 2d. each daily, £50,000 600,000 mouths, at 2d. Spirits, Shoes, Clothing, £5 each, &c. &c. &c. tion for neces saries, £3,000,000 £10 each Consumed Including at home, the coastand exported at least, By ship N.B. wreck, I consider ing and fire, bad this estimaritime seasons, mate con trade, improvi- siderably 21,000,000 at least, dence, &c. under the £1,500,000 £250,000 amount. 17417696 Timber and Ashes. Value of Com merce not be fore given. Wasted annually. Total annually created. Total.. 127949 1685817 5627781 911887§ 126821 798133 927422 367444|| 4812 1695853 8013 41803 100530 107072 21175 30951 1502 186 101 255617 6511 21103 10014 3 123089 Total.. 47467 360 137533 54802 2529859 123130020989824 801717 1911861 275651 172025 3133414 4221802) 68855 8890 31292 770 21730 53196 196284 4981 42132146486 32080 484 8926 366341 4781 19614 20284 4975 48493 1776 3316 13766 28817 111927 73 230226 3083 86574 63468 2808 13908 214358 2239 Total.. 205963 3981793 2065913 3404756 984758 31422744 394795 234529 3396334|73574161|106050 ₫ Thus marked are on the S. side of the river St. Lawrence. + Thus marked are on the N. side of the river St. Lawrence. |