EMIGRATION.
{TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.")
'Sra,—The emigrants Mr. Jenkins sends out will, I fear, be grievously disappointed, if they expect to live off ten acres of land or to raise from twenty to thirty bushels to the acre. We anust judge in such matters by general averages, not by the results sof exceptional farms or districts. I cannot find statistics of the wheat harvests during the last few years in the Dominion. But the "American Encyclopaelia " says of its most fertile province, Ontario, that "the highest average produce" (in three years) in any township was twenty-six bushels" (to the acre) "and 'the lowest six bushels." The same authority and the economist Mr. Carey, state the average produce of Ohio, which may, I think, be compared to Ontario, at twelve, or even eleven bushels to the acre. Mr. Young in "The Year Book of Canada" estimates the total agricultural produce of the Dominion at a value of about ten -dollars to the acre. As he prices wheat at a dollar the bushel, this will give an average of ten bulls to the acre, if we assume that the values of the different products are proportional. Moreover, as settlements living by truck and barter in the back- woods cannot live by bread alone and must raise many things besides corn, it is clear that on this estimate the average -colonist will require to farm something like the thirty-two -acres I assumed, if he is to get the 2,60 I think neces- sary for a year's maintenance. As the Government of Ontario _requires fifteen acres to be cleared and cultivated on the land it grants to immigrants, it can hardly suppose that ten -acres would supply the wants of a family. Where they do so, the farmer enjoys some exceptional advantage, or works at other pursuits.
When I lived in the bash, at a distance of nearly fifty miles from the only town of 500 inhabitants near me, my neighbours and I tran- sacted business by notes of hand, cheques, and coin. Still, I quite be- lieve that in the remote settlements to which emigrants going over to Canada in many thousands will be transferred, money will not be much used for some years to come. But I fail to see how this will Improve the position of the colonist. It is an economy to have an accurate and minute standard of value such as a metallic currency, and the settlers who do not possess it will constantly exchange at a disadvantage, or even, if very remote from the world, find them- selves unable to exchange at all. Corn burned for fuel is surely not a fact which should make any man's eyes glisten. It is only another form of labour wasted.
Before closing this subject, let me beg Mr. Jenkins to consult -an abstract of a paper by Mr. Welton in the Statistical Journal of last January. Mr. Welton computes that while we lost about 1,130,000 persons byemigration from England and Wales during the 20 years 1841-1861, we received in their place about 740,000 immi- grants into England. In other words, wholesale emigration causes a vacuum in the home labour-market, which there is sooner or later a rush to supply. But while we send out the pith and sinew -of our native labourers, we receive in their place Germans and 'Irish who are content to live on the low level of comfort their pre- decessors could not endure. To myself who am inclined to believe that the world has more to hope from the United States and the Colonies than from England, this exchange of gold for brass seems mot undesirable. But I think our statesmen and philanthropists .should apprehend the issue before them. Any stimulus they may give to emigration will not in the long run relieve English pauper- dam ; for a good year will fill the villages and towns which a bad season emptied. But the old familiar faces will not return. Is it quite certain that we can endure a change of this kind, lasting over many years, without loss to our national character and
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