SPECTATOR'S LIBRARY.

TRAVELS, "

Agricultural Tour in the United States and Upper Canada; with Miscellaneous No-

tices. By Captain Barclay of Cry Blackwood and Sons. EPISTOLARY DiCLAMATION, The Martyr of Errumauga; or the Philosophy of Missions, illustrated from the Labours. Death, and Chtracter of the late Rev. John Williams. By John Camp-

bell. D.D., &c. Author of "Jethro," Maritime Discovery." &c. Sew.

MI/DICERS,

On Rheumatism, in its various forms ; and on the Affections of Internal Organs, more especially the Heart and Brain, to which it gives rise. By Roderick Macleod,

M.D., Physician to St. George's Hospital Lowman and Co.

CAPTAIN BARCLAY'S TOUR IN THE UNITRD STATES AND CANADA.

A DAUGHTER of the celebrated pedestrian, Captain BARCLAYi_ " having cast her lot on the other side of the Atlantic," wished;, with her husband, to have her father's advice as an agriculturist respecting the comparative merits of Canada and the United States as a country to settle in. Accordingly, Captain BARCLAY started for America, in April 1841 ; and, landing at Boston on the 6th' May, commenced his tour, with the same activity, if not juve- nility, as when he started on his feat of a thousand miles in a thousand successive hours. After driving about Massachusetts to examine its farm-houses, farming, roads, and cattle, he started for New York ; whose vicinity was subjected to a similar scrutiny. He then passed up the Hudson, and reached Niagara by coach and phaeton ; visiting the farmers as he went along, examining their farms, and criticizing their operations. In Canada the Scottish agriculturist spent ten days on his survey ; and, Tory as he is pronounced a verdict against it. "On entering Canada, I had heen impressed with a marked difference be- tween it and the United States. In the latter, the people were everywhere distinguished by that cheerfulness and appearance of contentment which attend activity and exertion in peaceful pursuits. In Canada, there prevailed an almost universal gloom, the consequence of recent internal commotion • of the still existing conflict and rancour of political feeling ; or of the withered hopes of many who, having speculated largely in land, have received little or no re- turn for their money. This was my early impression; and any thing I have since observed, or by inquiry ascertained, has served to confirm it, and to satisfy we that of the two countries the States hold out for agricultural pur- suits by far the greater advantages to persons possessed of any capital. "With the exception of portions of cleared land, varying from fifty acres in some situations to several hundreds in others Upper Canadais an immense and trackless forest, forlorn and forbidding at best ; and in many places rendered more gloomy and repulsive by the trees having been burnt preparatory to being cut down, and consequently now presenting to the eye nothing but bare and blackened poles.

"And with regard to what is called cleared land, it consists of no more than a patch here and there, on which the huge pines that for ages had been tenants of the soil, have by the application of fire and axe been reduced to stumps four feet in height, so thick set as in many places to bid defiance to the plough, and to preclude any mode of cultivation except sowing and hand-raking the seed.

"There are here no railways, and no interior water-carriage,—advantages so amply enjoyed in the States; and although there are roads, they are of such a description asto be nearly impassable, excepting in winter, when the sleigh is made use of.

"Upper Canada, too, is comparatively destitute of local markets, or of any proper outlet for the surplus produce of the land; for the population is not only thin and widely scattered, but themselves chiefly agricultural, each family therefore raising sufficient for its own supply' and there are no towns of any magnitude to create any considerable demand for the surplus; nor if there were, are easy means of transport afforded. "There is, however, one description of persons to whom a settlement in these forests may prove tolerable—the labourer, and especially the hardy High- lander, who, glad to escape from privation at home, and delighted to roam at large, may with his own bands and assisted by a family of sons, erect a rude hovel of log, gradually clear a quantity of land sufficient for a subsistence, and in the course of time come to possess a small property, the height of his ambi- tion. Except to such persons, clearing land here cannot be attractive or made

remunerating."

Returning to the States, Captain BARCLAY drove inland to Whelin on the Ohio ; a town of some standing, the Birmingham of America, and the great artery between the Northern and Eastern provinces and New Orleans and the newly-settled West. Striking across the Allegheny Mountains, he next proceeded to Baltimore; and having a desire to witness American slavery, made a rapid run through Washington to Richmond, the capital of Virginia; whence he returned to New York, through Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The rapid character of' Captain BARCLAY'S movements precludes his work from having a very profound character. Ten days or a fortnight in a country is but a little time to form a judgment 011 any thing excepting its superficial qualities ; and this brief time was limited as regards the space surveyed—a particular town in Canada forming his head-quarters, whence his ramifying excursions were made. Part of his tour in the States was more rapid still. He spent the night at Buffalo, for example ; the same at Erie ; the same at Baltimore, if we read him rightly ; and some twenty- six hours at Whelin ; many of his days being occupied in trotting along the road, as well as some of the execrable roads would let him. The Agricultural Tour in the United States, however, has a greater value than many books of a more ambitious aim. The author had a distinct object, in the pursuit of which parental anxiety sti- mulated habitual observation and criticism on subjects with which he was acquainted. He had also influential family connexions in the States; by means of which, he was introduced at once to the objects best worth seeing and to the persons capable of yielding the best information. Like a barrister from his brief and consultation, he rapidly got at the points that were to go to the jury and influence the verdict ; though much might be thrown aside, which the phi- losopher, taking a whole view, might wish to know. Even the parts that are not agricultural imve an interest. Captain atact.ar,

is a gentleman of the old school, straightforward and off-hand ; quick in seizing the points of such matters as draw his attention, able to express himself clearly and neatly ; and, if not going deeply into things, never descending to the meannesses or minuteness which characterize a good many Transatlantic travellers. In point of servants and society, he not only found the States above his expectations, but above par.

"It may not be deemed foreign to my purpose in recommending a preference for the States to my emigrating countrymen, to devote a few words to the con- dition of American society. "I had long heard much of the impertinent curiosity, rudeness, vulgarity, and selfishness of the people of the States : but instead of any extraordinary signs of these repulsive qualities, I found good breeding, politeness, frank hos- pitality, and every generous feeling, prevailing among them in as great a degree and with as few exceptions as at home.

" In the cities I saw none of the open displays of depravity which disfigure our large towns; and in all my journeying I never saw the face of a police- man, never met a beggar or any one in the garb of rnendicity, never heard uttered an oath or imprecation, and never witnessed an instance of intoxication but one, and that I regret to say was furnished by a Scotehman. I observed, when at Albany, that the Americana are attentive to their religious duties; and this opinion has been confirmed by a further acquaintance with them.

"One does not meet here with any pretension to the high fashinn bred in courts and pervading their atmospheres ; but exclude this from the comparison, and between the States and England, there will be found in private society such a resemblance of manners as for the moment makes a Briton forget be is not in his own country ; or if that shall be called to his mind, it will probably be by a difference only in the personal appearance of the natives of the two

countries.

"In quitting New York, I feel it incumbent on me to observe, that in every family I visited I found the same comforts and correct domestic economy as in the first families in Britain ; their servants equally respectful and well-bred, and certainly void of any approach to that vulgarity and improper freedom with accounts of which some travellers amuse their readers."

According to Captain BARCLAY, the slavery of Virginia, which he took a journey on purpose to look into, is a mere bugbear, so far as physical condition is concerned : the slaves are exceedingly well fed and well treated, and are satisfied with their status. He there- fore sets down the tales which regale the ears at Exeter Hall as the effects of ignorance and zeal; to which might be added, perhaps, a little pious fraud. In reading the following account, however, it must be borne in mind, that Captain BA.RCLAY drew his conclusions from a short residence in one town, and only saw domestic slavery, which is always milder than prxclial even when the owner resides on his plantation instead of in a town.

"Richmond, an extremely handsome town, contains about 40,000 inhabi- tants; of whom two-thirds are persons of colour, and a greet proportion of these slaves. Every servant, man, woman, and child, is a slave : but, to my great and agreeable surprise, I found slavery here possess none of the horrors I had at home been accustomed to hear connected with it—for the slaves in Vir- ginia are well clothed and well fed, and kindly treated, and to all appearance contented and happy ; indeed, I should say their condition, physically, is one of great comfort and enjoyment, in comparison with that of our own manufac- turing population, by thousands of whom, I cannot doubt, it would, in rela- tion to the necessaries of life, be looked upon with envy.

"The men, for the greater part, are strong, muscular, and good-looking; and of the women many are handsome, particularly the nursery-maids, house- maids, and other domestics; who, in dress and person, appear as gay and taste- ful and tidy as the most buxom of our lasses.

"The term slave sounds harshly in a British ear ; and when I was told by a nice light-hearted looking girl that she was a slave, I could not help regarding her with a feeling of commiseration: she, however, seemed to think nothing of the designation ; and I am glad to believe it is, at least in this State, felt in a great measure as but 'a name.' "What I had been told of masters selling the offspring of their slaves, as we would sell lambs the produce of our ewes, I found to be totally without foun- dation. On the contrary, great attention is paid to the wants and comfort, and also the moral and religious instruction of slave children ; and any master or family acting differently towards them would be scouted. "When it happens, as often it does, that any one owns more slaves than he himself has DUCA/lion to employ, he allows them to serve in different capacities in the employment Of other persons, and particularly as domestic servants; in which capacity they receive wages from the employers at the rate of eight or ten dollars a month, one-half of which goes to the master who clothes his slaves and otherwise cares for them. In this way it happens that many fa- milies have slave servants not their own, but to whom they pay wages."

Of the general soil of the States, as well as of its scenery, our agriculturist speaks in high terms : of their agriculture he thinks meanly in every sense. It is backward, slovenly, and wasteful, without science, art, or method. The land is scourged by crop upon crop; yet not more than half is produced which the soil is capable ofyielding, from a deficient allowance of seed, and the non-application of manure which is wasted, or rather is not attempted to be made. Rotation-crops are scarcely thought of; and when clover is sown with wheat, it is chiefly used to plough in as a manure. The farm-buildings and arrangements are almost as bad as can be.: there are no rick-yards ; and, as a general rule, one great barn receives all the produce indiscriminately, hay as well as corn. The stock is mostly of a bad and unprofitable breed; and where some enterprising individuals have gone to the expense of importing English bulls and rams, the selection has not always been judicious ; and from want of skill or care in the breeding, the stock has advanced very little beyond the general run of the country,—though the American farmers seem to have succeeded better in breeding stock than in cultivating land. Their manage- ment, however, is very profitless. There are no homesteads where the cattle might be sheltered in the severe American winter, and no green crops stored to feed them : they depend upon bay ; and if this is scanty and the winter prolonged, the hay fails, and some perish, whilst under the most favourable circumstances the entire stock is in very reduced condition by the spring. To crown all, the roads are generally in a wretched state ; impeding in every way the transport of the farmer's produce to market, where he has not the advantage of water-carriage. To the British and American agriculturist, this rapid and read-

able volume will be of considerable interest and use ; though Captain BARCLAYS opinions must be taken with some allow- ance for the drawbacks that are to be made for local circum- stances, which only experience can discover ; whilst it might be well to consider whether less than three months of fine- weather exploration can enable the observer, however skilful, to decide peremptorily upon every practice, without knowing any thing of the climate for the other nine months. To the economist the book. has also a value. The facts of Cap- tain BARCLAY contain some conclusions, apparently without his knowing it, against the Corn-laws as alike impolitic and useless. America may not be overflowing with capital to apply to agricul- ture, but she must have an immense deal more than Poland or Russia. However slovenly and backward her agriculture may be, she has at least the old English system of farming as a basis, with such modifications as circumstances required; whilst British farmers and farm-servants are continually pouring into the coun- try, and all our theoretical works on agriculture are written in their :mother-tongue. If, with such advantages as these, and a fertile soil as yet unexhausted, and in the richest alluvials capable of yielding sixty bushels per acre, her highest produce, under the crack farmer of the States, Mr. Sua..trr of Pennsylvania, is only thirty bushels per acre, what can be expected from the poor lords and idle serfs of the East of Europe? And to their drawbacks in cultivation are to be added the cost of freight and port-charges, in addition to internal carriage; which must be heavy, for, bad as are the roads and carriages in America, it would be ridiculous to com- pare them with Poland and Russia, where roads do not exist at all.

In the few further extracts we shall make from this volume, the point we have mooted will often suggest itself; for, as we observed, Captain BARCLAY does not seem to be aware of the conclusion his facts contain, and for aught we know he may be in favour of the Corn-laws.

FARMING AND ROADS IN MASSACHUSETTS.

The farms seldom exceed from one hundred to three hundred acres ; and they are all occupied by the proprietors. The fields are small, and enclosed with rude stone dikes. From the opportunity I had I could not well judge of the quality of the soil, but the grass-lands were evidently only recovering from the effects of a severe winter, and vegetation seemed more backward than in Britain.

I could not discover any appearance of a regular system of farming. The implements of husbandry were clumsy and uncouth. Oxen, seemingly of the large red Sussex breed, appeared to be chiefly used in agriculture; but, from the lateness of the season and the want of keep, no stock was to be seen in the fields. In Boston they have an active well-bred sort of horse, chiefly used in buggies, which I was told is reared in New England, and fetches a price as high as forty or fifty guineas. I was assured the proprietor of a farm of the size I have noticed lives in a comfortable style, equal to that of a Scotch laird of from 5001. to 1,0001. a year; and from the appearance of the dwellings, I had no doubt of it.

No attention is paid to the roads, which are full of holes sufficient to shake any sort of carriage to pieces. There are no turnpikes nor any fund for main- taining the roads. This, it is obvious, must operate as a great drag in the bu- siness of agriculture ; and one is surprised to find an enlightened people like that of Massachusetts not more alive to the fact that the value of land is incal- culably enhanced by good roads of internal communication.

STATE OF LONG AND STATEN ISLANDS.

On the 11th May I crossed over to Long Island, where I walked several hours. This island is one hundred and sixty miles long and eighteen broad. It is the garden of New York, rich in soil, highly cultivated, picturesquely diversified with hill and dale, and covered with villages, villas, and farm-houses; but I could not discover that the land is under any regular system of agriculture, or that, with all the advantages it possesses in the quality of soil and prox- imity to the New York market, any effort is used to make the most of them.

Next day I crossed over to Staten Island, distant from New York nine miles. This island, about forty miles in circumference, is like Long Island, beautiful and picturesque. I drove over a considerable part of it, and found large tracts of rich meadow-land applied to comparatively little profitable use. They mow a considerable part of the meadows; but I saw very little stock, no sheep, and such cattle as were to be seen were of the most heterogeneous breeds—bad Lances. shires, Scotch, and Welch, no two bearing the least appearance of consanguinity. Wheat and Indian corn are grown in small patches. The farming-implements are of a rude and awkward description ; and, in a word, here is a fine tract of land which as regards the matter of agriculture is almost neglected.

SUPERIOR FARM AND FARMING IN THE STATES.

Mr. Wordsworth's property comprises about forty miles of country, the rich- ness and picturesque appearance of which it is impossible in adequate terms to describe. Of this property, Colonel Wordsworth occupies 1,600 acres ; 1,000 of which, in the Genesee flats, are alluvial meadow-land equal to any in the vales of Aylesbury and Buckingham. This portion of land he keeps in old pasture, laid out in divisions of from sixty to one hundred acres each. The remainder of the farm is upland, and under a rotation of crops • affording the first specimen of any thing approaching to systematic husbandry I had seen since 1 entered the States.

His stock comprehends 400 cattle, steers, heifers, and bulls, and about 2,000 sheep of the Merino breed ; and I could not but regret seeing land so valuable covered with stuck of so inferior a description.

The red breed of cattle, which I had seen all over the State of New York, Colonel Wordsworth informs me are considered to be Devons. If so, they are much degenerated ; being of diminutive size, coarse, and evidently bad feeders, averaging not more than from twenty-five to thirty stone. Co onel Wordsworth's young stock are partly bred by himself, or bought in at one year old, for about 25a. a head : they seem starved and stunted in their growth, and as miserable in appearance as the worst stock on the bleak sides of our Grampian Hills ; and yet were depasturing land of a quality equal to what with us in Scotland might bring a rent ot 5/. per acre. He has two or three Durham bulls for crossing ; but they are so low in con- dition, Slid SO disfigured—appearing as if scalded with hot water—tbat it is im- possible to judge of their properties. He also crosses with half-bred bulls; and the consequence is a heterogeneous mixture, which it would puzzle a Wetherell to analyze. His system is to sell his cattle in the fall, when they are three or four years old, at the New York market, distant three hundred miles; where they fetch a price equal to 8L or 101. a head. . He rabies no green crops, with the exception of a few acres of potatoes rind mangel-wurzel. Turnips he says cannot be raised witla them, being all cut off with thefly ; but to the cultivation of that valuable root I could discover here no phys'..mlimpediment.whieh might not be overcome by skilful management. He mows annually about five hundred acres of his meadow-land; and the hay "nSade from it is the sole dependence of his stock throughout the winter. But his farm-buildings are not at all adequate to the requirements of such a farm; and Ins stock in winter is foddered in the open fields, where the animals must well nigh starve, there being neither hedge nor shelter of any kind to mitigate the severity of the cold. This practice, in which the Colonel is not singular, but 'which on the contrary is a very general one, may well account for their miser- able appearance; as it is not easy otherwise to explain why cattle fed on good ineadow-hay should at the end of the winter he found in such a condition : and this too happens in a country where timber is a drug, and hovels might be run up in every direction at little expense.

His flock, as mentioned, are all Merinos, or are so styled; and their value con- Vista chiefly in their wool, little account being had of the carcass, which at three Or four years old brings only from 8s. to 10s. The weight of fleece is three pound, which sells at 2s. of our money per pound; each sheep thus yielding for wool fis. per annum.

Colonel Wordsworth has also a dairy of sixty cows ; which he lets out to a tenant who manages the establishment, making the cheese and butter, and paying to the Colonel 20s. for each cow, besides a proportion of the produce in kind. It need hardly be remarked, that the quantity of milk yielded by a cow left night and day to shiver in the open air in the rigour of an American winter, must be very trifling ; not, certainly, one-third of what she might give under proper shelter. The rotation of crops followed on the arable farm are wheat and clover al- ternately; that is, wheat is sown in autumn, and among it clover is sown in spring; the clover remaining until the second summer, neither mowed nor pas- tured, but ploughed in for manure, and then wheat is again sown in autumn. This is the only manuring the land receives ; for as the cattle are all foddered in winter on the meadow, the straw is either burnt or piled up in large masses to rot and waste under the influence of the weather.

We have beard so much of the cheapness of land in the United states, that the idea of a freeholder is attached to that of a farmer. In the older States, however, there appear to be a good many tenants, and under a very bad system.

"As far as I could perceive, the common description of rural tenantry in America are a sort of contractors, who agree to plough and crop a portion of land by the year, and to deliver, in name of rent, a certain portion of the crop in bulk.

"Under this system the land is robbed of the straw which ought to be con- verted into manure, and consequently, year by year, must become more and snore deteriorated; and at last, finding it has been nearly worked out, and ren- dered no longer capable of making him a due return for his trouble, the con- tractor leaves it, and in the wide range of the States seeks and readily finds another lot, to be ploughed and cropped and impoverished in its turn."

It may be said that the abolition of the Corn-laws would stimulate the American cultivators to change their system : to make a nation change its opinion, however, is not an easy task ; to change a national practice is still more difficult, and can only be effected by time. Even Captain BARCLAY, with his agricultural reputation and the advantage of the living voice, seems to have made a convert of but one person throughout his tour : and the Captain himself admits that any improvement, large or small, can only be effected by importations from Great Britain—whether a farmer desires to have a rick-yard or even a solitary stack ; or a landlord a race of tenants who will take long leases and pay him in cash instead of kind ; or a breeder to improve his stock by a compact breed, that will make flesh fast, and not lose all of it when driven long distances to market. But these importations, and their con- sequent results, must be a work of several years in individual cases : an indefinite period must elapse before they would influence our markets, if indeed America can ever export grain to greatly influence them at all in the common meaning of influence—by re- ducing prices so as to throw land out of cultivation.