In many cases, and now that agricultural improvement has become
a necessity, this want of money is found to be a great evil. The
ordinary sized farms, of 100 acres of good land, all in cultivation,
are worth from 500_l_., to 1,000_l_.; and very often an
expenditure of 200_l_. or 300_l_. in improvements would
double their value. The legal rate of interest here is 6 per cent.; and
as high a rate as 7 or 8 per cent could be got for small loans on
mortgages for these purposes were the money to be had. The banks,
however, do not, as a rule, lend money on mortgage, and the monied men
of the country have usually lands of their own requiring the same sort
of development. Foreign capital is therefore looked to; and doubtless
it will ultimately be procured in abundance, the security being
undeniable, and the rate of interest so high.
"Mr.---- does not consider the long winter any impediment to farming,
but rather the contrary, as the sudden burst of spring, and the rapid
growths of summer, make up for it; while in a country like this, where
roads are so scanty, many of the farmers' operations are performed more
easily during the snow and hard frosts which prevail.
"Leaving Montreal, by a short railroad of nine miles in length,
constructed to avoid the rapids of a bend of the St.
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