EMIGRATION TO BRITISH AMERICA.
(From the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture).
We shall offer some remarks on the advantages and
disadvantages which our American colonies present to
emigrants.
One of the disadvantages of emigration is the
separation of friends for ever. Time and distance no
doubt gradually obliterate from our mind the most
endearing recollections, but under untoward
circumstances, which will at times cross the path of
every mortal in the most favourable situations, the
emigrants, and particularly the female emigrant's breast
must be "stung with the thoughts of home," on comparing
the many conveniences, and comforts and society, in their
fatherland, which cannot be within their reach in their
newly adopted country for many years to come, and perhaps
not within the period of their lives. Unavailing wishes
that they were back to their own country have been
expressed by many, who looked with dread on the hardships
they had to encounter at their first settlement. The
labour required to clear a forest of gigantic trees is
appalling to a man who has nothing to depend upon but the
physical strength of his own body; and if its powers have
been impaired by low living, arising from want of employment
previous to the period of his emigration, and if he have a
wife and large family depending on him for support, that
labour must be exercised at the outset to a painful degree.
All the shelter he can expect in the first winter of his
sojourn is in a house of trees piled together, and his
wooden furniture must consist of the rudest construction,
blocked out of the timber which he himself has cut down.
Though the air is clear and bracing, the intensity of the
cold in winter is far beyond what he can conceive, and the
heat in summer is so great for a short period as to blister
the skin if left exposed to the sun's rays. The diversity of
temperature in the seasons causes an additional expense in the
provisions of clothes for the winter. Musquitoes [mosquitoes?]
swarm on every new settlement, and annoy every one by their
stinging and raising inflamed spots over the body. Rubbing
strong vinegar over the parts is said to alleviate the pain.
Fires of wet chips, lighted at the doors of
the cabins, will prevent the ingress of these troublesome
insects. When a clearance has been made the musquitoes
[mosquitoes?] are not so troublesome. They dwell chiefly in
the woods, and in the vicinity of swamps, and come out in hot
weather. A small black fly annoys also very much, by settling
among the hair in the morning and evening. Sleep is completely
driven away when they make an attack, and they produce the
most uneasy sensations.
The state of the roads prevents a constant and rapid
communication between the places; and in a new country where
coin as the circulating medium is scarce, and barter exists as
the medium of exchange, difficulties are often encountered in
disposing of the surplus stock of agricultural produce. The
intrusion of wild animals is an evil which ought not to be
overlooked as affecting a new settler. If the cattle and sheep
are not penned up at night, they may be partly destroyed by the
ferocity of the bears. Bears, however, are not numerous. But
squirrels and racoons, of which there are plenty, may destroy
the corn crops materially, particularly in any season that is
unfavourable to the formation of beech mast and nuts. Mice and
rats eat the seed of the Indian corn after it is in the ground,
so that two or three successive sowings are sometimes necessary.
The advantages, on the other hand, which emigrants may enjoy
in our American colonies are numerous and important. The first
and great advantage is constant employment, whether labour be
required for improvement of their own land, or that of an
employer. Constant employment bestows vigour on the bodily
frame, and contentment to the mind. Labour, it is true, is not
so high priced in Canada as it was when labourers were scarcer,
but still, an ablebodied agricultural labourer can get 2s. 6d.
a day, and skillful mechanics as much as 5s. and their victuals.
The soil being quite new and fresh, it is naturally fertile, and
it will give a good return for the labour bestowed upon it, and,
of course, the exercise of superior skill and industry will
produce extraordinary results. The climate in summer, too, being
so very superior to this country, that many products of the soil
may be obtained there with little trouble, which cost much
trouble and expense here. Not only the ordinary grains can be
grown to perfection, but maize, garden vegetables produce, and
fruits of all kinds, grow luxuriantly. It is found, however,
that the grafted trees from this country thrive much better,
and produce more and better fruits, than the natural trees of
the country. Abundance of provisions, then, for the largest
families may be always obtained in our American colonies
during the while year. This assurance of abundance not only
produces contentment of mind, but infuses that spirit of
independence which forms a valuable ingredient in a manly
character. All accounts agree in the happy and contented
state in which the emigrants are found, even in the midst of
toil. Ample future provision for the family soothes the mind
of the emigrant in the hour of dissolution. Not a trifling
advantage consists in the absence of all vexatious imposts or
burdens. There are no stamp-duties. - Taxes there must be
in all civilized communities but there they are "trifles light
as air." One dollar per hundred acres of land is about the
annual amount of taxation to an emigrant. Besides all that,
he may make his own malt, brew his own beer make his own
candles and sugar, raise his own tobacco, and tan his own
leather, without dread of being exchequered. And last, though
not least of these advantages, is the almost unlimited space
which lies open for settlements. For many generations yet
unborn, good land and constant employment will wait the arrival
of the emigrant in the forest lands of our American colonies.
These advantages counterbalance the evils of a new country, but,
combining the former with the latter, emigrants, should check
the ardour of enthusiasm. They must consider that perseverance
alone will insure success. They must make up their mind to work
ere they can prosper. If they wish to possess land of their
own, they must take money with them to give in exchange for
that land. Having obtained the land which they desired to
possess, they must consent to endure hardships before they can
obtain even a shelter, and they must wait with patience the
returning seasons before they can reap the fruits of their
industry. All these considerations cannot be too strongly
urged on the mind of the emigrant, for if they are not expected
and guarded against, disappointment and vexation will assuredly
ensue. "It is a matter of the first importance", says Mr.
M'Gregor [McGregor?], "for a man living in the United Kingdom,
to consider, before he determines on expatriation, whether he
can, by industry and integrity, obtain a tolerably comfortable
livelihood in the land of his nativity; whether, in order to
secure to his family the certain means of subsistence, he can
willingly part with his friends, and leave scenes that must
have been dear to his heart from childhood; and whether, in
order to attain to independence, he can reconcile himself
to suffer the inconveniency of a sea voyage, and the
fatigue of removing with his family from the port where he
disembarks in America, to the spot of ground in the forest
on which he may fix for the theatre of his futute operations;
whether he can reconcile himself for two or three years, to
endure many privations to which he had hitherto been
unaccustomed, and to the hard labour of levelling and
burning the forest, and raising crops from a soil with natural
obstructions which require much industry to remove. If, after
making up his mind to all these considerations, he resolves on
emigrating, he will not be disappointed in realizing in America
any reasonable prospect he may have entertained in Europe.
These difficulties are, indeed, such as would often stagger
the resolution of most emigrants, if they had not before them,
in every part of America, examples of men who must have
encountered and overcome equally, if not more disheartening
hardships, before they attained a state of comfortable
affluence."
