ST. HILAIRE.

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from the effects of the sun and frosts, the brilliancy of thecolours was extraordinary. The tints from deep purple, shadinginto fresh green and pale yellow, were altogether surpassingbelief or description. I was loath to leave so glorious a sightwhich I had little prospect of ever beholding again.

Major Campbell is a most enthusiastic agriculturist, andis doing a vast deal to promote improved modes of farmingamong his contented neighbours the French settlers. Thepresent generation are not likely to profit much by hisexample, nor is it easy to see how their stationary conditioncan be reached and rendered progressive, unless by educatingthe rising generation, and instructing them in the principlesof agriculture. This course was recommended by the lateProfessor Johnston, and seems the only hope of effecting ageneral improvement in this miserably managed country.

The soil, however, it must be confessed, is not naturallygood, having too much clay in its composition, and beingunsuitable to the growth of grass. About St. Hilaire landsells at from £2 to £2 : 10s. per acre, and lets at fiveshillings per acre ; its value has increased very little for thelast ten years.

Major Campbell’s property lies at a higher elevation onthe sloping bank, and is not of good quality. He is an advo-cate for sowing wheat in autumn. His ideas and those of thelate Professor Johnston coincide, that it is owing to the landbeing so much exhausted that the wheat plant is weak andpredisposed to the attacks of fly during the flowering season.How far this opinion is correct I cannot say, but I did notsee ten acres of autumn wheat in Lower Canada, and it neverwas grown to any extent. Whatever may be the capabilitiesof the climate for green crops, I saw few turnips or mangold-wurtzel, and none that could be reckoned good.

7th October .—I Returned to Montreal by the railwaythrough a poor country, subdivided in the usual manner,and drove out in the afternoon to St. Martins, Isle of Jesus,a distance of twelve miles. The country is undulating, andthe soil often light and gravelly, though of a better descriptionthan what I saw in the flats this morning. Many large