more immediately required. Since the voting of the money, I have not heard any thing of the machinery; but, as yet, there has been no need of it.

The writer to whom I have just alluded, observes: It is very extraordinary, that, although the British government has several times, since the commencement of the present century, exerted itself in some degree to promote the culture of hemp, not only in Canada but in the East Indies, those exertions have been hitherto utterly fruitless: It is said, that the East India climate is too hot, and consequently that the hemp produced there is too fine for large cordage. This may probably be the cause of failure in that quarter; but no such deteriorating effects are produced by the heat of the Canadian climate. The Society for the Encouragement of Arts say, in the Preface to the 21st volume of their Transactions, that they have ascertained by actual experiment, that Canada can furnish hemp for the use of the navy, equal in quality to that which is imported from the Baltic. Monsieur Vondervelden, in a letter to the Society, attributes the bad success in Canada to the attachment which the Canadians have always evinced to old customs, and to the opposition and prejudice of their priests, who would derive no advantage from the cultivation of hemp, as it is not, agreeably to the existing laws, a tytheable article. The seigneurs and merchants also gave it considerable opposition; the one, from a conviction that it would destroy the profits of their wheat-mills, from which their great

est revenues are derived ;-and the other, because they were apprehensive, it would have a powerful tendency to set aside that system of barter which they had long found to be more profitable than a ready-money trade.

Only some of these difficulties exist at present in the Lower Province; and, I think, the principal among them might be obviated by making hemp a tytheable article. But in Upper Canada, which, on account of the superiority of its soil and climate, is much better adapted to the growth of hemp, a still smaller number of obstacles would be experienced, than in the Lower Province; and it is the opinion of the best-informed men in the country, that if a plan like that which I have now described were pursued, a sufficient quantity of hemp might be reared, in less than five years, to render the British Government completely independent of foreign supplies, and to save us from the humiliating necessity of annually paying the sum of a million and a half to a foreign power, for an article, which, by a little encouragement on one hand, and by industry and perseverance on the other, we might raise in our own colonies, to the great benefit of Canadian settlers.

FLAX is cultivated for domestic use by almost every farmer in the Canadas; but few, if any, have attempted its cultivation as an article of comSome hogsheads of flax-seed are annually imported from Quebec, the greatest part of which is purchased, I believe, from the inhabitants of the

merce.

United States. Nine thousand six hundred and one bushels were exported in 1820;† from 1800 to

+ Dr. Dwight observes, "In America, the stalk of this plant " is large and branchy, the bark or coat rigid and dark-coloured, " and therefore, in the several processes of curing, dressing and “ bleaching, more liable to fret or break, than that of Ireland or "Germany."-This circumstance is easily accounted for, and as easily prevented. In Ireland, 4 bushels of seed are sown to the acre, whilst in most parts of America, two bushels are deemed quite sufficient. The consequence of this difference in the quantity sown, is,―in the former country the stem has not room to extend itself laterally or to shoot out boughs, and therefore, in common with the stalks of many esculent herbs cultivated in gardens, it becomes the better blanched the more closely it is planted ;-and in the latter, the thinly-scattered stems stand so far apart from each other, that in a fertile soil aided, as that of America is, by a most genial climate, innumerable branches shoot out from each stalk as if inclined to fill up the spaces which have been left vacant through want of seed, and the sun and atmospheric changes have thus abundant opportunities afforded of darkening the rising plant. I have satisfied myself of the correctness of these facts by actual experiment: I sowed, on two portions of land, equal in fertility and extent, different quantities of flax-seed. That spot which had received four bushels to the acre, produced a large crop of as fine flax as any raised in Ireland; whilst that on which only two bushels per acre had been sown, yielded exactly such spreading and discoloured flax as Dr. Dwight describes. But the good Doctor, though exceedingly well-informed on almost every subject which he professes to discuss, has furnished evident proofs to all practical men, that the province, in which he shone with most distinguished lustre, was that of THEOLOGY and not AGRICULTURE. Besides, his informants had most probably concealed from him the important fact-that the Americans generally cultivate Flax more for the sake of raising seed for the Irish market, than of producing a fine sort of flax for the use of the manufacturer.

1805, the average quantity per year, was 5675 bushels. It appears, therefore, that the quantity exported augments very slowly, if we consider the great increase of population and the consequent improvement of the country. It is now, however, pretty generally understood, that the people of Upper Canada, at least, must either cultivate flax on a more extensive scale than they have hitherto done, or dispense with the use of linen for threefourths of the year. Formerly, the great majority of the farmers purchased every article of clothing from the merchants, and paid for them in grain and pork. But the prices of these articles are now so much reduced, that they must either be content to go naked, like their Indian neighbours, or manufacture their own clothing of every description: For it is now admitted, however extraordinary the fact may appear to you, that the produce of fifty acres of land, in the present day, would not, after deducting the expences of cultivation and of taking it to market, purchase a second-hand bonnet rouget of third-rate quality.

+ A kind of woollen cap, worn both day and night by the Canadians.

LETTER XVIII.

MEDICINAL HERBS AND SHRUBS GENSING AND CAPILLAIRE—SARSAPARILLA AND BITTER SWEET-ALUM ROOT AND CROW'S FOOT -WILD HOREHOUND, WHITE COHART, AND GENTIAN-ROOT-THE SENECA SNAKE-ROOT, AND SPEARMINT — THIMBLE-BERRY AND BLACKBERRY ROOTS- THE BLOOD ROOT, SUMACH, AND POISON TREE -HERBE AUX PUCES, OR POISON IVY SORREL- -COLT'S TAIL, AND MARSH MALLOWS-DOG-WOOD AND PRICKLY ASH — SPICE WOOD AND SASSAFRAS-THE COTONNIER, OR COTTON PLANT -THE ONION TREE AND WILD GARLIC THE WILD TURNIP AND JUNIPER TREE - THE REIN-DEER MOSS, WILD OATS, AND RIVER GRASS-THE SEA RYE, SEA-SIDE PLANTAIN, AND SEAROCKET — LAUREA AND SEA-SIDE PEAS INDIAN GRASS AND INDIAN TEA.

VERY little is known of the medicinal herbs of Canada; and, I believe, no person possessed of competent botanical qualifications has ever explored its forests in pursuit of such information. It is a pity that Drs. Hoppe and Hornschuch, who have recently published so facetious an account of their botanical adventures in a Tour to the Coast of the Adriatic, and that the still more celebrated Baron de Humboldt, who has botanized with such eminent success in South America, have not extended their researches to this country: For I have no doubt, that an equal portion of interesting matter