Smith's Canadian gazetteer - ElectricCanadian.com

216
The soil of a large portion of the district consists of a deep allavial soil, retry
rich, and capable of producing large crops. In some of the townships bordering
on Lake Erie the soil is a mixture of gravel and loam; and in Sarnia there is a,
large extent of oak plains. The timber of the district consists of maple, beech,
black-walnut, butternut, hickory, oak, elm, &c.
The southern portion of the district has been long settled, many of the occupants
in the County of Essex holding their lands under old French grants,
which were confirmed to them by the British government after the conquest of
Canada. The present inhabitants, the descendants of the original settlers, are
still in every pai'ticular essentially French, and are too fond (sometimes too
much so for the good of the country) of keeping up old French customs. Thus,
on the death of a landowner his property becomes divided amongst his children;
and on the decease of each of those children, it again becomes subdivided; so
that in the present day, in that portion of the district peopled by French Canadians
there is scarcely a good-sized farm to be found. And not only are the
farms sinall and insufficient, but the farming is wretched. Many of these people
settled on the lower portion of the Thames, actually build their stables on the
banks of the river for the convenience of shovelling the manure into it. The
following is an example of the difference between French and English fanning:
About ten years since an emigrant from England,a Lincolnshire farmer, engaged to
rent a farm inthe townshipof Dover East. The ownersof the land (French Canadians)
having exhausted that portion of the land which was cleared, and being too
indolent to clear more, were literally starved out; they were therefore compelled
to let the farm. When Mr. W. took possession he found nine hundred loads of
vianure at the barn door. When he took the farm there were forty-five acres
of land cleared (out of a hundred acre lot), and he engaged to pay a rent of .f
50
per annum. He has now had the farm ten years, has cleared thirty additional
acres, and is so well satisfied with the quality of the soil that he has leased it for
five years, at an annual rent of $180. Since he has had the farm he has sold
l,30o" bushels of wheat from one year's crop.
The farais and other settlements in this district generally have very fine
orchards attached to them; and fruit is usually very plentiful in the district.
Apples have been sold at Chatham at .'Hr/. currency per bushel; and peaches
have been sold on the shores of Lake Erie at \s. 3d. per bushel.
Many of the dwellings on the Detroit and St. Clair Rivers are beautifully
situated.
Clefiring has lately been going on extensively in the townships of Plympton
and Warwick, and large quantities of potash have been made; but So little are
the advantages of the district generally known, that cultivated farms are to be
bought here for from .f 10 to $l.i per acre, which in any other portion of the
province would fetch from .1-30 to ifi.'jO per acre. Thirteen thousand acres of
land have been brought into cultivation between January, 1842, and January,
1 44.
The towns of Chatham, Sandwich (the district town), and Amherstburg are
situated in the district; the fonner on the Thames, and the two latter on the
Detroit !\iver; and there are besides in the district the villages of Windsor on
the Detroit River; Port Sarnia, Frooinvfield and Sutlierlands on the St. (.'lair;.
Errol, in Plympton; and Louisville on the ThaniLS, besides smaller places of
less note.
In the Western District .'57,850 of Crown lands are open for sale, at 8s. c'y»
per acre; to purchase any of Avhich application nmst be made to the Crowa
lands agent at Sandwich.
Population in 1844, 27,619; since when it has probably increased oae-tentiu