“The manner of living of the Upper Canadian farmer may be summed up in few words. He has plenty, and he enjoys it. The native Canadians almost universally, and a large proportion of the old country people, sit at the same table with their servants or labourers. They eat meat twice, and many of them thrice a day: it being apparently more a matter of taste than of economy as to the number of times. Pork is what they chiefly consume. There being a great abundance of fruit, scarcely a cleared farm is without an orchard; and it is to be found preserved in various ways on every farmer’s table. Milk is in great abundance, even in the early settler’s houses, for where there is little pasture there are sure to be large woods, and ‘brouse,’ or the tops of the branches of trees, supply the place of hay. The sweetest bread I have eaten in America I have eaten in the farmers’ houses of Upper Canada. They usually grind the ‘shorts’ with the flour for home consumption, and as their wheat is among the finest in the world, the bread is at once wholesome and exceedingly delicious. Were I asked what is the characteristic of Canadian farmers, I would unhesitatingly answer ‘Plenty!’” CHAPTER XV. Reciprocal Rights--American Ideas of Reciprocity--The Ad Valorem System--Commercial Improvements--Trade with America--The Ottawa Route--The Saskatchewan--Fertility of the Country--Water Communication--The Maritime Provinces--Area and Population. The absence of a winter port is an evil to Canada, for which no energy and no advantages can compensate. Although Halifax has a magnificent harbour, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia offer but small facilities for winter navigation; and the day seems distant when the great railroad of which so much has been spoken and written shall open the communication between England and the remotest portions of the vast empire which reaches from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The position of Canada threw her into close relations with the United States, and the result of her geographical condition was the Reciprocity Treaty, which has caused so much discussion and discontent on both sides of the St. Lawrence, and which the Government of the Federal States has now given notice to terminate. In March, 1862, the report of the Committee of the Executive Council, to which an able paper of Mr. Galt, then Finance Minister, had been referred, advised that the views and suggestions therein expressed by Mr. Galt should be adopted, and that report was approved by Lord Monck. Mr. Galt’s Report was founded on a reference made to him of the report of the Committee on Commerce of the House of Representatives at Washington respecting the Reciprocity Treaty, and of a memorial from the Chamber of Commerce of Minnesota.