DOVER, EAST AND WEST, CHATHAM, AND HARWICH, ON THE RIVER A Report of a Convention of the Inhabitants of the above Townships, in answer to certain Queries proposed by Mr. R. Gourlay. 2d. In Dover, east and west, there are 45 (I suppose, inhabited houses); in Chatham 27; Camden 17; Harwich 19; Howard 25; Orford (see Supplement). The said townships commenced settling in 1794. 3d. (Referred to Rev. C. F. Denkey), see Supplement. 4th. One practitioner of physic. 5th. Four schools-rate 15s. per quarter. 6th. Seven stores. 7th. Four taverns. 8th. Two grist mills. One saw mill-rate one quarter of the timber when sawed. (See Supplement.) 9th. A level surface generally throughout the said townships; soil of the first quality, the surface of which is a black light loam, with a grey clay under, and void of stone of any description what ever. 10th. Beech, black ash, white ash, red and white oak, hickory, black and white walnut, linden, bass wood, by some called white wood, maple, wild cherry, chestnut, tulip, 11th. (Referred to the Rev. C. F. Denkey), see Supplement. 12th. Brick is made, and sells at 35s. per thousand. 14th. None. 15th. Carpenters' and smiths' wages 7s. 6d. per day. Masons' 10s. per day. 16th. Men's wages average at £30 per annum: in the winter months 40s. ; summer months 70s.; days in harvest 5s.; women's and girls' wages at from 5s. to 6s. 3d. per week. 17th. Price for mowing an acre of grass, harvesting, cradling, and reaping wheat, 7s. 6d. 18th. Clearing and fencing according to the custom of the country (say), leaving such timber as can be killed with the axe over one foot diameter, at £4 per acre. 19th. A work horse of four years old from £13 to £15; a good ox £10; a good cow £6 5s.; a sheep from 15s. to 20s. 20th. Average wool from a sheep from three to four pounds; price from 2s. 6d. to 3s. 9d, per pound. 21st. Turning out to pasture about 15th April, and taken in 1st December. 22d. Ordinary sleighing season, from 1st January to the 10th of March. 23d, Sowing season is from the 1st September until 10th October.-Reaping wheat commences 1st August, 24th, The quantity of wheat generally sown is five pecks per acre, and the increase from one acre is 25 bushels on an average; but when well culti vated, will produce from 35 to 40 bushels. 25th. An ox of four years old will gain on a summer run, 200 pounds: price of butter and cheese is Is. 3d. per pound. 26th. Manure not particularly required, on ground that has been cultivated upwards of 10 years. 27th. Lands rent (particular spots) at 12s. 6d. per acre; and if on shares, at one third of the produce. 28th. Some farms in good local situations, with tolerable buildings and orchards thereon, well cultivated, containing 200 acres of land, sold for £690. The average price of lands from the first settlement of these townships, were from 2s. 6d. to 20s. per acre. 29th. Not known. 30th. One on each side of the river, and not in so good repair, on account of the facility of the water communication. One canal in particular is practicable of being cut between the townships of Raleigh and Tilbury East, from the river Thames across to lake Erie, a distance only of 15 miles in extent, and will admit of a fall of 30 feet, which canal, if made, will save a distance of 140 miles in the communication to Fort Erie, and will be the means of draining thousands of acres of land. 31st. From the great quantities of lands held by individuals and absentees, and the want of a population. The quantity of wheat harvested in the summer of 1817, by the small number of 114 farmers residing in the townships above mentioned, was 40,000 bushels, and the lands in said townships will produce, in proportionable abundance, pease, oats, barley, Indian corn, hemp, and flax. JOSHUA CORNWALL, Chairman. By Order, SAMUEL OSBORN, Secretary. SUPPLEMENT to the Report of a Convention, &c. &c. on the River Thames. QUERY 3d. In all those named townships, there is at present but one pro tempore church at Orford township, in the Indian missionariot, having one stated, ordained missionary, and an assistant. Besides this, the Methodist connexion have regularly one itinerant missionary on the river. The inhabitant Indians on Orford township, are in the town of New Fairfield, containing 29 houses and huts, and one church; say 30 buildings, inhabited by 120 Christian Indians belonging to the society. The Indians live in 27 houses and huts, then the missionary's and assistant's dwellings and a church; in all 30 buildings. Besides these, there are wintering upon the tract 47 persons, who attend Divine service, in all, 167 souls at present abiding here of the Delaware and Iroquois nation. An Indian school is kept in Indian and English. In regular seasons more than 4000 bushels of Indian corn was raised here. The cleared flats amount to about 350 acres of the best soil. Of this, some part, after yielding corn* upwards of 20 years, is now sowed in wheat. QUERY 8th. As an addition of one quarter is given to the sawyer, one quarter goes to the mill master, and the half belongs to the log owners. QUERY 11th. Natural History in general, through its three kingdoms, has not yet been sufficiently investigated; therefore not much may be said. Respecting the mineral kingdom, the following may be answered in a cursory view. In the townships of Orford and Camden are salt springs ; besides this, in the first there are several petrolinian springs, as the sulphur and naphtha, or oil spring; indicating, we think, coal in the bed. Besides this, several fossils, and a kind of red earth, and a softened ore slate, much resembling ochre, which, when burned, gives a kind of paint, near to Spanish brown. Pieces of petrifaction and ore found at the bank of the river at the rapids. Potters' clay generally found throughout all the townships, and potters' ware well made. CHRISTIAN FREDERICK DENKEY†, Missionary. * When the word CORN is used in Upper Canada, it always means Indian corn, otherwise called maize.-R. G. + A German name, properly spelt Dencke; but the missionary writes as above, to suit English pronunciation.-R. G. |