REPORT ON THE COUNTY OF HURON,
BY MR. THOMAS MCQUEEN OF GODERICH

[...] taken as a whole, the County of Huron contains, perhaps, the largest block of good agricultural land of any county in Canada.

[...] That portion of the County of Huron belonging to the Canada Company began to be settled in 1828, under the agency of John Galt

[...] The leasing system of the Company was, perhaps, convenient for emigrants or settlers with small families and no money. It offered them at once a place to live on, work and raise food on, without any immediate outlay save their labor;

[...] In fact, it could not be done in one case out of twenty. The great majority of the lessees instead of saving money to pay for the land, were utterly unable to pay the annual rent.

[...] Land in this county which, five years ago could have been bought for perhaps six dollars an acre, will now sell readily at thirty-six

[...] Biddulph is situated on the east side of the London Road, which divides it from McGillivary. It was among the first settlements of the county, and its immediate proximity to London, only thirteen miles distant, gave it great facilities for obtaining a population. [...] It is in general a flat clay soil, of good quality, and some places is beginning to be pretty well cultivated. [...] In 1849 the produce of wheat and oats was 6000 bushels of the former and over 5000 of the latter. And in 1851 it produced 20,849 bushels of wheat, 20,821 of oats, 1,650 of barley, 2,118 of peas, and 19,388 lbs. of butter. In 1844 the population was 1,009 or fully twice as large as that of any other township in the county save Goderich, and in 1852 it was 2,081, chiefly Irish, with a small settlement of coloured folks.

[...] The rapid increase in the value of exports and imports, is in some measure, an evidence of the growing wealth of the county,

[...]

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