Joseph Farnham 1819 letters from Canada

Date: 1875 [unknown]
Location: London, Ontario, Canada
Surname/tag: Farnham

Joseph Farnham's Letter to England from Canada

Joseph Farnham (1819-1897) wrote a letter to Geogre Phillips of Chelsfield in 1875. This letter was widely reported in newspaper's in England for different purposes. Below are transcriptions of those reports.

Grantham Journal 1st May 1875

CONDITION OF AGBIOULTURAL LABORERS IN CANADA.

Mr. George Phillips, of Chelafield, Kent, sends the Standard a copy of a letter received from a shepherd who left him last spring to go to America. This man, Joseph Farnham, who writes from London, Canada West, in January last, says :—“ I should have written to you before, but I have been waiting to see if I could send you a better account than I did last time. Now we are in the middle of winter, and a rare one it is too. We have not seen the ground for three months, and I don’t know when we shall again for sow. There is nothing for agricultural laborers to do here, only for about thres months in the summer; and all we can do in the winter is to go around and see if we can get a little wood to saw; they employ no men on the farms in the winter. The farmers here do a great deal of work themselves, and they de not cultivate the ground the same here as in England. There are hundreds of men walking about te see if they can get any wood to saw and I am sorry to say I am among the number.

This country is much better for mechanics than it is for laborers, so by that means I shall not think of stay ing any longer than I get the means to come home. The giris are in service ; they are saving all they can to get home. I think it is a great pity, so well as I know about sheep, for me to be wasting my time going about to see if I can get wood to saw. Taking one thing with the other, you are not so well off as in England. Remember me to my fellow-workmen, and I think as I have hindered them from coming and being as unhappy as I am, I think they ought to make a donation to help me back again. I would not care if they only elped me from Liverpool into Kent.

Bristol Daily Post

“Taking ono thing with another, you are not so well off in Canada as in Eugland. Such is the deliberate opinion of an agricul tural labourer after spending nearly a twelve months in Canada. The writer is a Kentish chepherd who left this country last spring to seek his fortune in the West, ane who has just written home to his old employor. He says there is nothing for agricultural labourers to do in Canada except for about turee months in the yeaar, and all they can do in the winter is to go around and see if they can get a little wood to saw. lhorearo hundreds of men (he addes) walking around to see if they can get any wood to saw, andvI am sorry to say I am among the number. And stating his intention to return to England when he can get the means, the writer concludes with the remark that as lio has hindered hia fellow-workmen from coming out and being as unhappy as he is, they ought in gratitude to make a collection to help him back again. The Labourers Union are anxious to disseminate information respecting the prospects of Canadian emigrants. Why don't they import Joseph Farnham, and send him round the country to lecture on the aubject