A Lady's Life on a Farm in ManitobaHall, M. G. C. (Mary Georgina Caroline)
History
A Lady's Life on a Farm in Manitoba
Hall, M. G. C. (Mary Georgina Caroline)
Frontier and pioneer life -- Manitoba; Manitoba -- Description and travel
There is a Lincolnshire man farming on a large scale settled not
very far away from the fort; but we had neither time nor
inclination to go further north. We hoped against hope that the
steamer might get up, but on Saturday gave it up as useless, and
settled to drive towards Gophir Ferry, trying to find a friend
who, when out at C---- Farm, told us he was living on section xxvii
by 13, and near two creeks. For the first five miles our road lay
along the Beaver Creek, which was pretty; but afterwards the
scenery much resembled Winnipeg, flat and uninteresting, not a
tree, and without even the beautiful vegetation and flowers we had
had on our previous drives. We had to stop several times to look
at the section-posts, it was quite an excitement to mark every new
number we came to. Our road took us pretty straight to the Mouse
Mountain trail; but at a shanty being advised to leave the track
and go straight over the prairie, we overshot the tents we were in
search of by a short distance.
Our friend had not returned from Winnipeg, but we made ourselves
quite at home, pitching our tent alongside of his men's. He had
four Englishmen working for him, two of them were tenant-farmers
at home; one man, who had been out two years, had had a large farm
near King's Lynn, and has taken up a section close by; but as he
bought his land too late in the spring to do anything to it;
beyond hoping to build himself a shanty before the winter set in,
he is working for our friend, who has 2,000 acres. Another of the
men was a newly-arrived emigrant; he and his three children were
nearly devoured by mosquitoes, and were most grateful for some
concoction we gave them to allay the irritation. He had been quite
a "gent" in his own country, but bad times and alcohol I had been
too much for him. I don't think he at all relished the work he had
to do, ploughing with oxen all day, &c. They plough almost
entirely with oxen up in this country. The oxen are easier to
feed, and don't suffer so much from the alkali in the water. But
most of the Englishmen when they first get out here dislike using
them, they are so slow; and I should agree with them.
A great many new-comers find the ways and means difficult to
conform to, and would give a good deal to go back; but after they
have been out a year or two they drop into fresh habits and seem
to like the life.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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