“The grain at Fort Vermilion was sown on May 8 and 20, and was cut on August 6. Wheat growing among the barley and by the fences was almost ripe August 12, when I was there. At Rocky mountain portage (British Columbia), where Peace river issues from Rocky mountains, latitude 56 degrees, we found a first rate garden with vegetables far advanced, July 21; new potatoes, onions, and carrots were part of our bill of fare. That was in 1875. Five days later, at Fort St. John (B.C.) vegetation was even further advanced, and all kinds of garden stuff were in the greatest perfection. Nigger Dan’s barley was colouring on July 26, and would be cut the first week in August. His potatoes were large, and enough for fourteen men were dug on August 2. “I may mention that strawberries were fully ripe on July 6, at Hudson Hope (B.C.). At Dunvegan, barley was almost fit to cut August 4. Cabbage in the priest’s garden were closing, and all his garden vegetables far advanced. “At Battle river pease were getting ripe August 8. At Fort Vermilion potatoes were very large and many heads of barley contained sixty grains, others many more. I never saw such fine barley before. Barley was sown on May 8 and cut on August 6—that is at latitude 58° 24′. At Red river (a small fort, fifty or sixty miles below Fort Vermilion), they have no ploughs, and the ground was broken up with a spade or hoe. The garden stuff WAS WONDERFULLY LUXURIANT, pease, Windsor beans and potatoes being far advanced; cucumbers started and raised in the open air, a very large crop, and a number of them were ripe on August 14. “At Chipewyan mission, two miles from the fort, there were wheat, oats and barley, a good crop as regards grain. Windsor beans were ripe and pulled up on August 17. Wheat and barley were in stock August 26, and specimens of these, which I brought to Ottawa, are here on the table. “At Red river fort a Frenchman named St. Cyr had a garden, and he told me he had a particular thing growing in the garden that he did not know anything about. I went out to look at it, and there was a splendid patch of cucumbers, many of them ripe. That was in August. I said: ‘These are cucumbers; how did you start them?’ He said: ‘I got the seed from England and put it in the ground, and that is what has come from it.’