The Unexploited West: A Compilation of all of the authentic information available at the present time as to the Natural Resources of the Unexploited Regions of Northern CanadaChambers, Ernest J.
History
The Unexploited West: A Compilation of all of the authentic information available at the present time as to the Natural Resources of the Unexploited Regions of Northern Canada
Chambers, Ernest J.
Canada -- Economic conditions; Northwest, Canadian -- Economic conditions
“1888. Ice moved May 1; began sowing barley May 9; began planting
potatoes May 10; sowed oats and wheat May 15; sowed garden seeds May 16;
sowed turnips May 28; slight frost August 1, injured garden stuff; cut
barley September 5; cut oats September 7; started taking up potatoes
September 27; finished October 3, five hundred and twenty-nine bushels;
took up turnips October 5; first snow October 15; first ice in river
October 27; ice set fast November 27.”
Mr. Ogilvie continues, in his report:—
“I would now call particular attention to the mention of frost in June,
1887, and to the fact that it cut down vegetables to the ground. Alone
there is nothing very wonderful about the statement, as it is just what
we would expect frost to do; but in conjunction with using new potatoes
for the first time on July 29, just one month after the frost, and the
further fact that
SIX HUNDRED AND EIGHTEEN BUSHELS WERE HARVESTED,
it is most astonishing. Mr. Round, the officer who made the entry, was a
witness of the event, and he is a gentleman whose sanity I would as soon
doubt as his word. I questioned him about it and he assured me
emphatically of its correctness. He can offer no explanations, if it is
not that a fog generally settles on the river valley after a frost and
shields plants from the direct rays of the sun a good part of the day;
but even that does not account for this case, as he assures me the
potatoes were cut down, black, to the ground.
“The Reverend J. G. Brick, Anglican missionary, who spent some time at
Dunvegan, combining farming with mission work, in 1886 started what
might be called a branch farm at Old Wives lake, about thirty-six miles
from Dunvegan, on the cart trail, between the latter place and Smoky
river crossing, on the plateau above the immediate valley of the river.
Reference will be made to this later.
“In 1889, he established himself in the valley of the river on the north
side, about five miles above the mouth of Smoky river. Here he has
established a mission and a school for the education of the young, on
which he bases all his hopes for the improvement of the natives. He
keeps this school open during the winter months, and as an inducement to
attend, he gives all the children who live at a distance their dinner.
“This gentleman took in with him a large outfit of farm implements and
stock. He has a small grist mill and threshing mill, with which he
threshes and grinds his grain. By grinding his wheat twice it makes a
fair article of flour, but his facilities for bolting it are not quite
up to the times, consequently his flour is not quite so white as our
high grade flour, but it makes good bread, nevertheless.
“He is well satisfied with his success agriculturally. He furnished me
with the following information relative to his doings in 1891:—
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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