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
“Began ploughing April 11; sowed first wheat April 15; ice broke up
April 20; river cleared April 26; commenced harvesting August 20; cut
wheat August 27; about nineteen acres under grain, total yield six
hundred and ninety-eight bushels.
WHEAT TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY BUSHELS ON SIX ACRES;
oats two hundred bushels, barley two hundred and twenty-six bushels.
After all the grain was removed he raked the field and got twenty-two
bushels of grain from the rakings. He sowed two varieties of wheat,
Ladoga, and wheat he got in Manitoba, which he thinks is Red Fife, but
is not sure; both are beautiful specimens of grain. He has some
two-rowed barley which he procured while in England in 1888, when he
obtained one pound. The yield in 1891 was six hundred pounds of as fine,
clean, bright and plump grain as could be seen elsewhere.
“His Ladoga wheat was sown April 21 and harvested August 24, but he
allowed it to over-ripen, and thinks he lost at least four or five
bushels while harvesting. He sowed ninety pounds and threshed one
thousand five hundred. He obtained a sample of black Norway oats from
Webb and Company, England, which he sowed on five-eighths of an acre of
ground, last year. When harvesting it was all drawn off the field in one
wagon load, and when threshed it turned out sixty-four bushels of
first-class grain. Last year he tried Indian corn; it did not ripen, but
yielded excellent green corn; cucumbers were grown successfully, but did
not ripen. Yet I saw as good pumpkins fully developed both here and at
Dunvegan as one would wish for.
“Mr. Brick has about forty head of cattle, and several horses; last fall
on my arrival there he had about forty pigs, but killed some during my
stay, and only intended to winter about twenty-five. He employs a good
deal of local labour, and pays for it with food to a very large extent;
in fact it is the only way it could be paid for in the country. The hay
for wintering the cattle and horses is cut on the plateau about seven
miles from the farm. He generally allows his cattle to run out until
Christmas, the grass on the meadows being enough for them to feed on it
after the early snows have fallen. The horses not kept in for use are
wintered out. The Hudson’s Bay Company at Dunvegan have about one
hundred and fifty wild horses, and the Roman Catholic mission and the
Indians also have many which always winter out on the plains north of
the Post, which affords them both food and shelter, as the country
between Dunvegan and Smoky river, crossing on the north side, is
particularly park-like prairie to a distance of twelve to twenty miles
back from the river. The woods afford them shelter and on the prairies
the rich grasses grow. There are also large areas
WHERE EXCELLENT HAY GROWS.
[Illustration: Flour Mill at Fort Vermilion.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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