The main object of those who secured the appointment of a select committee of the British House of Commons in 1749, to inquire into the condition of the Hudson bay territory and the trade carried on there (See page 8), was to secure the cancellation of the Company’s monopoly and to throw the country open to settlement. With this object in view much evidence was produced to show that the territory offered inducements to colonists, and, as inscribed in the pages of the official report, this gives us the earliest account of pioneer agriculture in this region, and an idea of the possibilities of the country from the old timers’ points of view. Mr. Richard White, one of the witnesses examined before the committee, said that he went to Albany Fort in the year 1726, as clerk to the Company, and remained there seven years, and that he had been ten years at Churchill, which was the northernmost fort. He testified that “the Governor at Albany had a garden in which peas, beans, turnips and salad grew as well and plentiful as in England, but he never knew of seed raised in that country to have been sown again. He saw a small quantity of barley growing near Moose river in August, which is about two months before the cold weather, which barley was in the ear, but not full, but as he has never been used to tillage, he is a very indifferent judge in those matters.” Mr. White stated that “he apprehended the countries adjoining to Hudson bay might be settled and improved, and that in the southern parts, oats, barley and peas would grow, but if persons were allowed to settle, he did not apprehend they could at first subsist by the cultivation of lands only he did not know why the Company did not grow their own corn, nor whether any proposal had been made to them for that purpose, for he really thought corn would grow there, which certainly would tend much to the advantage of the Company, as well as to the security of persons residing there. Their common provisions were fish and fowl, and they had no bread but what came from England; that all grain kept there very well, except peas; that in a general way they had two years’ provisions beforehand in their forts, especially of bread.” Being asked if the Indians could not cultivate corn for one-third of the price it costs in Europe, this witness said—“The Indians are in general a slothful people and cultivate no corn.” SOIL GOOD AND CLIMATE MILD Another of the witnesses examined before the committee, Mr. Matthew Sergeant, stated that while in the Company’s service he had been twelve miles up the country at York Factory, thirty miles up the river from Albany Fort, and had travelled by land from Moose river to Albany Fort, one hundred miles along the coast. The soil was good and produced good turnips, the climate for four months in the year being mild.