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 PROVINCE OF MANITOBA 
 
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 lOPTH-YfEST TERRITOKY 
 
 OP THE 
 
 Dominion of Canada. 
 
 INFORMATION FOR EMIGRANTS. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
 
 OTTAWA 
 
 1878. 
 
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PROVINCE OF MANITOBA 
 
 ▲XB 
 
 NOETH-WEST TEREITORY 
 
 OF TUH 
 
 Dominion of Canada 
 
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 INFORMATION FOR EMIGRANTS 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
 
 OTTAWA; 
 
 1878. 
 
k^' 
 
CHAPTER r. 
 
 INTKOUUCTION. 
 
 The Proviiico of Miinitobu contuiiis about o Oiyt oiwi .. t. . 
 
 Helon.i„^tolhoiX.n.i,uo..'o;Ca: Urr^^ 
 
 iormo( . It H .situuto in ^i« ........ 1\, ""'^'» ^^ has beou 
 
 sinks to 30 «..d 4olL'it Kllr.;, A.r.'h- "'I' *''" ".<"•=»!>">"'«'• 
 dry atmosi.hor'o of thS NVwh w„t i ■^""l"'*,''eS™eof cold in tho 
 
 winter ' l)'iHaloe» and horses graze out of doors all 
 
 douirodTy:™tttHl,r:.^';t *"?"'^ inmate ot- Manitoba is un- 
 ^v,r . 1 7 nealtliy J that the .soil gives very lame nrodncts • +h..t 
 
 Wester.- States! Minnesota and others of tho North- 
 ij_NOitii-r,e.s. t c;rritory of the Dominiou comprises 
 
Tin area of about 2,750,000 square miles, and British Columbia, 
 220,000 Bquaro miles. Altogether, the Dominion of Canada com- 
 prises a territory about the size of the whole continent of Europe ; 
 and nearly half a million square miles larger than the United 
 States, without iJaska. 
 
 Until the completion of the Canadian Railway system, the best 
 way for emigrants to reach Manitoba, from the old Provinces of 
 Canada, is via Lakes Huron and Superior, to DuluLh ; thence by the 
 Northern Pacific Railway, to a connection on the Red Iliver; and 
 ihenceby direct steamboat communication to Winnipeg. There are 
 regular "lines of boats from Sarnia and Collingwood, which are 
 reached respectively from Toronto by the Grand Trunk and Nortkern 
 Railways. Favourable fares are afforded to emigrants, and the time 
 between Toronto and Winnipeg is about seven days. 
 
 It may be stated that links of Railway are about being completed 
 which will give, during the summer of 1878, an all-rail connection 
 with Winnipeg. 
 
 It ma}^ be further stated that the immense water system of the 
 interior of the continent, west of Winnipeg, is being opened up by 
 steamboat navigation to the base of the Rocky Mountains. 
 
 The emigrants who go to Manitoba for settlement should, for the 
 present, be of the agricultural class, and possessed of sufficient means 
 to begin with. Sometimes high wages are given to labourers and 
 artisans; but the labour market, in a new country, being necessarily 
 restricted, i:)er8ons going to seek for employment should have spcciai 
 information before they start. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE EARL OF DUFFEPIN, GOVERNOR OF CANADA, ON 
 MANITOBA AND THE NORTH-WEST. 
 
 HIS VIEWS OF THE COUNTRY. 
 
 ^ In the summer of 1877 Lord Dufferin, in pursuance, as announced 
 by him in public speeches, of a policy of personally visiting all the 
 Provinces within his government, made a tour of Manitoba and part 
 of Keevvatin. 
 
 In answer to an address of the Mayor and Corporation of Winni- 
 peg, on August 6th, His Excellency, referring to the prospects of 
 that city, said : 
 
 "1 beg to thank you most warmly for tlie kind and lioarty wel- 
 come you have extended to mo, on my arrival in your flourishing 
 city, which j'ou rightly designate the metropolis of the North-West, 
 
 ^J 
 
ON 
 
 % 
 
 V 
 
 the living centre which is destined to animate with its vital energies, 
 the rich alluvial region whose only limit appears to be an ever- 
 receding horizon I am not by any means unacquainted with 
 
 the record of your achievements; indeed, it is probable that there is 
 no Province in the Dominion with whoso situation I am better 
 a<^'[uainted, so far as information in such respects can be obtained 
 from books and Parliamentary papers ; and it is to perfect, verify and. 
 extend that knowledge by personal intercourse with your leading- 
 citizens, and by an inspection of the richness of your territory, that 
 
 I have come amongst you....... I have no doubt that this 
 
 city and Province generally, nay, the whole territory of the .^''orth- 
 West, is now illuminated by the dawn of a great advancomont. 
 Although it will not be my good fortune personally to preside rauch 
 longer ever your destiniri, I need not assure you that your future 
 Avill always command my warmest sympathies and continue to 
 attract my closest attention, and I trust that, though at a distance), 
 I may live to see the fultilment of many of your aspirations." 
 
 Lord Duffcrin very warml}^ acknowledged the loyalty of the people. 
 In reference to the city of Winnipeg, it may be here remarked that 
 when it ento4-ed the Dominion in 1870, it was simply a Hudson Bay 
 trading station and hamlet, containing about 200 inhabitants. 
 It is in 1877 a city containing about" 7,000 inhabitants, with 
 many largo and handsome buildings, churches, schools and col- 
 leges, and the seat of a very active business. The belief of its 
 people is that it will become the Chicago of the North- West; and i^ 
 IS pointed out that the early history of Chicago, within the mem' y 
 of men now living, cannot establish so rapid a growth as tb ,-*y 
 Winnipeg since itentered Confederation with Canada; ^^ ^^ 
 
 At 8etkirk, on the Red River, below Winnipeg, Lord . 
 
 said:- Dufferni 
 
 " Pleased and grateful as I am for the preparations yr 
 what causes mo the greatest pleasure of all is to ' '" '^9'^^ made, 
 surrounded by a hardy, industrious, and manly comr •^^} ^"''^^ ^ ^^"J 
 by the desire to advance the renown of the B .f "'"^^' animated 
 establishing in this distant land the foundations J^tish Ji^mpire by 
 in after years will become as rich and prospo ^^ '^ settlement thafc 
 this side of the Atlantic. 1 can well unders' J^,^^ ^f ""''Y other on 
 look forward with the greatest interest t' iV"^ ^ r^ ^^'''''^'^^^ 
 great line of railway which is to con, 'J^.f ^''Tf? '''' "^ ^^^^ 
 f..citic, and. bind to/ether in an indisso' ^ -^ Z/^ ^^^^^ 
 of the Dominion. I wish you to un- .«,.^.„^,, .,„. r «^« J^i^jvuites. 
 1 iM • 1 i? iu t> -i-' u r" -t"isianu that 1 come here not 
 
 only as an official of the British C ovprnm^n^ K.^f „ A i 
 
 representative of your beloved ^ Jj'-Z \''^ ^' the per«o«al 
 
 interest in your welfare, and wb oTs a vvfvl' Z.V T /'^' f^^'''\ 
 
 X xu • 4. ciu ^ '» always anxious to be informed 
 
 fts to the circumstances of tne ^^ost distant of h.er subjects. llwa^ 
 
-only the other day that, in anticipation of my visit to this Province, 
 Her Majesty was pleased to lay upon me Jier personal commands to 
 render her a faithful and accurate account of my visit, and more 
 especially to inform her as to the condition and' well-boinir of her 
 people in this Province." 
 
 On Ausrust, the 18th, the Yice-Royal Party visited the Rat River 
 Mennonite Settlement, on the east side of Red River. These 
 people came from Berdiansk, in South Russia, three years ago ; and 
 there are now about 7,000 of them in Manitoba, in a highly prosperous 
 condition. They left a comfortable and flourishing district in Russia, 
 because they were conscientiously opposed to military service, which 
 was required of them by an Ulcase of the Czar, and because they were 
 required to conform to the school system of Russia, and have their 
 children taught, under i^issian auspices, the Russian language and 
 incidentally the national creed. The Mennonites said in" their 
 addi'css to Lord Diiifcrin : 
 
 " We are pleased to be able to state that wo are satisfied in the 
 highest degree with the country and the soil, and also the manner in 
 which the government have kept their promises to us. Your Ex- 
 cellency has now the opportunity of seeing for yoi^rsolf what wo 
 have accomplished during our short residence. You see our villa^'es, 
 our fields, and our bountiful harvest— witnesses in themselves that the 
 capabilities of the country kave not been misrepresented to us. Under 
 the guidance and protection of Divine Providence, we have every 
 reason to look forward confidently to great future prosperity, our 
 villages multiplied, and our herds increased. We are contented and 
 willing to obey the laws of the land, but we cannot reconcile our 
 religious belief with the performance of military duty." 
 
 Lord Dufferin made the following remarks in reply, which were 
 translated to them sentence by sentence: 
 
 "You have come to a land'where you will find the people with 
 whom 3'ou are to associate engaged indeed in a great struggle, and 
 contending with foes which it requires their best energies to encoun- 
 ter. But those foes are not 3'our fellow-men, nor will you be called 
 upon in the struggle to stain your hands with human blood— a task 
 which is so abhorrent to your religious feelings. The war to which 
 we invite you as recruits and comrades is a war waged against the 
 brute forces of nature ; but those forces will welcome our domination 
 and reward our attack by placing their treasures at our disposal. 
 It is a war of ambition — for we intend to annex territory after ter- 
 ritory—but neither blazing villages nor devastated fields will mark 
 our ruthless track; our battalions will march across the illimitable 
 plains which stretch before us, as sunshine steals athwart the ocean ; 
 the rolling prairie will blossom in our wake, and corn and ^^eace ami 
 plenty will spring where we have trod. 
 
 
''The forms of worship you have brought with you, you will be 
 ■able to practise in the most unrestricted manner, and we confidently 
 trust that those blessings which have waited upon your virtuous ex- 
 'Grtions, in your Russian homes, will continue to attend you here; 
 for w^e hear that you are a sober-minded and God-fearing community, 
 and as such you are doubly welcome among us. It is with the 
 greatest pleasure I have passed through your villages, and witnessed 
 your comfortable homesteads, barns and byres, which have arisen 
 like magic upon this fertile plain, for they prove indisputably that 
 you are expert in agriculture, and already possess a high standard of 
 domestic comfort. In the name, then, of Canada and her peopiO, in 
 the name of Queen Victoria and her empire, I again stretch out to 
 vou the hand of brotherhood and good fellowship, for you are as 
 ■welcome to our affections as you are to our lands, our liberties and 
 freedom. In the eye of our law the least among you is the equal of 
 the highest magnate in our land, and the proudest of our citizens 
 may well be content to hail you as his fellow-countrymen. You will 
 find Canada a beneficent and loving mother, and under her fostering 
 care, I trust your community is destined to flourish and extend in 
 wealth and numbers through countless generations. In one word, 
 beneath the flag whose folds now wave above us you will find pro- 
 tection, peace, civil and religious liberty, constitutional freedom and 
 ■equal laws." 
 
 Lord Duffbrin also visited the Icelandic settlement on the west 
 shore of Lake Winnipeg. This colony had not been settled two 
 years at the time of His Excellency's visit; and, in fact, the larger 
 portion of the colonists had only arrived the previous autumn. They 
 had suffered a very severe afliiction from an epidemic of small-pox, 
 iind the ravages of scurvy. Both these diseases wore aggravated by 
 the insu3icicnt preparations which the Icelanders had been able to 
 make for the winter, and very rigorous Quarantine regulations had 
 •only been removed five or six weeks before the arrival of His Ex- 
 -cellency. It may be remarked that the colony contained at that 
 time about 1500 souls, and extended from the K JBoundary of Manito- 
 ba for about thirty miles on the west shore of the Lake. The colony, 
 however, in the face of these great discouragements was found to be 
 in a fairlj' successful condition. 200 commodious houses had been 
 -erected, roads had been cut, and from two to ten acres cleared by each 
 settler. There were 600 head of cattle in the colony, and the cows 
 \vQve in good condition and Avell taken care of There had not been 
 time to plant much grain, but that which was planted was successful. 
 There were good crops of potatoes; and the soil, after clearing, was 
 found to be rich black alluvium. The fish supply from the lake was 
 abundant, and altogether the Icelandic colonists were in a satisfied 
 
 iind flourishing 
 
 condition 
 
 writing 
 
 to their friends in Iceland to 
 
8 
 
 join them. Lord Dufferin, who appears to have taken particular 
 interest in this colony, spoke with much warmth as follows: 
 
 " Men and Women of Iceland, now Citizens of Canada, and Fellow 
 Subjects of Her Majesty the Queen : 
 
 " When it was my good fortune twenty years ago to visit your 
 island, I never thought that the day would come when I should bo- 
 called upon, as the representative of the British Crown, to receive 
 you in this country ; but the opportunities I have thus had of becom- 
 ing acquainted with your dramatic history, with your picturesque 
 literature, and the kindness I have experienced at the hands of your 
 country-men, now enable me with the greater cordiality to bid you 
 welcome. I have learnt with extreme sorrow of the terrible trials 
 to which you have been exposed so soon after your arrival by the 
 unexpected ravages of a terrible epidemic. Such a visitation was 
 well calculated to damp your spirits and to benumb your energies, 
 aggravating as it did those inevitable hardships which attend the 
 first efforts of all colonists to establish themselves in a new land. 
 The precautions which the Local Government was reluctantly 
 compelled to take to prevent the spreading of the contagion through 
 the Province must also have been both galling and disadvantageous, 
 but I trust that the discouragements which attended your advent 
 amongst us have now forever passed away, and that you are fairly 
 embarked on a career of happiness and prosperity. 
 
 '• Indeed, I understand that there is not one amongst you who is 
 not perfectly content with his new lot, and fully satisfied that the 
 change which has taken place in his destiny' is for the better. 
 During a hasty visit like the present, I cannot pretend to acquire more 
 than a superficial insight into your condition, but so jfar as I have 
 observed, things appear to be going sufficiently well with you. The 
 homesteads I have visited seem well built and commodious, and 
 are certainly far superior to any of the farmhouses I remember in 
 Iceland, while the gardens and little clearings which have begun 
 to surround them show that you have already tapped an inexhaust- 
 ible store of wealth in the rich alluvial soil on which we stand. 
 The three arts most necessary to a Canadian colonist are the fellinc^ 
 of timber, the ploughing of land, and the construction of highway? 
 but as in your own country none of you had ever seen a tree, a 
 cornfield, or a road, it is not to be expected that you should imme- 
 diately exhibit any cxpertness in these accomplishments, but prac- 
 tice and experience will soon make you the masters of all three for 
 you possess in a far greater degree than is probably imagined that 
 which is the essence and foundation of all superiority— intelligence 
 education and intellectual activity. In fact I have not entered a., 
 single hut or cottage in the settlement which did not contain no. 
 
9 
 
 I 
 
 ' 
 
 I 
 
 matter how bare its walls or scanty its furnitnre, a library of twenty 
 or thirty volumes; and I am informed that there is scarcely u 
 child amongst you who cannot read and write. 
 
 " Secluded as you have been for hundreds of years fi-om all con- 
 tact with the civilization of Europe, you may in many respects bo- 
 a little rusty and behind the rest of tiiO world ; nor perhaps have the- 
 conditions under which you used to live at home — where month.-* 
 have to be spent in the enforced idleness of a sunless winter — ac- 
 customed you to those habits of continued and unflaggini»: industry 
 which you will find necessary to your new existence ; but in our 
 brighter, drier, and more exhilarating climate you will become 
 animated with fresh vitality, and your continually expanding 
 prosperity will encourage you year by year to still greater exer- 
 tions. Beneath the genial influence of the fresh young world to 
 which you have come, the dormant capacities of your race, which 
 adverse climatic and geographical conditions may have somewhat 
 stunted and benumbed, will bud and burgeon forth in all their 
 pristine exuberance, as the germs which have been for centuries 
 buried beneath the pyramids and catacombs of Egypt are said to 
 excel in the exuberance and succulence of their growth the corn 
 seeds of last year's harvest. But, as sun and air and light are 
 necessary to produce this miracle, so it will be necessary for you 
 to profit as much as possiI»le by the example and by the intercourse 
 of your more knowledgeubie neighbours. 
 
 " I have learnt with great satisfaction thatnumbersof your young 
 women have entered the households of various Canadian fiimilies, 
 where they will not only acquire the English language, which it is 
 most desirable you should all know, and which they will be able tO' 
 teach their brothers and sisters, and — I trust I may add, in the 
 course of time, their children — but will also learn those lessons of 
 domestic economy and housewifely neat-handedness which are sa 
 necessary to the well-being, health and cheerfulness of our homes, 
 
 " I am also happy to be able to add that I have received the best 
 accounts from a great number of people of the good conduct, handiness 
 and docility of these young Ingeborgs, Eaghnhildas, Thoras, and 
 Gudruns, who, I trust, will do credit to the epical ancestresses from 
 whom they have inherited their names. Many of the houses I visited 
 to-<iay bore evident signs, in their airiness, neatness and well-ordered 
 appearance, of possessing a house-wife who had already profited 
 from her contact with the outer world. 
 
 *' And while I am upon this subject there is one practical hint which 
 I shall venture to make to you. Every single house I visited to-day, 
 many of them being mere temporary huts, with, at the most, two 
 small chaaibers, was furnished with a large close iron cooking-stove^ 
 evidently used not merely for cooking purposes, but also for heating; 
 
10 
 
 the habitation T bclleyo that this arran^emont \, anvthinff but 
 <io8.rablo. and that, at all events, in those houses where! separate 
 •kitchen cannot bo ohtamod an c-en fireplace should be introduced 
 1 am quite certain that if I were to come amongst you in winter f 
 should find these stoves in full operation, and every crevice in your 
 shanties sealed up from the outer air. "^ 
 
 " Now you are surrounded by an inexhaustible supply of the best 
 possible fuel, which can beobtained with comparativily little labour 
 .^nd consequently economy of coal, which is their chief recommen 
 ^Uation, need not drive you to an excessive use of these unwholesome 
 .appliances. Our winter air, thou-h sufficiently keen, is healthy and 
 brae. n.ir, and a most potent incentive to physical exertion, whereas 
 the meph.t.c vapours of an over-heated, closely-packed chamL-^r 
 paralyze o>u- physical as well a. our mentkl aetivkfe" 1 constiti 
 t.on nursed upon the oxygen of our bright winter atmosphere 
 makes its owner feel as though he could toss'about the pine S in 
 hiH glee, whereas to the suiggard simmering over his stove-pipe it 
 IS a horror and a nameless hardship to put his nose outside thi door. 
 1 need not tell you that in acountry like this the one virtue pre- 
 eminently necessary to every man is self-reliance, energy, and a 
 determination lo conquer an independent living for himself, his wife, 
 and children, by the unassisted strength of his own right arm. Unless 
 «ach member of the settlement is possessed and dominated by this 
 teeling, there can be no salvation for any one. 
 
 '' But wliv need T speak to Ice!anders-to you men and women of 
 the grand old Norse race, of the necessity of patience under hardship 
 -^oura^^e in the face of danger, dogged determination in the presence 
 otd mculties? Iheannalsofyourcountryare bright with the records 
 ot your forefathers' noble endurance. The sons and daughters of the 
 
 'Zfpw!l h'''''"'^ ^v^^ .'''^'''"^ ^'^' "^^'"^^^ ^^'^''" '" 0P«^ boats, and 
 pi efeu ed to make their homos amid the snows and cinders of a volcano 
 
 miier than enjoy peace and plenty under the iron sway of a despot, 
 may afford to smile at anyone who talks to them of hardship or rou-h 
 iving beneath the pleasant shade of these murmuring branches, aSd 
 Oeside the laughing ripples of yonder shining lake. 
 
 " The change now taking place in your fortunes is the very 
 converse and opposite of that which befell your forefathers. They 
 tied from their pleasant homes and golden cornfields into a howlin^r 
 wilderness of storm and darkness, ice and la\^a, but you I am weP 
 coming to t.hc healthiest climate on the continent, and to a soil of 
 unexampled fertility, which a little honest industry on your part will 
 soon turn into a garden of plenty. Nordowc forget thfit no race has 
 Vihl7 '''r. r^T •:i"^?"g«t "« than yourselves, for it is probably 
 to the hardihood of the Icelandic navigators that the world is indebted 
 itor the discovery of this continent. Had not Columbus visited your 
 
11 
 
 *1 
 
 iHlaiid and discovered in your records a practical and absolute confir- 
 mation of his own brilliant speculations in re<^ard to the existence of 
 western land, it is possible he might never have had the enterprise to 
 tempt the unknown Atlantic. 
 
 " Again, then, I welcome you to this country — a country in 
 "which you will find yourselves freemen, serving no overlord, and being 
 no man's men but your own : each, master of his own farm, like the 
 TJdalmen and ^' Bonders " of old days; and remember that in coming 
 Mnmongst us you will find yourselves associated with a race both kind- 
 liearted and cognate to your own ; nor in becoming Englishmen and 
 subjects of Queen Victoria need you forget your own time-honoured 
 ^customs or the picturesque annals of your forefathers. 
 
 "On the contrary, I trust you will continue to cherish for all 
 "time the heart-stirring literature of your nation, and that from gene- 
 ration to generation your little ones will continue to learn in your 
 ancient Sagas that, industry, energy, fortitude, perseverance and 
 stubborn endurance have ever been the characteristics of the noble 
 Icelandic race. 
 
 " I have pledged my personal credit to my Canadian fi-icnds on 
 the successful development of your settlement. My warmest and 
 most affectionate sympathies attend you, and I have not the slight- 
 est misgiving but that, in spite of your enterprise being conducted 
 under what of necessity are somewhat disadvantageous conditions, 
 Tiot only will your future prove bright and prosperous, but that it 
 will be universallv acknowledged that a more valiuible accession to 
 the intelligence, patriotism, loj'alty, industry and strength of the 
 •country has never been introduced into the Dominion." 
 
 On the occasion of the vice-regal visit drawing to a close, the 
 citizonsof Winnipeg invited Flis Excellency the Earl of Dufl^erin to a 
 public banquet at which he made a speech in review of his personal 
 observations of the country and the facts he had gathered, in the 
 fellowing eloquent terms : — 
 
 ■" Mr. Mayor, your Honour, Ladies and GentkmcM : 
 
 "In rising to express my acknowledgments to the citizens of 
 Winnipeg for thus crowning the friendly reception I have received 
 throughout the length and breadth of Manitoba by so noble an enter- 
 tainment, I am painfully impressed by the consideration of the many 
 irespects in vchich my thanks are due to you and o so many other 
 persons in the Province. (Applause.) 
 
 " From our first landing on your quays until the present moment 
 111}^ progress through the country has been one continual delight — 
 (ioud applause) — nor has the slightest hitch or incongruous incident 
 marred the satisfaction of my visit. I have to thank j'ou for the 
 liospitalities I have enjoyed at the handsof your individual citizens, 
 
12 
 
 as well ns of u multitudo of independent communities, for the tastofuf 
 and ingenious decorations which udornod my route, for the quarter of 
 a mile of evenly yoked oxen thatdrowour triumphal car— (applauHe) 
 —for the univerwal proofn of your loyalty to the Throne and the 
 Mother Country, and tor your personal good-will towards Tier 
 Majesty's representative. 
 
 "Above all, I have to thank you for the evidences produced on 
 either hand along our march of your prosperous condition, of your 
 perfect contentment, of your contidence in your future fortunes, for 
 I need not tell you that to any one in my situation, smiling corn-fields, 
 cosy homesteads, thejoyful faces of prosperous men and women, and 
 the laughter of healthy children, are the best of all triumphal decora- 
 tions. (Great applause.) 
 
 " But there are others for which I ought to be obliged to you,, 
 and not the least for the beautiful weather you have taken the precau- 
 tion to provide us with during some six weeksof perpetual camping 
 out— (laughter)— for which attention I have received Lady Duflerin's 
 especial orders to render you her personal thanks— an attention which 
 the unusual phetiomenon of a casual waterspout enabled us only the 
 better to appreciate; and lastly though certainly not least, for not 
 having generated amongst you that fearful entity ' A Pacific Railway 
 Question' — at all events not in those dire and tragic proportions in 
 which I have encountered it elsewhere. (Great laughter.) Of course 
 I know a certain phase of the railway question is a<,'itatingeven this 
 community, but it has assumed the mild character of a domestic 
 rather than of an inter-Provincial controversy. 
 
 " Two distinguished members, moreover, of my present Govern- 
 ment have been lately amongst you, and have doubtless acquainted 
 themselves with yourviews and wishes. It is not necessary, therefore, 
 that 1 should mar the hilarious character of the present festival by 
 any untimely allusions to so grave a matter. Well then, ladies and 
 gentlemen, what am I to say and do to you in return for all the 
 pleasure and satisfaction I have received at your hands ? 
 
 " I fear there is very little that I can say, and scarcely anything 
 that I can do, commensurate with my obligations. Stay — there is one 
 thingat all events I thinki have already done, for which I am entitled 
 to claim your thanks. 
 
 " You are doubtless aware that a great political controversy has 
 for some time raged between t^he two great parties of the State as to 
 which of them is responsible for the visitation of that terror of two 
 continents— the Colorado bug. (Great laughter.) The one side is 
 disposed to asse;-t that if their opponents had never acceded to power 
 the Colorado bug would never have come to Canada. (Renewed 
 laughter.) 
 
 " I have reason to believe, however, though I know not whether- 
 
 i 
 
 in 
 
13 
 
 I 
 
 any substantial ovidonce lias boon adducod in support of tlioir ussor- 
 tion — (laughtor)— that my Govorninont deny and ropiidiato having 
 had an}' sort of concert or undordtandiui^ with that irroprossiblo 
 jnvador. /'Roars of laujjfhter.) It would bo highly unconstitutional 
 for mo, who am bound to hold a perfectly impartial balance between 
 the contending parties of the State, to pronounce an opinion upon 
 xhis momontouH question. (Renewed laughter.) 
 
 " But, however disputable a point may bo the prime a id original 
 :authorship of the Colorado bug, there is one fact no one will question, 
 namely, that to the presence of the Governor-GGneral in Manitoba is 
 to be attributed the sudden, total, otherwise unaccountable, and I 
 trust ])Ci-manentdisappoamnco, notonly from this Province, but from 
 tho whole North-west, of the infamous and unmentionable '* hopper" 
 (loud laughter) whose annual visitations for the last seventeen years 
 have proved so distressing to the agricultural interest of the entire 
 region. 
 
 " Put, apart from being tho fortunate instrument of conferring 
 this benefit ujjon you — (laughter) — I fear the only further return in 
 my power is to assure you of my great sympathy with you in your 
 •endeavours to do justice to the material advantages with which your 
 Province has been so richly endowed by tho hands of Providence. 
 From its geographical position, and its peculiar characteristics, 
 Manitoba may be regarded as tho keystone of that might}' arch of 
 sister Provinces which spans the continent from the Atlantic to 
 the Pacific. (Great applause.) It was hero that Canada, emerging 
 from her woods and forests, first gazed upon her rolling prairies 
 4ind unexplored North- West, and learnt as by an unexpected revela- 
 tion that her historical territories of the (Janadas, her eastern sea- 
 boards of New Brunswick, Labrador and Nova Scotia, her Laurentian 
 lakes and valleys, corn lands and pastures, though themselves more 
 extensive than half a dozen European kingdoms (applause,) were 
 but tho vestibules and antechambers to that till then undreamt of 
 Dominion, whose illimitable dimensions alike confound the arith- 
 melic of the surveyor and the verification of the explorer. (Tre- 
 mendous applause.) 
 
 " It was hence that, counting her past achievements as but tho 
 j)reface and prelude to hor future exertions and expanding destinies, 
 she took a fresh departure, received the afflatus of a more imperial 
 inspiration, and felt herself no longer a mere settler along the 
 banks of a single river, but the owner of half a continent, and in the 
 magnitude of her possession, in the wealth of her resources, in the 
 sinews of her material might, the peer of any power on the earth. 
 {Loud applause.) 
 
 " In a recent remarkably witty speech, the Marquis of Salisbury 
 ^liuded tO mO gcOgrapiiical misconcej)<-ion8 
 
 . ft- 
 
 m engender 
 
 3d by tho 
 
 w • 
 
14 
 
 Hmallncss of tho rnapn upoM which the fi^airo of the world is donicttHL 
 Po thiH cuuHc 18 prohnhly to ho attributeti tho ir.adoquato i<loa enter- 
 tamed hy the host educated persons of the extent of Her Majesty's 
 North American possessions. Perhaps the host ^v^.ly of correctincr 
 such a universal rnisaj.prehension uouM ho hy a summary of thS 
 nvers whiH, fl.nv throuoj, them, for we kno^v that as a poor mart 
 cannot allord to live in a hi- ho„,so, so a small country cannot sup- 
 port a 1^1^- nver Now to an En-lishnu,n or a Frinchman the 
 bovern or ho J hamos, the Some or the Rhone, would appear con- 
 siderable streams, hut m the Ottawa, a mere afHuent of tlie St 
 Lavvrenco, an atllucnl, moreover, which reaches tho parent stream' 
 SIX >'<•'.. rod miles irom its mouth, we have a river noarh" rtvo hun- 
 dred and tilly miles Ion-, and three or four times as bi.r as any of 
 thorn. (Applause.) =• -^ 
 
 ''But, even alter' havin- asconded tho St. Lawrence itself to Lake 
 Ontario, and jmrsuod it across Lake Huron, the Nia-nra, the St. 
 Clair, and lal<o Superior to Thumlor Hay, a distance of one thousand 
 hvo hundred mi cs, where are wo v Li the estimation of tho person 
 who has made the journoy, at the end of all thin-s—r-reat lau<rh- 
 er)-but to us vvho know better, scarcely at the commoncement'of 
 the great fiuvial systems of the Dominion ;-for, irom that spot 
 —that IS to say, irom Ihunder Bay-wo are able at once to ship 
 our astonished traveller on to the Kaministiquias, a river of some 
 hundred miles long Thence almost in a stmight line we launch 
 hira on to Lake Shebandowan and Bainy Lake and llivor— whoso 
 proper name by tho by is •' Hone/' after tho man who discoverod 
 it-a magnihcoiit stream throe hundred yards broad, and a ccuplo- 
 «f hundred mdes long- down who.so tranquil bosom ho floats into, 
 the Lake of the Woods, where he finds himself on a sheet of watot- 
 iI^f'^'h'K 7^; ^iimmutivo as compared with tho inland seas he has 
 Ictt behind him will probably bo found sufficiently extensive to- 
 render him earfullysea-sick-(loud laughter) during his passao-o 
 across it. For the last eighty miles of" his Voyager howol-erhc^ 
 will be conso od by sailing through a succession of land-locked 
 (Jiannels the beauty of vvhoso scenery, while it resembles, certainly 
 excels, the far-famed Thousand Islands of the St. Lawrence. 
 (Loud cheering.) 
 
 " From this lacustrian paradise of sylvan beauty we are able at 
 onc« to transfer our friend to the Winnipeg, a river\vrose exfstence- 
 m the very heart and centre of the continent is in itself one of 
 nature s mosVlelightf ul miracles, so beautiful and varied are its rocky 
 banks, Its tufted iskmds, so broad, so deep, so fervid is the volume- 
 of Its waters, the extent of their lake-like expansions, and the tre^ 
 mendous powoi- of their rapids. (Tremendous applause ) 
 
 "At last .et us suppose we have landed our travelle/at thfi towr- 
 
 I*' 
 
 f 
 
 ii 
 
15 
 
 of Winninpt,', the hiilf-wiiy houHC of the ('ontinont, the capif.-il of the 
 Pruirio rrovinco, and I trust tlio fiiluro "uinbilicuH" of the 
 -dominion. (Grout clioei-iiii,'.) Having' liutl ho much of water, liaving 
 now reached thelionie of the butthlo, like llio extenuated FalHtaff, ho- 
 naturally " babhles of green fieidH " (laughter and applause), undi 
 careers in imagination over the ])rimeval gras.ses of the prairie. 
 Not at all. Escorted by Mr. aiayor and the Town Council, wo take 
 him down to your quay, and ask him wl'.ich he Avili ascend first, 
 the lied River or the Asslniboine, two streams, the onotive hundred 
 miles long, the other four hundred and eighty, which so haijpily 
 mingle their waters within your city limits. (Apjdause.) 
 
 "After having given him a preliminary canter upon these re- 
 spective rivers, we take him off to Lake Winnipeg, an inland sea. 
 three hundred miles long and upwards of sixty brt)ad, during tho 
 navigation of which for many a weary hour ho will find himself out 
 of sight of land, and ])rol)ably a good deal more indisi)oscil than ever 
 lie was on the Lake of Woods, or even the Atlantic. (Laughter.) 
 
 "At tho North-West angle of Lake Winnipeg he hits upon the-, 
 mouth of tho Saskatchewan, the gateway and high road to the^ 
 ^orth-Wost, and the starting point to another ono thousand five 
 hundred miles of navigable water flowing jiearly due east and west 
 between its alluvial banks. 
 
 " Having now reached the foot of the Eocky Mountains our 
 ' Ancient Mariner'— (laughter)— for by this time he will be quite- 
 entitledtosuch anappellation— knowingthatwatercannotrun up hill 
 feels certain his aquatic experiences are concluded. (Lau^-hler and 
 applause.) He was never moi-e mistaken. (Laught'er.) Wo 
 immediately launch him upon the Athabaskaand 3Lickenzie Hivers, 
 and start him on a longer trip than he has yet undertaken— (laughtori 
 —the navigation of the Mackenzie liiver alone exceeding twi 
 thousand tire hundred miles. If he survives this last exponence, 
 we wind up his peregrinations by a concluding voyage of one thou.vand 
 fbur hundred miles down the Fraser River; or, if he prefers it, the- 
 Thompson River to Victoria, in Vancouver, whence, hsivinf^'pre 
 viously provided him with a first-cliiss return ticket for that pui-- 
 pose ho Avill probably prefer getting home via the Canadian Pacific 
 (Roars of Laughter.) 
 
 *'Nc„, in this enumeration, those who are acquainted with tho- 
 country are awa ^ for the sake of brevity 1 have omitted thou- 
 
 sands of miles Oi )-.kes and riveri which water various regions 
 
 of tho North-Woi.. .ue Qu'Appello River, Belly River, Lake 
 Manitoba, the Winnepegosis, Shoal Lake, &c., &c., along which I 
 
 might have dragged and finally exteripinated our way-worn guest 
 
 (laughter)— but the sketch I have gi -n is mor3 than sufficient for 
 luy purpose ; and when it is further lemembered that the most of 
 
16 
 
 thoHO Htroams* '^ow H)!- their ontiro length through alluvial plains of 
 the richoMt dcscriplion — (applause)— whore your after year wheat 
 <;an bo riiirtod without manure, or any Honsiblo cliiniriution iti its 
 yield — (hear, hear) — ami where the noil everywhere preH«nt8 the 
 appearance of u highly-cultivated Huhurban kitchen garden in Eng- 
 land, enough h»s beer) Maid to dinpluy the agricultural riches of 
 the territories 1 have referred to— (great applause) — and the capa- 
 bilities they ])ossoss of attV -ding happy and prosperous homes t« 
 millions of the human race. (I^ong continued applause.) 
 
 " Bat in contemplating the vistas thus opened to our imagination, 
 ivo must not forget that there ensues a corresponding exj)ansion of 
 our obligationw. For itistanco, unless grout care is take ; we shall iind, 
 Jis wo move westwards, that the «xigeneies of civilization may clash 
 injurioiiNly with the prejudicos and traditional Ijabits of our Indian 
 feilow-subjocts. As long as Canada was in tho f/oods, tho Indian 
 problem was com j)aratively easy ; the progress of settlement was slow 
 onough togive ainj)lo time and opportunity for arriving at an amicable 
 und mutually convenient arrangement with ouch tribe with whom we 
 successively came into contact; but once out upon tho plains, coloniza- 
 tion will advance with far more rapid and ungovernable strides, and 
 it cannot fail, eventually, to interfere with the by no moans inex- 
 Jiaustible supply of Initfulo, upon which so many of tho Indian tribes 
 nre now dejiendent. 
 
 " Against this contingency it will be our most urgent and impor- 
 4itivo duty to take timely ])recautiops, by eruibling the red-man, not 
 b}' any undue pressure, or hasty or ill-considered interference, but 
 b}^ precept, exam])le, and suasion, by gifts of cattle and other 
 encouragements, to exchange the precarious life of a hunter for that 
 •of a pastoral, and eventually that of an agricultural people. (Ap- 
 plause.) 
 
 " Happily in no part of Hor Majesty's dominions are tho relations 
 -existing between the white settlers and tho original natives and 
 luastcrs of the land so well understood or so generously and humanely 
 interpreted as in Canada, and as u con.ser][uonco, instead of being a 
 •cause of anxiety and disturbance, tlio Indian tribes of the Dominion 
 are regarded as a valuable adjunct to our strength and industry. 
 (Hear, hear, and applause.) 
 
 " Wherever J have gone in tl;e Province — and since I have been 
 here, I have travelled nearly a thousand milee within your borders 
 — I have found the Indians upon their several reserves, pretermit- 
 ting a few petty grievances of a local character they thought them- 
 fiolves justitiod in preferring, contented and satisfied, upon tho most 
 friendly terms with their white neighbours, and implieity confiding 
 in the good faith and paternal solicitude of the Government. 
 ^Applause.) 
 
 U 
 
 \\.'. 
 
17 
 
 I, 
 
 ■ 1 
 
 *' In somo districtH I havo lonrnt th plojwuro that the Sioux, who 
 aomo yoni-M niiice ontored our ten-it ,ry under Huch Hinirttor circum- 
 Htftiicos— I do not, of course, rofoi- to the recent visit of Sitting' liull 
 and hiH people— who, however, I holievo are reinai lin^ perfect ly 
 quiet— uro not only peuceuhlo and well hehavod, but have turned 
 into useful and hardworking^ lahouron, and harvest men; wh'le i-i 
 the more distant settlomentH, the less domeMtitatod bands of natives 
 whether as hunters, voyai^ours, ^ruides, or j)Urveyors of our furs and 
 game, prove an appreciably advanta^roousoleniont in the economical 
 structure of the colony. (Applause. ) 
 
 '' There is no doubt that a great deal of the good foelin<^ thus 
 subsisting between the red men and ourselves is due to the influcnc3 
 and interposition of that invaluable class of men, the hulf-bieod set- 
 t ors and pioneers of Manitoba— (loud applause)— who, combinin-r us 
 they do the hardihood, the endurance, and lovo of enterprise ge'tie- 
 rated by the strain of Indian blood within heir veins, with the civi- 
 lization, the instruction, and intellectual power derived from their 
 fathers, havo preached the Gospel of peace and good-will, and mutual 
 respect, with equally benoticent results to the Inriian chieftain in his 
 lodge and to the British settler in his shanty. (Great applause.) 
 
 " They have been the ambassadors between the east and the west • 
 the Interpreters of civilization and its exigencies to the dwellers oii 
 the prairie, as well as the exponents to the whiKs men of the consi- 
 deration justly due to the susceptibilities, the sensi; ive self respect the 
 prejudices, the innate craving for justice of the Indian race. ( Loud 
 applause.) ^ 
 
 "In tact, they have done for the colony what otherwise would 
 have been left unaccomplished, and have introduced I ^tween the 
 white population and the red man a traditional feeling ot unity and 
 friendship which but for them it might have been impossible to 
 establish. (Cheers.) ^ 
 
 "Nor can 1 pass by the humane, kindly and considerate attention 
 which has ever distinguished the Hudson Bay Company in its deal- 
 ings with the native population. (Applause.) But though givin..- 
 due credit to these fortuntue influences amongst the causes which 
 are conducing to produce and preserve this fortunate result, the i)lace 
 ot honour must be adjudged to that honorable and generous policy 
 which has been pursued by successive Governments towards the 
 Indians of Canada, and which at this moment is being superintended 
 and curried out with so much tact, discretion and ability by your 
 present Lieutenant-Governor (applause) under which the extinction 
 ot the Indian title upon liberal terras has invariably been recognized 
 as a necessary preliminary to the occupation of a single square yard 
 of native territory. (Cheering.) o ^ ^ 
 
 " But our Indian friends and neighbours are by no means the 
 
 B 
 
18 
 
 only alien communities in Manitoba which demand the solicitude 
 ot the Crovernment and excite our sympathies and curiosity 
 M«nnn •^'^ proximity to Winnipeg two other communit'ies-the 
 Mennomte« and Icelanders-starting from opposite ends of Europe 
 without either concert or communication, have sought fresh homes 
 with.n our terr.tory ; the one of Russian extraction,"though German 
 race, moved by a desire to escape from the obligations of a law which 
 was repulsive to their conscience-the other, brec amid the snows 
 and a.hes of an Arctic volc.no, by the hope o. bettering their 
 material condition. (Applause.) ^ 
 
 "Although I have witnessed many sights to cause me pleasure 
 duiing my various progresses through the Dominion, seldom have I 
 beheld any spectacle more pregnant with prophecy, more frau-ht 
 wi h promise of a successful future, than the Mennonite settleme'lit. 
 (App ause.) When 1 visited these interesting people they had only 
 
 manv mil^;''nP '" '- ^''^l'}^l\^^^ Jet in a long l-ide I took acros^ 
 raan^ miles of praine, which but yesterday was absolutely bare, 
 desolate and unteiuuited, the home of the wolf the badger and the 
 
 fn?n;'. i^r't -l!'''^? f^^' ''''^''«^' homeste^id after homestead, 
 tum shed forth with all the conveniences and incidents of Euroijean 
 comfort and a scientific agriculture, while on either side the road, 
 corn-fieid.s already ripe for harvest and pastures papulous with herds 
 of cattle stretched away to the horizon. (Great applause ) 
 
 iiven on this continent-the peculiar theatre of rapid change 
 and progress-there has nowhere, i imagine.taken place so marvellous 
 a trans{ormnt.on (cheers) ; and yet, when in your name, and in the 
 name of .he Queen of England, 1 bade these people welcome to their 
 new homos, it was not the improvement in their material fortunes 
 that pre-occupied my thoughts. Glad as I was to have the power 
 of allotting them so ample a portion of our teeming soil— a soil 
 which seems to blossom at a touch-(cheerini.-)-ana which thev 
 were cultivating tosuch manifest advantage, 1 fbit intinitelv prouder 
 in being able u> throw over them the aegis of the iSritish Constitu- 
 tion-( oud cheers) -and in bidding them freely share with us our 
 unrivalled political institutions, and our untrammelled pei-sonal 
 fiUerty. ((.rreat cheering.) ^ 
 
 *' We ourselves are so accustomed to breathe the atmosphere of 
 freedom that it scarcely occurs to us to consider and appreciate our 
 advantage in this respect. (Hear, hear.) It is only when we are 
 reminded, by such incidents as that to which 1 refbr, of the smal' 
 extent of the world s surface over which the principles of Parlia^ 
 mentary Government can bo said to work smoothly and har- 
 moniously, that we are led to consider the exceptional happiness of 
 our position. (Applause.) ^^ 
 
 «' Nor was my visit to the Icelandic community less satisfactory 
 
19 
 
 solicitude 
 ity. 
 nities — the 
 
 of Europe 
 e.sh homes 
 ^h German 
 law which 
 the snows 
 >ring their 
 
 e pleasure 
 om have I 
 re fraught 
 ettlement. 
 ' had only 
 ook across 
 tely bare, 
 ir and the 
 omestead, 
 -European 
 ■the road, 
 vith herds 
 
 id change 
 narvellous 
 uid in the 
 10 to their 
 1 fortunes 
 he power 
 >il — a soil 
 hich they 
 y pi'ouder 
 CoiLstitu- 
 th us our 
 pei-sonal 
 
 jpiiere of 
 iciate our 
 sn we are 
 the small 
 )f Parlia- 
 and har- 
 )pines8 of 
 
 tislactory 
 
 than that to our Mennonite fellow-subjects. From accidental cir- 
 cumstances I have been long since led to take an interest in the 
 history and literature of the (Scandinavian race, and the kindness I 
 once received at the hands of the Icelandic people in their own 
 island naturally induced me to take a deep interest in the welfare 
 of this new immigration. (Applause.) 
 
 " When we take into account the secluded position of the Icelandic 
 nation for the last thousand years, the unfavourable conditions of 
 their climatic and geographical situation, it would be unreasonable 
 to expect that a colony from thence .should exhibit the same apti- 
 tudes for agricultural enterprise and settlement as would be pos- 
 sessed by a people fresh from intimate contact with the higher 
 civilization of Europe. 
 
 " In Icela 1 there are neither trees, nor cornfields, nor highways. 
 You cannot, therefore, expect an Icelander to exhibit an inspired 
 proticiency in felling timber, ploughing hind, or making roads, yet 
 unfortunt.tely these are the three accomplishments most necessary 
 to a colonist in Canada. But though starting at a disadvantage in 
 these respects, you must not underrate the capacity of your new 
 fellow-countrj-mcn. They are endowed with a great deal of intel- 
 lectual ability, and a quick intelligence. They are well educated. 
 I scarcely entered a hovel at Gimli which did not possess a library. 
 
 " They are well-conducted, religious and peaceable. Above all 
 they are docile and anxious to learn. (Applause.) Nor, consider- 
 ing the difficulty which prevails in this country in procuring women 
 servants, will the acce-ision of some hundreds of bright, good- 
 humoured, though perhaps inexperienced, yet willing, Icelandic 
 girls, anxious for employment, be found a disadvantage by the resi- 
 dent ladies of the country. Should the dispersion of these young 
 people lead in course of time to the formation of more intimate and 
 tenderer ties than those of mere neighbourhood between the Cana- 
 dian population and the Icelandic colony, I am safe in predicting 
 that it will not prove a matter of regret on the one side or the other. 
 (Applause.) 
 
 " And, gentlemen, in reference to this point, I cannot help re- 
 marking with satisfaction on the extent to which a community of 
 interests, the sense of being engaged in a common undertaking, the 
 obvious degree in which the prosperit}'- of any one man is a gain to his 
 neighbours, has amalgamated the various sections of the population 
 of this Province, originally so diverse in race, origin, and religion, 
 into a patriotic, closely welded, and united whole. (Applause.) 
 
 '* In no part of Canada have I found a better feeling prevailin*'' 
 between all classes and sections of the community. (Cheers.) It 
 is in a great measure owing to this widespread sentiment of brother- 
 hood that on a recent occasion great troubles have been averted 
 
20 
 
 vAii]e at the present moment it is finding its crowninf? and most 
 triiimphant expression in the establishment of a University under 
 conditions which have been found impossible of application in any 
 other Province of Canada— I may say in any other country in the 
 world— (great cheering) -for nowhere else, either in Europe or on 
 this continent, as far as i am aware, have the bishons and heads of 
 the various religious communities into which the Christian world is 
 unhappily divided, combined to erect an Alma Mater to which all 
 the denominational colleges of the Province are to be affiliated, and 
 w-liose statutes and degrees are to be regulated and dispensed under 
 the joint auspices of a governing body in which all the Churches of 
 the land will be represented. (Great applause.) 
 
 "An achievement of this kind speaks volumes in favour of the 
 wisdom, liberality, and Christian charity of those devoted men 
 by whom in this distant land the consciences of the population are 
 lud and enlightened, and long may they be spared to see the efforts of 
 their exertions and magnanimous sacrifices in the good conduct and 
 grateful devotion of their respective flocks. (Cheers.) Nor, [ am 
 luippy to think, iw this good fellowship upon which I have so' much 
 cause to congiagulate you confined either within the limits of the 
 Irovince or even within those of the Dominion. 
 
 "Nothing struck me more on my way through St. Paul, in the 
 United titaies, than the sympathetic manner in which the inhabi- 
 tants of that flourishing city alluded to the progress and prospects of 
 Canada and the North-VVcst— (loud applause)— and on arrivins? here 
 1 was equally struck by finding even a more exuberant counterpart 
 of those friendly sentiments. (Great applause.) 
 
 " The reason is not far to seek. Quite independently of the genial 
 intercourse promoted by neighbourhood and the intergrowth of com- 
 mercial relutioijs, a bond of sympathy between the two populations 
 IS created by the consciousness that they are both engaged in an 
 enterprise of world-wide importance, that they are both organized 
 corps in the ranks of humanity, and the wings of a great army 
 miirching in line on a level front; that they lue both engaged in 
 advancing the standards of civilization westwards, and that for 
 many a year to come they will be associated in the task of convert- 
 iilg the breadths of prairie that stretch between them and the set- 
 ting sun into one vast paradise of international jDoace, of domestic 
 happiness and material plenty. (Great cheering.) 
 
 '■fietween two communities thus occupied it is impossible but 
 that amity and loving kindness should be begotten. (Applause ) 
 
 •; But perhaps it will be asked how can I, who am the natural'and 
 ciiil guardian of Canada's virtue, mark with satisfaction such 
 dangerously sentimental proclivities towards her seductive neigh- 
 bour, i will reply by appealing to those ext)orieno«d matrons and 
 
 \, 
 
21 
 
 chaperonos I see around me. They will tell you that when a youitff 
 lady expresses her frank admiration for a man, when she welcomes his 
 approach with unconstrained pleasure, crosses the room to sit beside 
 bim, presses him to join her picnic, praises him to her friends there 
 18 not the sli^rhtest fear of her affections having been surreptitiously 
 entrapped by the gay deceiver. (Loud laughter.) ' 
 
 *' On the contrary, it is when she can be scarcely brought to men. 
 tion his name— (great laughter)— when she alludes to him with 
 malice ana disparagement, that real danger is to be apprehended 
 (Kenewed laughter.) ^' 
 
 '/No I No! Canada both loves and admires the United States, but 
 It is with the friendly, frank aftectiov which a heart-whole state- 
 y maiden fee s for some big, boisterous, hobbledehoy of a cousin 
 li-esh from school, and elate with animal spirits and good nature' 
 fehe knows he is stronger and more muscular than herself, has lots 
 of pocket-money (laughter), can smoke cigars and "loaf round" 
 in public places in an ostentatious manner forbidden to the decorum 
 of her own situation. (Uproarious laughter.) She admires him for 
 his bigness, strength and prosperity ; she likes to hear of his punch- 
 i mg the heads of other boys (laughter) ; she anticipates and will be 
 
 ™ proud of his ^ture success in life, and both likes him and lau<rhs at 
 
 1 him for his affectionate, loyal, though somewhat patronisin<r friend- 
 
 ship for herself (great laughter) ; but of no nearer connection does 
 she dream, nor does his bulky image for a moment disturb her vir- 
 ginal meditations. (Laughter.) 
 
 ''In a world apart, secluded from all extr.aneous influences, nest- 
 ling at the feet of her majestic mother, Canada dreams her dream, 
 and forebodes her destiny—a dream of ever-broadening harvests 
 multiplying towns and villages, and expanding pastures ; of consti- 
 tutional self-government and a confederated Empire ; of pa-^e after 
 ^'i^l °L^^^r"^'^^^^ history, added as her contribution to the" annals 
 of the Mother Country and to the glories of the Bi-itish race; of a 
 perpetuation for all time upon this continent of that temperate and 
 well-balanced system of Government which combines in one mi.>hty 
 whole, as the eternal possession of all Englishmen, the brilliant his- 
 tory and traditions of the past with the freest and most untram- 
 melled hberty of action in the future. (Tremendous cheering) 
 
 "Ladies and gentlemen, 1 have now done. I have to thank 
 you for the patience with which you have listened to me and 
 once again for the many kindnesses you have done Lady Durt'e- 
 rin and myself during my stay amongst you. xMost heartily 
 do I congratulate you upon all that you are doing, and upon 
 the glorious prospect of prosperity which is opening out on every 
 side of you. (Applause.) Though elsewhere in the Dominion stagna- 
 tion of trade and commorco has checked for a year or two the •-eneral 
 
22 
 
 advance of Canada, here at least you have escaped the effects of Buch 
 sinister incidents, for your welfare being based upon the most solid 
 of all foundations, the cultivation of the soil, you are in a position to 
 pursue the even tenor of your ways untroubled by thoise alternations 
 of fortune which disturb the world of trade and manufacture. You 
 have been blessed with an abundant harvest, and soon, I trust, will 
 a railway come to carry to those who need it the suj'plus of yoUr 
 produce — now, as my own eyes have witnessed, imprisoned in your 
 storehouses for want of the means of transport. (Cheers.) May the 
 expanding finances of the country soon place the Government in a 
 position to gratify your just and natural expectations, (Great cheer- 
 ing.;" 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 HONOURABLE MR. SUTHERLAND'S EVIDENCE, 
 
 the north-west and agricultural settlement. 
 Committee Room, House op Commons, 
 
 Monday, April 3rd, 1876. 
 
 Honourable John Sutherland, Senator, of Kildonan, Manitoba, 
 appeared before the Committee, and, in answer to questions, said : 
 
 I have been in the Norlh-West all my life. I was born within 
 the corporation of Winnipeg. My age is fifty-three years. lam a 
 practical farmer. 
 
 From my long experience there, and from what I have seen in 
 other Provinces, I have come to the conclusion that the soil, climate 
 and other natural advantages of Manitoba are conducive to successful 
 farming, and that a poor man can more easily make a living there 
 than in other parts of the Dominion. 
 
 The usual depth of alluvial deposit on the prairie is about two 
 and a half feet, and on bottom lands from two and a half to twenty 
 feet. The natural grasses are very nutritious, and cattle can be win- 
 tered without any coarse grain, neither is it customary to feed any 
 grain except to milch cows or stall-fed animals. 
 
 The usual yield of prairie grass when cut into hay is an average 
 of from three to four tons per acre. It usually grows about five or 
 six feet high, and, although coarse, is very nutritious. 
 
 I consider the North-West as very well adapted for dairy pur- 
 poses, as we have many miles of natural meadows throughout the 
 country, and hay can be cut and cured for about ^1 per ton. Wo 
 
 i 
 
 i 
 
f 
 
 i 
 
 23 
 
 have five or six varieties of grasses that are good and well adapted 
 for stock feeding, while a few others are not so suitable. 
 
 We have occasional frosts ; generally one frost about the first of 
 June, but seldom severe enough to do any material injury to the 
 growing crops, and showers are frequent during spring and summer. 
 The average depth of snow throughout Manitoba is about 20 inches, 
 and is quite light and loose. 
 
 I would consider it advantageous for a farmer to take improved 
 stock, but not agricultural implements, as they can be procured there 
 at a reasonable rate. They are partly procured from the United 
 States and partly from Ontario. I think the grade cattle might be 
 got in cheaper from Minnesota than from Ontario. 
 
 In many parts of the Province there are natural springs and creeks 
 on the surface, and good water can bo obtained by digging about 
 twelve feet, while in other parts it may be necessary to dig 'some fifty 
 or sixty feet. I recollect only two seasons which were very dry, but 
 not so much so as to prevent having fair average crops, and in 
 the absence of showers there is sufficient moisture in the 'earth to 
 render the soil productive. 
 
 The frost penetrates in exposed places to the depth of from 
 three to four feet, that is, where the earth is not covered at all with 
 snow. _ Where it is covered with snow it is seldom frozen deeper 
 than eighteen inches. Vegetation begins and progresses before the 
 frost is all out of the ground, and we generally begin sowing when 
 it is thawed to the depth of six inches, at which time the surfiico is 
 perfectly dry. We believe this frost helps the growth of crops, 
 owing to the heat of the sun by day causing a continual evaporation 
 from the underlying strata of frost. 
 
 I consider the country healthy, and we have not been subject to 
 any epidemic. We had fever in Winnipeg in 1875, but none 'in the 
 country places. It was brought into Winnipeg, and it owed its con- 
 tinuance there, no doubt, to overcrowded houses and insufiicient 
 drainage. We never had small-pox in our Province. As a rule, I 
 think the country is very healthy. 
 
 The average yield and prices of grain are as follows : — 
 
 Wheat, about 80 bushels per acre, price SI. 00. 
 Oats, " 40 " " 30c. to 40c. 
 
 Barley, " 35 '< «' 60c. to 70c. 
 
 Peas, " 50 " '' 60c. to 70c. 
 
 The soil and climate are well adapted for growing root crops. 
 Our potatoes are pronounced the best in the world. Indian corn is 
 not extensively cultivated, and I think the large kind could not be 
 cultivated to advantage, but the smaller kind might, and [ think 
 could bo profitably grown. 
 
24 
 
 r 
 
 We have had a ready home market for the last fifteen years for 
 all our surplus produce, consequently we have not exported any farm 
 produce. 
 
 I think that extensive settlement will prevent the ravages of the 
 grasshoppers, and we have good reason to believe that wo will be 
 exempt r -om them during the coming season, as there wee no deposits 
 of eggs in the Province in 1875, and in all probability we will be 
 relieved from that plague for many years to come. To my own 
 knowledge the Province was not affected by grasshoppers for forty 
 years previous to 1867, since which date we have had them off and 
 on about every two years, or each alternate year. 
 
 The fences are composed of posts of spruce and poplar, the 
 latter of which, with the bark removed, will last twenty years. Pine 
 and basswood lumber are also used, the former being from $20 to $60 
 per thousand feet. 
 
 P(;plar and oak are chiefly used, and are in sufficient quantity to 
 su])p]y the present demand, but 1 fear there is not enough to supply a 
 very large population, in which case there might be a scarcity of hard 
 wood, but plenty of poplar and tam.arac, the former of which is 
 reproduced very rapidly. Coal is not known to exist in the Province 
 of Manitoba, but is said to be found about thirty miles west of the 
 boundary of the Province. 
 
 It is customary to plough in the fall, but I. have generally found 
 it necessary to cultivate the soil in the spring before sowing, to pre- 
 vent the growth of weeds. 
 
 I consider Matiitoba adapted to sheep-raising, an from my expe- 
 rience I have found it profitable. 
 
 1 have raised sixty bushels of spring wheat per acre, weighing 
 sixty-six pounds per bushel, the land having been measured and the 
 grain weighed carefully. I have also received reliable information to 
 the effect that seventy (70) bushels of wheat have been produced 
 from one bushel sown. 
 
 It is my opinion, in the event of a considerable immigration going 
 into the Province of Manitoba, and also into the North- West Territo- 
 ries, that those immigrants will in the first instance be consumers, at 
 all events for the first year after their arrival ; and if, as I hope, the 
 construction of the Canada Pacific Railway is carried on, I do not 
 doubt that these circumstances combined will absorb our surplus 
 produce until we shall have an outlet for exportation. I may also 
 add that the fur trade has, for many years, consumed a large propor- 
 tion of our surjjlus produce, and I exi)ectit will continue to do so for 
 years to come in the North- West Territories. 
 
26 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 NORTH-WEST TERRITORr. 
 
 PROFESSOR MACOUN's EVIDENCE. 
 
 observations in the north-west and peace river district, 
 
 Committee Room, House op Commons, 
 Friday, March 24th, 1876. 
 
 Professor John Macoun, of Albert University, Eelleville, appeared 
 before the Committee and, in answer to questions, said : — 
 
 A continuous farming country extends from Point du Chien to the 
 Assiniboino, at Fort Ellico, a distance of 230 miles, without a break. 
 Beyond this there are twenty-five miles of dry, gravelly ground, of 
 little account for anything except pasture. Then follows a very exten- 
 sive tract of country stretching westward to the South Saskatchewan 
 and extending indefinitely north and south. This wide region contains 
 man}' fine sections of rich fertile country, interspersed with poplar 
 groves, rolling, treeless prairie, salt lakes, saline and other marshes, 
 and brackish or fresh water ponds. What is not suited for raising 
 cereals is excellent pasture land. Only a few of the salt lakes would 
 be injurious to cattle or horses; and fresh water can be obtained 
 without doubt a little below the surface. 
 
 The soil of this whole region is a warm, gravelly or sandy loam. 
 The surfiice soil, to a depth of from one to three feet, is a brown or 
 black loam. The subsoil, being generally either sand or gravel, 
 consisting principally of limestone pebbles ; many boulders are found 
 in some sections. The land between the two Saskatchewans is 
 nearly all good. Prince Albert Mission settlement is situated in 
 this section. At Carleton I crossed the North Saskatchewan, and 
 therefore know nothing personally of the immense region extending 
 west and south thence to the Boundary. All accounts, however, 
 agree in saying it is the garden of the country. Good land, generally 
 speaking, extends northward to Green Lake, a distance of 170 miles 
 from Carleton. How much further eastward this good land extends 
 I am unable to state; but Sir John Richardson says that wheat is 
 raised without difficulty at Cumberland House. The good arable 
 land is about twenty-five miles wide at Edmonton, but possibly not 
 so wide at Fort Pitt, more to the east, but further north. This 
 region is bounded on the south by the North Saskatchewan and on 
 
 I 
 
26 
 
 the north by the wftternhod between it and the Beaver and Atha- 
 basca Rivers. Within thin area there are five Reltlement.s where 
 wheat iH raised ro,i,nihirly without difficulty, viz : the Star Mission, 
 (Church of En.i^^land.) sixty miles north of Carleton on the Green 
 -Lake Road ; Lac La Bicho Mission, (R. C), 100 miles from 
 Fort Edmonton ; Victoria Mission, (Wesloyan,) ei«-h(y miles east of 
 Edmonton, and St. Albert Mission, (R C), nine miles north of 
 Edmonton, and at Edmonton itself. Edmonton seems to be the 
 coldest point in the district in question, and suffers most from 
 summer fi-osts. 
 
 Next is a very extensive district forming the watersheds between 
 the Saskatchewan and Peace Rivers, and'throu^^h which the Atha- 
 basca River flows for its whole course, and from which it receives 
 its waters. This re^i,n"on is all forest, and consists of musko«r Cawamp) 
 spruce and poplar forest. Very little is known of this rei^non, but 
 the soil where I crossed it is generally good where not swampy. 
 West of Edmonton, where the railway crosses the section, there'is 
 said to be much swamp, but between Fort Pitt and the Forks of the 
 Athabasca there is scarcely any swamp, although it is nearly all 
 forest. . o J 
 
 Next comes the Peace River section extending along the Rocky 
 Mountains from a little north of Jasper's House to Fort Liard, Lat. 
 sixtj'-one north ; and from the former point to the west end of Little 
 Slave Lake ; thence to the Forks of the Athabasca, and dowMi that 
 River to Athabasca Lake, and from thence to Fort Liard. The upper 
 part of this immense area is principally prairie, extending on both 
 sides of the Peace River. As we proceed to the north and cast, the 
 prairie gradually changes into a continuous poplar forest with 
 here and there a few spruces, indicating a wetter soil. The general 
 character of this section is like that of Manitoba west from Portage 
 La Prairie to Pine Creek. 
 
 Wheat was raised last year at the Forks of the Athabj>sca, at the 
 French Mission, (Lake Athabasca,) at Fort Liard, and at Fort 
 Vermillion in this section. 
 
 The following observations and extracts will speak for them- 
 selves. I was on Peace River during the whole mor.th of October, 
 1872; part of my work was to note the temperatui-e, which I did 
 with care. The average reading of the thermometer, at eight o'clock 
 p. m., for the ten days between the 10th and 19th October, was 42i° 
 in Lat. 56°, while at Belleville, Ontario, in Lat. 44°, it' was only 
 46|° at 1 p. m., being oidy 4° higher with a difPcrence of 12° in 
 Latitude. (For details see Pacific Railway Survey Report for 1874 
 page 96). ' 
 
 Captain Butler passed through the same region in the following 
 April, and states that the whole hillside was covered with the blue 
 
 t 
 
 * 
 
 ^^ 
 
 \ 
 
27 
 
 t 
 
 i 
 
 f 
 I 
 
 ancTJiono (Anemone patens) on tho 22nd of April. See Wild North 
 Land. 
 
 Daniel Williams (Nigger Dan,) furnished the following extracts 
 from his notebook: 
 
 " 1872. 
 
 " Tco began to run in river November 8th. 
 " River closed November 28tb. 
 " First snow October 28th. 
 
 '< 1873. 
 " April 23rd, ice moved out of river. 
 " Planted potatoes April 25th. 
 " First permanent snow November 2nd. 
 " Kiver closed November 30th. 
 
 "1874? 
 
 " Biver broke up 19th April. 
 
 '' P'irst geese came 21st April. 
 
 " Sowed barley and oats April 22nd. 
 
 " River clear of upper ice May 3rd." — N". B. Upper let from above 
 the Eocky Mountain Canyon. 
 
 " Planted potatoes May 5th. 
 
 " Potatoes not injured by frost until 22nd September. Then snow 
 fell which covered them, but soon went off. Dug over 100 bushels 
 from one planting." This is possibly too large. — J. M. 
 
 " lee commenced to run in river October 30th. 
 
 " River closed November 23rd. 
 
 " Snowed all night November 4th. 
 
 ''1875. 
 
 " Ice broke up in river April 15th. 
 
 <' Warm rains from north-west; blue flies and rain, February 18th. 
 
 "Ice cleared out in front of Fort, April 16th. 
 
 "Potatoes planted 8th, 9th and 10th May. 
 
 " Barley and oats sown May 7th. 
 
 " Snow all gone before the middle of April. This applies to both 
 the river valley and the level country above." Difference in level 
 746 feet. 
 
 The potatoes were dug out in quantities, and were both large and 
 dry. On the 2nd August, seventeen men got a week's supply at this 
 time. These men were traders from down the river who depended on 
 their guns for food. The barley and oats were both ripe about the 
 12th August. (Both on Exhibition at Philadelphia). 
 
 Extract from the Hudson Bay Company's Journal, Fort St. John, 
 Peace River, for a series of ten years. Lat. 56° 12 North. Long. 
 120° west. Altitude above tho seaj nearly 1,600 feet. 
 
28 
 
 Onening of River pj^t |ce drifting in river. 
 
 18m.-Anril 19 November 7 
 
 1808— do 20 j„ H 
 
 18(59- do 23 • Z 8 
 
 l|^?-^« 26 rt^ No record. 
 
 1871— do 18 do lA 
 
 1872- do 19 . . T ft 
 
 1873- do 23 . . . : : : : t I 
 
 farther down the river, is about fTalfudeLrrce le.ss than tlmtofToro, to 
 the one avera^nn^r 54° 14' and the otho? 54° 44' ' 
 
 At Battle Eiver, over 100 miles further down, Indian corn has 
 npened three years in succession, and my observations tmHltrshow 
 higLr up ""''"'' temperature at this point is greater than it JI 
 
 Mr'^^sInw"wlT'i^''\- f'\ ^^'' ^ ^'""'^ ^ '^"^' conversation with old 
 
 sav« itiC^ '''' ^^'''^ '^""•^^" °^ ^^>»« ^«^'t ^«'' «>^^teen years ; ho 
 says the fronts never injure anything on this part of the river and 
 every kind of garden stuff can be grown. Barley sovvn on thi 8 h 
 May, cut Gth August, and the finest 1 ever saw. Ma^y earsas Ion., 
 as my hand and the whole crop thick and stout I my on n ion ^h^^ 
 18 the fines tract of country on the river. Tiie geneml K of t e 
 country is less than 100 feet above it. 
 
 At Little Eivor I found everything in a very forward state 
 Cucumbers started in the open air were fully ripe^; W nd or d le 
 beans and peas were likewise ripe, August 15th. ^ Poi t Chipweyan 
 at the entrance to the Lake Athabasca, has very poor soil in its vi- 
 cinity, being largely composed of sand ; still, heVe I ob ained fine 
 samples of wheat and bai4ey-the form'er we ghing 68 "bs to the 
 
 beit bii/ll t 1 ' T^l 'f ^- ^'^^ '^-^"^ ^''''' - '^^^y lovv and s tampy 
 being but little elevated above the lake. At the French Mission Uvn 
 
 miles above the Fort, oats, wheatand barley were all cut Z the '4th 
 A"§u«t Crop rather light on the ground. ^ ''^^^ 
 
 61 ON I^^;;J'«ty. Chief Factor in charge of Fort Simpson, in Lat 
 61 N., informed me that barley always ripened there and thot 
 
 rte'n w™ ' Fro'^t"' 15""^' ''S' '''''-' '' started ir^^^er gts^ 
 ^'^,^,tZm ™f seldom does them much damage. ^ 
 
 y,n« .K Trader Macdougall says, that Fort Liard, in Lat 61° N 
 has the warmest summer temperature in the whole region and all 
 kinds of gram and garden stuff always come to maturit^ ' He has 
 
 f 
 
 t 
 
 •f 
 
f 
 
 1 
 
 r J 
 
 'f' 
 
 29 
 
 Kic^ t^^, H \ f '^ ^''^^'"'^ '^^'•"'^ is cultivated Ih owinir to 
 it Mac nLo^Chufr^'f' •''''''' '^"d Indians, are fleHl.-oa^er; 
 to d 1,1^1 w... ."''^^'' '" ' "^'^ "^ ^-'*^ Athabasca District, 
 
 olXl iL'li'L'^L^^ Athabasca. AI. .Moborly, )o gentleman in 
 
 ^uy Co Wmlll ?h?" '"""""'w "^'"''''^'^y ^*" * •'■' "« t»^« "udson 
 U « . \ u the oxen and horses used on .Hethy Porta<ro at 
 
 supplying the whole interior from this locality with food Z tZ 
 deer were gettu.g scarce and supplies rather p.-ecar ous 'This is 
 
 vegetables whe.. b.r Alexander Mackenzie visited it in J?y7^"i^^"" 
 
 ti-avels Hrni;^' Tl?""'" •"'" *^"""^ ^'^ Alexander Mackenzie's 
 uavols. He passed the winters ot 1792 and 1793 n^ar Smnt^ 
 
 jUver, and writes as toUows:-- November 7th/ The rivei beL^a^ 
 On the T\ T y'^'^'-^^'y' ^vhich we call the lasFof Tv^Sn 
 lalt^ Au"l '-^VT'' ^«;t frj>-^'\f ^-o^^. and remained so ur^tiUhe 
 wfin . P. I J"''^^^" the IGth November and the 2nd Heceuiher 
 
 ^7 "bote t'o r^^ in''""'"'""'^^^^ '''' ^^"^^^^^^ ^•^'' a.m Z'Von; 
 10 40 below LdlZ '''"' > """" i^^ ^'^^"^^ ^^^« ^'^^"^ 21;- above 
 - Vn ,1 T/u r '^^ ^ P-™- '* '^"'^ ^»'on^ 2«' above to 7° below 
 On the 5th January, in the morning, the weather was calm' 
 cear and cold, the wind blew from the south-west and in he 
 auernoon it wa« thawing. I had already observed at theTtlu ba ca 
 
 wti 'u Z\t rr if"' '' 'T^' "« ^^^^^' -''^^ weathert where" 
 ki!mn^ ^ the opposite quarter it produced snow. Here 
 
 west to 'irr perceptible, for if it blows lard from the south- 
 west oi tour hours a thaw is the consequence. To this cause 
 may be attributed the scarcity of snow in\his part of the wmld 
 At the end 01 January very little snow was on the around but 
 the^VthVa\^h ^^r«^^,,^>— very severe, and remllird 'bo to 
 A T . '^!^'^^' when the weather became mild, and bv the 5th 
 
 tT ame :nd"7 T T'' . ^" ?^ ''^^ *^« ^^^^ -^ ^^s'^ 
 toes came, and Mr. Mackay brought me a bunch of flowers of a 
 
 s^x le^ts'/ali^^r'^". '^r ^^T^^ ^^^^^') encirclT^ith' 
 BIX leaves ot a light purple. On the other side of the river which 
 
 was « 111 covered with ice, the plains were deli^htfnll'L t^l4 
 were budding, and many plants in blossom. The change"ia "the 
 
80 
 
 apj)earnneo of tho fiico ot Natiiro was us sudden m it wjih nloasiiiL' 
 lor u tew days only were passed awuy Hitico the ^M-ound was covered 
 with Htiow. On tlie 25tli tlic river was cleared of tho ice." 
 
 I consider nearly all tho Peace Kivor Heclion to be well suited 
 for raisin^r cereals of all kinds, and at least two-third.s of it tit for 
 wheat. The soil of this section is as good as any part of Manitoba 
 and the climate if anything is tnilder. ' 
 
 Tho Thick-wood country, drained by the Athabasca, has generally 
 good soil, but it is wet and cold. At least one-half is good for 
 raising barley and wheat, while much of the romuinder would make 
 lirstclass ijasture and meadow lands. 
 
 I nm not so well acquainted with the Saskatchewan section, but 
 from what I know of it, it has generally good Holland a climate 
 not unsuitable for wheat raising. Uetweon Fort Pitt and Edmonton 
 there is a tract which I consider subject to summer frosts but it 
 would i)rodiice immense crops of hay. This district is tlie only 
 dangerous one in the Saskatchewan country. 
 
 Of the high country between the South Saskatchewan and Mani- 
 toba, and south to tho boundary, I know but little. If it could bo 
 shown that summer frost did no injury in the region in question, J 
 could say that from its soil and vegetation tho greater part would 
 produce wheat. At all events barley and peas will bo a sure crop 
 1 cannot speak decidedly of this large area, as from its exposed posi- 
 tion and height from the sea, there is a danger of injury to tho crops 
 from frosts. The future will decide the point. 
 
 Q. lieforring to tho cultivable parts ot the central or prairio regions 
 between the Province of Manitoba and tlie iiocky Mountains can 
 you state whether there are early or summer frosts, which would bo 
 likely to prove detrimental to tho cultivation of wheat? 
 
 A. In answering the last question, I stated that 1 could not bo 
 certain from my own observations, but 1 incline to the opinion that 
 many large areas will be found altogether free from frosts while 
 others will bo injured by them. While crossing the Plains with Mr 
 Fleming in August, 1872, the thermometer fell to 30° on the mornin<r 
 of the 14th, and ice was tbrmed in some of tho vessels, but 1 saw no 
 injury done to vegetation. This was about ninety miles east of tho 
 South Saskatchewan. Captain Palliser records tho thermometer 
 falling below freeaing point on tho 14th August, 1857, in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Fort Ellico, but vegetation did not seem to sutler. It 
 seems that the llrst frost to do any injury comes aboui. the 20th of 
 this mouth, and that it is just as likely to atlect Manitoba as the 
 country further west. 
 
 1 have noticed the large claims, as respects the yield of wheat in 
 the valley of the Ljd Kiver, advanced, but doubt their accuracy 
 From what I coul^ learn, I should think thirty-Hvo bushels per acre 
 as pretty near tho average. Culti vatioa like that of Ontario would 
 
 f 
 
 f 
 
 J 
 
 
♦ 
 
 ( 
 
 *-'f * 
 
 31 
 
 give a much groator yiel<l, a.s tliero are more grainH to tho oar than 
 in Ontario. The <,'ruin is houvior. Pouh will always bo a. heavy 
 wop i!i the Noftli-VVoHt, as the soil in suitable, and a little frost does 
 them no harm. 
 
 All my observations tended to show that tho whole Peace River 
 country was Just as capable of successful Nottlomont as iManitoba. 
 Tho soil seems to be richer — the country contains more wood ; there 
 are no saline mai-shes or lakes ; the water is all <^ood — there are no 
 summer frosts— spring i« just as early and the winter sets in no 
 sooner. The winter may be more severe ; but there is no ceriaintv 
 of this. "^ 
 
 1 would not advise any attempt to settle this region until after 
 the settlement has extended at least to Kdmonton, as there is at least 
 150 miles of broken coutitry between the two. 
 
 From my tbrmer answers it will be seen that about the 20th of 
 April ploughing can commence on Peace l?iver, and from data in 
 my podsossian the same may bo said of the Saskatchewan ro'dona 
 generally. '^ 
 
 It is a curious fact that sprit)g seems to advance from north-west 
 to Bouth-easi, ut a rate of about iJ50 miles j)er day, and that in the 
 Fall winter begins in .Manitoba tirst and goes westward at tho same 
 rate. 
 
 Tho iollowing data selected from various sourc. will throw con- 
 siderable light on tho question of temperature. It is worthy of note 
 that Halifax on tho soa coast is nearly as cold in spring and summer 
 as points more than twelve degrees further north. 
 
 bpring, summer and autumn temperature at various points, to 
 which is added the mean temperature of J uly and August, the two 
 ripeniuij months. 
 
 Latitude Summer. Spring. Autumn. July 
 n 11 , TT north and August. 
 
 Cumberland House 53.37 62.62 33.04 32.70 64.25 
 
 Fort Simpson 61.51 59.48 26.66 27.34 62!31 
 
 Fort Chipcwyan 58.42 58.70 22.76 31.89 60.*60 
 
 Fort^William ,..48.24 59.94 39.67 37.80 60 52 
 
 Montreal 45.31 67.26 39.03 45.18 68 47 
 
 Toronto 43.40 64.43 42.34 46.81 66.51 
 
 Tenxiscamingue 47.19 65.23 37.58 40.07 66 43 
 
 Halifax 44.39 61.00 31.67 46.67 66.55 
 
 Belleville 44.10 temperature nearly that of Toronto. 
 
 Dunvegan, Peace lliver. 56.08 average summer six months 54.44 
 
 Edmonton 53.31 39.70 
 
 Carleion 52.52 35.70 ."."!.' 
 
 Winnipeg 49.52 64.76 30.13 35.29 65.32 
 
 Any unprejudiced person making a careful examination o 
 
32 
 
 li, t 
 
 
 I'll I 
 
 r.' . 
 
 above figuroR will bo struck with the high temporaturoR obfainod in 
 the interior. Edmonton has a higher npring temperature than 
 Montreal, and is eight degrees farther nortl- unci over 2,000 feet above 
 the sea. The temperatures of Carleton and Edmonton are tal^en from 
 Captain Palliser's explorations in the Saskatchewan country, during 
 the years 1857 a. d 1858. It will be seen that the temperatures of 
 the months when grain ripens is about equal throughout the whole 
 Dominion from Montreal to Fort Simpson north of Great Slave Lake. 
 
 The country, in my opinion, is well suited for stock-raising 
 throughout its whole extent. The winters are certainly cold, but 
 the climate is dry, and the winter snows are light, both as to depth 
 and weight. All kinds of animals have thicker coats in cold climates 
 than in warm ones, so that the thicker coat counter-balances the 
 greater cold. Dry snow never injures cattle in Ontario. Ko other 
 kind ever falls in ManiU^ba or the North-West, so that there can be 
 no trouble from this cause. Cattle winter just as well on the Atha- 
 basca and Peace Itivers as they do in iVlanitoba ; and Mr. Grant, who 
 has been living on liat Creek, xManitoba, for a number of years, says 
 that cattle give less trouble there than they do in Nova Scotia. 
 Horses winter out without ieed other than what they pick up, from 
 Peace River to Manitoba. Sheep, cattle, and horses will require less 
 attention and not require to be fed as long as we now feed them in 
 Ontario. Owing to the light rain-fail the uncut grass is almost as 
 good as ha}^ when t 'le winter sets in, which it does without the heavy 
 rains of the east. This grass remains good all winter as the dry 
 snows docs not rot it. In the spring the snow leaves it almost as 
 good as ever, so that cattle can eat it until the young grass appears. 
 fVom tivo to six months is about the time cattle will require to b« 
 fed, and shelter will altogether depend on the farmer. 
 
 Q. Could, in your opinion, the arid portion of the Central Prairie 
 region, and particularly that part supposed to be an extension of 
 the " American Desert, ' be utilized lor sheep grazing or any other 
 agricultural purpose ? 
 
 A. Laramie Plains, in Wyoming Territory, are spoken of by all 
 American writers as eminently htted for sheep and cattle farming, 
 and our extension of the " Desert " has, from all accounts, a better 
 climate — is at least 4,000 fyet lower in altitude, and from the able 
 Reports of Mr. George Dawson (18Y4,) and Captain Palliser (1858,) 
 I am led to infer that our part of the " Desert," besides being iirst- 
 cl.'iss pasture land, contains many depressions well suited lor raising 
 all kind?, of grain. Mr. Dawson specially remarks thau its soil is 
 generally good, but that the rain-fall is light. Speaking of the worst 
 ijart, he says: " It scarcely supports a sod," but this tract is not lifty 
 miles wide. This is the winter home of the buffalo, and hence cattle 
 and sheep can live on it in the winter without difficulty. 1 have seen 
 
 i: 1 
 
I 
 
 33 
 
 the Laramie Plains and the cattle upon them— I have examined the 
 flora of both regions, and believe ours is wjr-mer in winter and cor- 
 tain'y not so di*y in summer. 
 
 Mr. George Dawson speaking of this region says : " In July of 
 last summer (1873,) I saw a band of cattle in the vicinity of the Lino 
 south of Wood Mountain, which had strayed from one o"f the United 
 States forts to the south. They were quite wild, and almost as diffi- 
 cult of approach as the buff-alo ; and notwithstanding the fact that 
 they had come originally from Texas, and were unaccustomed to frost 
 and sfiow, they had passed through the winter and were in capital 
 condition." Comment is unnecessary. 
 
 Whatever desert region there is, lies between the Souris and the 
 Milk Eiver on the boundary, and the Qu'Appelle and South Saskat- 
 chewan on the north. 
 
 Q. Is there any other wood than poplar in the Peace Eiver 
 country? 
 
 A. Five-sixths of all the timber is poplar, and is invariably a 
 sign of dry soil and good land. Balsam poplar is very abundant on 
 the islands in all the north-western rivers, often attaining a diameter 
 of from 6 to 10 i'aei, oven as far north as Fort Simplson. White 
 spruce grows to a very large size on all the watersheds and the slopes 
 of the south bank of the Peace River, on islands in all the rircrs, and 
 very abundantly on the low lands at the west end of Lake Atha- 
 basca. I have often seen it over throe feet in diameter, but the 
 usual size is from one to two feet. Banksian pine was not observed 
 on Peace River, but it occurs at Lake Athabasca, and is abundant as 
 you approach the Saskatchewan from the north. Its presence indi- 
 cates sandy soil unfit for cultivation. 
 
 White birch is not abundant along the Peace River, but is com- 
 mon on the Athabasca and Mackenzie Rivers. The Northern Indians 
 make large quantities of syrup from its sap in spring. 
 
 These are the most important trees. There are no beech, maple 
 .4ish, oak, elm, white or red pine in the country. ' 
 
 Q. What fruits grow spontaneously in the Peace River country and 
 Athabasca regions ? 
 
 A. The berry of the Amelanchier Canadensis (Service Rerry of 
 Canadians, Poires of the French Half breeds and Sas-ka-tum berries 
 of the Indians) is collected in immense quantities on the Upper Peace 
 River, and forms quite an article of food and trade. When I was at 
 Dunvegan last summer the Indians and Half-breeds were camped out 
 collecting the berries which were then in their prime (August 6th ) 
 Bears are very fond of them, and resort to the sunny slopes of the 
 Peace River at this time in great numbers to feed upon the berries. 
 The Indian women press them into square cakes while fresh, and theri 
 dry them for future use, but those intended for the Hudson Bay 
 
 
 
34 
 
 Company's post are dried in the sun and mixed with dry meat and. 
 grease to form pemmican, or are fried in grease for a dessert. 
 
 Strawberries and raspberries are very abundant in most districts ■ 
 on Peace Kiver, especially at Vermillion. 
 
 Another raspberry (Rubus Arcticus), of an amber colour, is very 
 abundant at Lake Athabasca and up around Portage La Loche and 
 the Valley of the English Iliver. Its fruit is converted into jellies 
 and jams, and gives a relish to many a poor meal. 
 
 High bush cranberries {Vihurmim paucijionim and Opubis) are 
 very abundant in the wooded districts on both sides of the Athabasca 
 and Clear-water rivers and around Lake Athabasca. 
 
 Gooseberries and currants of many species are found, hut are not 
 much sought after. Blueberries, low bush cranberries, and the cow- 
 berry (Vaccinium Vitis Joloea), are abundant In particular localities 
 in the above district. Two species of cherries — the bird cherry and 
 the choke cherry — complete the list. 
 
 The Peace River is navigable from the Eocky Mountains for at 
 least 500 miles by river, — in none of this distance is it less than six 
 feet deep. A canal of tw<j miles would overcome the obstructions at 
 this point. For two hundred and fifty miles below this t'lere is no 
 obstruction except a rapid, which I think is caused by boulders in 
 the channel. Their removal would probably overcome the diffi- 
 culty. 
 
 The Athabasca is navigable for one hundred and eighty miles 
 above Lake Athabascji. Mr. Moberly, an officer in the Hudson 
 Bay Company's service, sounded it all the way from Fort Mac- 
 murray, at the Forks of the Clear-water and the Athabasca, to 
 Lake Athabasca, and no spot Avith less than six feet at low water 
 was found. Between Lake Athabasca and the Arctic Ocean only 
 one break exists, but this is fourteen miles across by land; after 
 that is overcome, 1,800 miles of first-class river navigation is met 
 with, which takes us to the ocean. 
 
 The Hudson Bay Company purpose opening a cart road from 
 Fort Pitt on the Saskatchewan to the Forks of the Athabasca, and 
 contemplate having a steamboat on the Athabasca and the Peace 
 and Slave Elvers. By this means ingress and egress will be ob- 
 tained, and their goods will be more easily distributed to distant 
 points. This road will be made and the steamer built in time for 
 the trade of 1877. 
 
 The moose is still abundant on both sides of the Peace Piver, and 
 the wood buffalo is still found between the Athabasca and the Peace 
 River about hit. 57^. From five hundred to one thousand head is 
 the estimate of the hunters. Black bears are very numerous on 
 the upper part of Peace River, and furnish the chief food of the 
 
 ^'-4 
 
 people in July and 
 
 
 Cariboo are north and eai^t of Lake; 
 
35 
 
 Athabasca, and are the chief food of the Indians and Half-breeds of 
 that region. Rabbits are in immense numbers wherever there is 
 timber, and are easily taken. Waterfowl are beyond computation, 
 during September, in the neighbourhood of Lake Athabasca, and 
 large flocks of Canada geese are found on Peace River all summer. 
 Lynx, beaver, martin and fox make uj) the chief fur-bear- 
 ing animals. 
 
 Large deposits of coal have been observed, by Mr. Selwyn, on 
 the Saskatchewan, between the Rocky Mountain House and Victoria, 
 a distance of 211 miles. He speaks in one place of having seen seams 
 20 feet thick, and in his report for 1873 and 1874, he gives a photo- 
 graph, on page 41, of this seam. 
 
 Rev. Mr. Grant, in "Ocean to Ocean," speaks of a seam of coal 
 on the Pembina River — a tributary of the Athabasca — ten feetthick, 
 and from which they brought away specimens that were afterwards 
 analysed by Professor Lawson, and found to contain less tha)i|8 per 
 cent, of ash. 
 
 While on my trip to Peace River, in company with Mr. Horetzky 
 in the fall of 1872, I discovered coal in largo quantities in the bank 
 of one of the rivers which flow into Little Slave Lake. It was also 
 seen in small quantities in a number of other localities in the vicinity 
 of the Lake. It is also reported from the upper part of Smoky River, 
 and I have seen it in small quantities on the upper part of Peace 
 River and its tributaries on the right bank. I observed no indica- 
 tions of coal below Smoky River, but Sir John Richardson speaks of 
 lignite being abundant on the Mackenzie. 
 
 Clay ironstone is associated with the coal wherever it has been, 
 observed, although possibly not in paying quantities. Coal, then, and, 
 ironstone may be said to extend almost all the way from the boundary 
 to the Arctic Ocean. Gypsum of the very best quality, and as white 
 as snow, was seen at Peace Point on Peace River, and for a distance 
 of over 20 miles it extended on both sides of the river, averaging 12 
 feet in thickness. Sir John Richardson says in his " Journal of a 
 Boat Voyage to the Arctic Ocean," Vol. I, page 149, that he found 
 this same gypsum associated with the salt deposits on Salt River, 
 about TO miles N.N.E. from Peace Point, and he infers that the- 
 country between is of the same character. 
 
 Sir John examined the salt deposits at Salt River and found that 
 they were derived from the water of salt springs, of which he found 
 a number flowing out of a hill and spreading their waters over a clay 
 flat of some extent. The evaporation of the water leaves the salt 
 incrusting the soil, and in some places forming mounds out of which, 
 the purest salt is shovelled. 
 
 For many miles along the Athabasca below the Forks there ar& 
 outcrops of black shale from which liquid petroleum is conHiuntiy 
 
 I 
 
36 
 
 oozing. At various points, at some distance from the immediate 
 bank of the river, there are regular tarsprings from which the Hudson 
 Bay Company got their supply for boat building and other purposes. 
 'The tar is always covered with water in these springs, and something 
 like coal oil is seen floating on this water. Besides those mentioned 
 other springs are known to exist on the Clear-water, a tributary of 
 the Athabasca, and on Peace River, near Smoke River, and Little 
 Red River on the same stream. Sulphur springs are frequent on the 
 Clear-water, and large metalliferous deposits are said to exist near 
 Pond du Lac on the north shore of Lake Athabasca. Gold is found 
 in small quantities on the upper Peace River, but it i? of very little 
 ^iccount. Immense quantities of first-class sandstone occur for over 
 300 miles along Peace RiVer, and other minerals will be discovered 
 when the country is better known. 
 
 Grasshoppers from their very nature cannot bo yearly visitors, 
 but arc almost certain to be occasional ones. It seems to be a law 
 that insect pests eventually breed their own destruction, This seems 
 to have been their history in the past, and I believe will be the same 
 in the future. A few reached the South Saskatchewan in 1875, but 
 none have ever been seen on Peace River. Owing to the belt of 
 timber which intervenes between it and the Saskatchewan, they can 
 never injure that line country, nor will they ever do much damage 
 in the Saskatchewan country, as they are likely to move towards 
 the east and north, which takes them away from it. I know of no 
 mode of prevention except tree planting, which will be at best a slow 
 process. 
 
 At six points in the Peace River country, I made a section by 
 enumerating all the flowering plants in the vicinity. These points 
 were Hudson's Hope, just east of the mountains ; St. John's, 60 miles 
 below ; Dunvegan, 120 miles further down ; then Vermillion, about 300 
 miles lower down, then Little Ked River, 100 miles further down, and 
 Jastly at Lake Athabasca. As will be seen, the flora of the whole 
 river is much like that of Central Ontario, and of the prairie region. 
 It may be as well to remark that we can only deduce the temperature 
 of the growing season from the vegetable productions. The following 
 table gives the result of a botanical examination in a very condensed 
 form : — 
 
 Total. 
 
 Hudson's Hope 211 
 
 St. John 248 
 
 Dunvegan 24t) 
 
 Vermillion 159 
 
 Little Red River 128 
 
 Lake Athabasca 245 
 
 
 
 West of 
 
 Westera 
 
 Belleville. 
 
 Quebec. 
 
 Mountains. 
 
 Plains. 
 
 136 
 
 7 
 
 17 
 
 51 
 
 161 
 
 3 
 
 H 
 
 78 
 
 160 
 
 2 
 
 5 
 
 79 
 
 112 
 
 2 
 
 X 
 
 44 
 
 88 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 39 
 
 186 
 
 7 
 
 2 
 
 50 
 
 i 
 
 I 
 
 V.#-r^' 
 
37 
 
 The only plants that show any signs of a boreal climate are those 
 from Quebec. The two at Vermillion were Yellow Rattle {Rlnanthus 
 Cristayalli) and High Bush Cranberry (Vibenium paucijiorum). The 
 most prominent feature in the whole region was a richness in the 
 soil and rankness in the vegetation never seen in Ontario. 
 
 Where Peace River leaves the mountains, it is at least 800 feet 
 below the level of the plain. At Fort Chipewyan, on^Lake Atha- 
 basca, the country is on a level with the water. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 PRACTICAL FARMING IN THE NORTHWEST. 
 
 t 
 
 v.«^ 
 
 MR. KENNETH MACKENZIE'S STATEMENTS. 
 
 The following questions and answers contain a'' report of the- 
 experience of Mr. Kenneth Mackenzie, a farmer, who emigrated 
 from the Province of Ontario and settled in Manitoba. Mr. 
 Mackenzie wrote the answers in 1873, to questions sent to him to. 
 obtain the information he has given : — 
 
 Question.— How long have you been a resident of Manitoba? 
 
 Answer. — Four years. 
 
 Q. From what part of Ontario or the old country did you.' 
 come ? 
 
 A. Scotland, in 1842, then twenty years of age; lived in Puslinch,. 
 County of Wellington, twenty years. 
 
 Q. How many acres of land have you under cultivation at the- 
 present time? 
 
 A. One hundred and forty under crop, and about sixty more- 
 broken this summer. We plough the first breaking two inches 
 deep, and the next spring or fall plough it a second time, and turn, 
 up two inches more. 
 
 Q. Is it broken from bush or prairie land ? 
 
 A. Prairie. 
 
 Q. What is the quality of the soil, and of what does it consist? 
 
 A. Around Fort Garry to Poplar Point rather claj-ey with rich: 
 alluvial soil above; from Poplar Point west, clay loam with tine- 
 alluvial soil above, but in several places sand loam. There are to- 
 the south-west of here places too sandy for good farming land. 
 
it 
 
 38 
 
 Q. Do you consider it good agricultural productive soil ? 
 A. I never saw better, except that which is too sandy. There 
 sire settlers north-west from here for fully thirty miles, and although 
 tiewly settled, they have good, fair crops, and no grasshoppers. 
 Q. Is prairie hard to break ? 
 
 A. When the summer in wet or moist I would sooner break 
 •than old spear grass sod, as we do not require to break so deep. 
 Q. What month do you consider best to break it in ? 
 A. June "-.d July, buu earlier will do if you have time, as later 
 'does not at --v :.■• --y'j well. 
 
 Q. What . : of a plough do you use for breaking? 
 A. American, made by John Deen Moline, but other Americans 
 make goou breaking ploughs— light with gauge wheel in front, and 
 revolving coultermould boards and coulter and shear, all steel. No 
 use for any other material here in ploughs but steel. The soil is 
 rich and very adhesive, and even to steel it will stick a little in wet 
 weather, more so after it is broken and cultivated. 
 
 Q. What kind, and whose make, of a plough do you consider best 
 -adapted both for breaking and after ploughing? 
 
 A. The American ploughs answer for both at present. I have 
 a Canadian plough which does very well, but I think a good light 
 Canadian, all steel, or even glass mould-board, would be better after 
 the land begins to be old or long broken. We cannot go deep 
 enough with the American ploughs when land is getting old and 
 
 needy. 
 
 Q. How many horses or oxen do you use v>^ith each plough when 
 
 breaking the prairie ? 
 
 A. On a twelve inch breaker, we use one pair horses, c jiie yoke 
 oxen. When sixteen-inch, we use three horses or two yoke oxen. 1 
 prefer twelve-inch ploughs to larger ones. 
 
 Q. How many acres will a good team break in a day ? 
 
 A. About one acre is a fair day's work, /. e., day after day. Sotne, 
 •of course will do more. The large plough and more teem will 
 break one and a- half acres. 
 
 Q. How many ploughings do you give the land before cropping, 
 
 and at what time? 
 
 A. Two ploughings for first crop answers best. L e., one light or 
 two inch in summer, and then two inches more, stirred up, next 
 spring; we plough both times same way, and not cross the first 
 breaking. 1 have raised potatoes and turnips last year on first 
 breaking; had a fair crop, but would not like to depend on it if the 
 season was dry. 
 
 Q. What crops do you grow most extensively? 
 
 A. This year, spring wheat, ninety acres; barley, thirty acres ; 
 <3atS; 1 aci-e ; peas, eight acres ; rye, one acre ; flax, i acre j potatoes, 
 
 4 
 
39 
 
 n 
 
 aix acres; the rest, roots of varloiH kinds, and clover and timothy, 
 
 Q. What l<in(is of fall wheat do j'ou grow ? 
 
 A. I have tried fall wheat, but do not consider it a profitable crop 
 to raise here at present. 
 
 Q. How many bushels do you sow per acre? 
 
 A. About two bushels per acre. 
 
 Q. What is the average yield per acre, one year with the other ? 
 
 A. Fully thirty bushels ; I have had over forty. 
 
 Q. Does Indian corn grow well, and yield a good crop ? 
 
 A. It does not mature very well. They have a Hmall kind that 
 a-ipens, but, I do not like it. 
 
 Q. Whai ivind of barley do you grow ? 
 
 A. Commoi. four rowed, but think any variety will do well. 
 
 Q. How man}'- bushels do you sow per acre ? 
 
 A. About two bushels. 
 
 Q. What is the average yield per acre ? 
 
 A. About thirty-five bushels, but 1 have seen over fifty per acre. 
 
 Q. What kind of peas do you grov. ? 
 
 A. Russian blue and small white peas. 
 
 Q. How many bushels do you sow per acre ? 
 
 A. A little over two. 
 
 Q. What is the average yield ? 
 
 A. I think this year about twenty or twenty-five per acre; my 
 land being new till this year, they did not do so well. 
 
 Q. What kind of oats do you grow? 
 
 A. Black oats. 
 
 Q. How many bushels do you sow per acre? 
 
 A. Two bushels. 
 
 Q. What is the average yield of bushels ? 
 
 A. I have but little, but I see fields from here to Poplar Point I 
 ■think will yield from forty-five to sixty per acre. 
 
 Q. Do timothy and clover grow successfully? 
 
 A. 1 have had both do well ; but timothy seems to do be -it. 
 
 Q. Do rye and flax grow successfully? 
 
 A. Kye is a fair crop, and flax I never saw better. 
 
 Q. How are the soil and climate suited to growing root crops ? 
 
 A. All kinds of roots and vegetables that 1 have raised each year 
 have done very well. 
 
 Q. Are these crops troubled with flies and insects as in Ontario ? 
 
 A. I have heard some complain of grubs, but have not sutlered 
 
 iiny by them on my crops, and I have sown turnips in May and 
 
 they did well, and all through June, and no flies to hurt. 
 
 Q. Has your settlement been troubled by the grasshoppers ? 
 
 A. Not since I have been here. I am eight miles west of Portage 
 
 la Prairie, and no settler was before me west of the Portage. 
 
40 
 
 i 
 
 Poplar Point is about twenty-five miles east of here, or sevoi loen 
 from Portugal. 
 
 Q. How many times have the crops been destroyed or injured by 
 them; at what season do their ravages generally commence; and 
 how long do they generally continue? 
 
 A. In 186S they destroyed all from Portage at that time to Fort 
 Garry, and all settled. This year they destroyed all down on Red 
 Kivcr or around Fort Garry, and partially up the Assiniboine Kiver, 
 up to Poplar Point, but no farther. There are several fair crops in 
 Headinjiley and White Horse Plains, i.e., half way between Poplar 
 ]*oint and Fort Garry. 
 
 Q. Do you think that this plague will continue when the country 
 is better settled and more land cultivated ? 
 
 A. I cannot positively nay, but think their ravages are partial. 
 Some may suffer, while others escape. They only made three clear 
 sweeps, 1 am told, since 1812, when the country was first settled, and 
 then all the portion that was settled was a small spot round Fort 
 Garr}'. Rev. Mr. Nesbitt had a good crop in Prince Albert Mission,. 
 Saskatchewan, in 1868. 
 
 Q. Are there any crops that thej' do not destroy ? 
 
 A. They aie not so bad on peas as on other crops. 
 
 Q. Are the grasshoppers the only plague that you have been sub- 
 jected to since settling in the Province? 
 
 A. I have not suffered any as yet from grasshoppers. Black 
 hirds were very bad at first, especially on oats, and that is the rea- 
 son I had no more sown this year. I have not seen one-fifth so 
 many this year as before. I intend, if spared, to sow more oats in 
 future, 
 
 Q. How do the seasons correspond with ours in Ontario ? 
 
 A. Fall and spring are drier. About the middle of April, spring 
 commences generally; but I sowed wheat this year on the 3rd of 
 April, and ploughed in 1870 on the 5th of April. 
 
 Q. Is the snow melted bj^ the sun, Avind or rain ? 
 
 A. Nearly all goes with the sun. 
 
 Q. Have you much rain during the spring ? 
 
 A. Very little till May, June and July. 
 
 Q. 
 
 What time does the frost leave the ground ? 
 
 A. About the 20th of April ; in places it may be longer. 
 
 Q. Have you much frost after growth commences ? 
 
 A. I have seen a little in May, but I have not had any of my 
 crops injured by frost since I came to Manitoba. 
 
 Q. How soon may ploughing and sowing be done? 
 
 A. You may sow as soon as the ground is black or snow off.. 
 The frost was not three inches out when I sowed my first wheat; I 
 have it stacked dow and a good crop. 
 
 i 
 
 i- 
 
i 
 
 i 
 
 ■f 
 
 41 
 
 Q. Is the summer different from ours in Ontario ? 
 
 A. Generally rather drier and vegetation more rapid 
 
 Q. Have you showers during May, June and July, and have you 
 heavy dews at night ? ^, jyj^ 
 
 A. yes. 
 
 Q. Is growth as rapid as in Ontario ? 
 
 A. I think more so. 
 
 Q. Have you any summer frosts ? 
 
 A. None whatever since I have been here to injure crops. 
 
 Q. When do you pjenerally cut your hay ? 
 
 A. From 15th July to 15th September. 
 
 Q. Doos wheat, barley, and oat harvest commence later or earlier 
 than in Ontario? 
 
 A. Later; generally about first week in Auo-ust. 
 
 Q. Is the fall early, wet or dry ? 
 
 A. Early ; generally dry. 
 
 Q. What date do frosts generally commence ? 
 
 A. First of the season,"" about 8th or 10th September, but fine 
 weather after. ' 
 
 Q. When does the winter commence; how soon is the ground 
 Irozen, and when does snow fall ? 
 
 A Generally frozen about 10th or 12th November; snow about 
 Jst December. Some seasons are earlier; others later. 
 
 Q. Have you deep snow early in or during the winter ? 
 
 A. First three winters snow would average from IG to 20 inches • 
 last winter 10 inches. The frost is generally a steady freeze. ' 
 
 Q. Have you many severe drifting snow storms ? 
 
 A. Not any more than in Ontario generally ; last season none 
 but that is an exception. ' 
 
 Q. Have you wood convenient, and what kind ? 
 
 A. From two to three miles; greater imrt poplar, but some oak 
 and white ash, and small ash leaf maple. 
 
 Q. How do you fence your fields ; with rails, wire, or sods ? 
 
 A. With rails. 
 
 Q. How deep do you have to dig to got water in yours as well 
 as your neighbouring settlements? Is it good ? 
 
 A. Generally they get water from nine to eighteen feet, but in 
 this locality it is not so easily got. We expect to have a tost well 
 this tall. Water, in some instances, tastes a little salty. We use 
 creek water. 
 
 Q. Have you a hay meadow convenient? 
 A. About two miles off' I have a large one of my own. 
 Q. What grass grown in Ontario does prairie grass, cut for hay, 
 most resemble ? o ? jr 
 
 i 
 
42 
 
 A. Boavor meadow hay; only ours hero, I think better, and more 
 •variety. 
 
 Q. 1)068 it make good hay, and do cattle and horses feed well 
 on it ? 
 
 A. It makes good hay for cattle, and they feed well on it, but I 
 do not think it near so good for horses as timothy hay. 
 
 Q. What i' ihe average yield in tons to the acre ? 
 
 A. From one ton to two and-a-half tons ; ditfer jnt seasons and 
 dift'cront grasses vary a good deal. 
 
 Q. To what height does grass on the open prairie generally 
 grow ? 
 
 A. On hard, dry prairies not over ten inches, but on hay mea- 
 dows I have seen four feet. 
 
 Q. Is it as pasture equal to our timothy and clover in Ontario ? 
 
 A. No, it is much thinner, and does not start so readily as clo- 
 vc-i , when eaten or cropped. 
 
 Q. Do the grasshoppers at any *;mc destroy this grass : or can it 
 at ail times bo relied upon as pasture ? 
 
 A. They do a little cropping when very bad, but not, to my 
 knowledge, t'^ destroy it for hay or feed. 
 
 Q. How of -en do the settlors fire the prairie, and are your crops 
 -ever endangered by such fires ? 
 
 A. There is a law against setting out prairie fires. I have not 
 suffered any by them. I plough a few furrows around my fields and 
 fences. 
 
 Q. Is it necessary to burn the gra s on the prairie every fall in 
 -order to have a. good growth the following year ? 
 
 A. Not at all. " 
 
 Q. Have you tried any fruit trees, if so, how have they done ? 
 
 A. I have a few apple trees from seed, not well attended to, 
 three years old. I do not think it very good for apples or pears, 
 unless we have a very hardy kind ; Siberian will do wild. Plums 
 are very good, and likewise wild grapes, though small, grow finely 
 cin the banko of our streams, and better hops I never saw than 
 grow here wild. We use them for our bread rising. Currants, 
 raspberries and strawberries grow wild quite abundantly. I think 
 the growth of apple trees too rapid, and wood does not ripen, the 
 soil being rather rich, ' nd not much shelter in general. 
 
 Q. What kind of lumber is most plentiful, and what is the aver- 
 iige price for good lumber ? 
 
 A. Poplar lumber, horctofore, and from twenty-five dollars to 
 thirty dollars per thousand ; now good fair pine is to be had at Fort 
 ■(-larry, dressed, for same price, and soon we will have a mill to cut 
 tip white wood pine, or rather spruce pine. 
 
 Q. Would you advise persons coming from Ontario, to settle as 
 
 n 
 
 I 
 I 
 
 t 
 
i 
 
 43 
 
 t 
 
 I f 
 
 farmers, to bi-ing ntock, Hueh as working horses, oxen, cows, sheep, 
 pigs, etc., or would you mlviso thorn to bring with them any machi- 
 nery, such as reapers and mowers, waggons, ploughs, fanning mills, 
 etc, or can they ue bought us cheap in Manitoba as they are brought 
 when we count the heavy freights and risk in doing so? 
 
 A. I would not advise to bring many horses. A*: first they do 
 not thrive so well ; benidos grain is exj)ensive till raided. Oxen I 
 ])rofer at firHt. They do more work on rough feed, and are far less 
 risky. I think nearly twenty per cent, of the horses die, or are 
 useless the first two years after being hero. If a farmer wants a 
 driving mare or to breed, all well, but by far too many horses are 
 brought in, till we have more timothy hay and oats raised. Oxen 
 Jind cows thrive well, and none can go wrong to bring them in. 
 They can be got here. Freight by United States route is very high. 
 On immigrants' goods it costs in general about five dollars and a 
 lialf per cwt ; that is, counting bo (ling, etc. 
 
 Q. What is the price of a good span of horses in Manitoba? 
 
 A. I thing about tilteen to twenty per cent, higher than same 
 quality in Ontario, no regular price ; same for oxen, etc, 
 
 Q. What is the price of a good yoke ot oxen ? 
 
 A. I have sold them from $125, «130, $35, $40, $50, $65, $70, 
 ^85, to $200 and $210, the latter were prime, i. o., here or in Ontario. 
 
 Q. What is the price of a good cow ? 
 
 A. I have sold them from $30 to $60. 
 
 Q. What is the price of good sheep ? 
 
 A. I have none ; they would do well if people had pasture fenced ; 
 I think they would sell pretty high, but wool, as^yet, has-been 
 •cheap. 
 
 Q. What is the price of good pigs ? 
 
 A. Probably about twenty per cent, over same quality in Onta- 
 rio. There are some very good pigs hero. 
 
 Q. What is the price of a ci>nn jned reaper and mower ? 
 
 A. From $200 to $240. 
 
 Q. What is the price of a good plough, also fanning mill ? 
 
 A. Wooden ploughs, Canadian, do, American, about $40. Fan- 
 ning mills from $45 to $50, both far too high for all the work on 
 them. 
 
 Q. Would it not be a good speculation to bring out some tho- 
 roughbred stof'k, such as cattle, sheep, and pig.i ? 
 
 A. I think so. My thoroughbred cattle thrive well here both 
 summer and winter. 
 
 Q. How do you think the country is situated for dairy, cheese, 
 :and butter making ? 
 
 A. Very well, just the thing required. 
 
 Q. Have you aiwajs a read}^ market for your produce ? 
 
4i 
 
 A. Cftn Roll nearly nil I raise at the door. 
 
 Q. What is tl j avern^e ? 
 
 A. Wheat, I sold hni Noason about 1,000 bushels for $1.50 ; two 
 Heasons before it was about $1.25 ; barley, from 75 cents to $1.12* j 
 or.t8, from 75 renlH to $1 ; poan, from $1 to $1.25 ; potatoes, from 
 «2^ rents to 87A cents ; butter, from 25 cents to 37A cents per lb. ; 
 o^iTH, from 20 cents to 25 cents jkm- dozen ; cheese, from 25 vquIh to 
 30 cents per lb. 
 
 Q. What season of the year would you advise settlers (with or 
 withrut families, who intend tosettle as farniers) to come in? 
 
 A. In spririfr, if possible ; but any season will do. I would advise 
 inimi^'rants with families to rent the first year or " share," and tnko 
 a little time to select their lof^ation, and then to work and put in a 
 crop, on the place they rent; jLjenerally plenty of farms can bo got 
 to rent or share. My reason for not raisinjr more oats is, that the 
 blackbirds heretofore were very troublesome, and seemed worse on 
 the oats, but there is not now the one-fifth f|uantity of them that 
 there used to be, and I hear they are generally worst at first. I in- 
 tend to sow fully 20 acres next year (I would sow more if it were 
 ready) with carrots, turnips and mangel-wurzel. These crops grow 
 well, but the want of root houses is a disadvantage at present. 
 
 All the land around here, say from 30 miJes west, i. e., third 
 crossing of White AJud or Palestine IJlvor, to say 25 miles east, or 
 Poplar Point, is rapidly filling up, especially this summer, but plenty 
 is to be had all the way westward to the Kocky Mountains. I think 
 few countries in the world are superior to "ours for agricultural 
 purposes, and, although the winter is hard and long, cattle, if pro- 
 vided for, thrive well. I wintered 91 head last winter, and lost 
 none, all turning out well in the spring. Most of them had only 
 rough open sheds for shelter, ai»'' ran loose. We have none of the 
 wet sleet in spring and fall that u, rt cattle elsewhere. We are now 
 stacking our grain, and I think my average will be fully 3H bushels 
 per acre all round; last year I had o2 bushels per acre. I raised 
 about 300 bushels of onions last year. I expect fully as good a crop- 
 this year. 
 
 1 again say, bring fewer horses into the country, but as much 
 other stock and implements as possible. First-class marsh har- 
 vesters, or machines which will employ two men binding and of the 
 most improved make, are wanted. I have two combined ones, 
 made by i^anger & Co., Hamilton, which answer well, but those that 
 will cut wider and quicker are required. There are no hills, stumps, 
 or stones to trouble us, and 1 have not a single rood lodged this 
 year, although my crops are very heavy. Straw is generally stiff 
 here, and not apt to lodge. This year we have excellent crops ot" 
 potatoes, and a neighbour of mine, Mr. Hugh Grant, vesterdav. dws 
 
 i> 
 
(> 
 
 46 
 
 itn onrly rose potato, woi^liin^ over two pouiuly, and not then full 
 ^rown. I think grain drills or bromlcuwfc sowers would bo an im- 
 i)rovemcnt, aa it is gonorally windy horo in Spring. They MJiould 
 i)ti wider than those usediu Ontario, say fvum eleven to iv' t. 
 
 I never saw httter buckwheat in Ontario than J he i' p '. 
 
 ^rovvn hero. I think by ploughing round our farms, a-..' }.'»». i • 
 linos of trees, wc could have sholler, and live posts to 'i;ch w./e 
 fences could be attached with small staples. Timber ^r././s fast 
 here. If we had yellow or golden willow, which gi-ows rapi'My 
 from cuttings, it would do well. Poles, that I planted, of bl.iek 
 popjjir or balm of gilead are shooting out, and wo could plant 
 iiardier and better trees amongst them, which, though slowei- of 
 growth, would rejdace them. In several localities the Indians mako 
 maple sugar front small trees. 
 
 J have not seen grain or other crops in either Minnosota or 
 Dakotah to equal ours in Manitoba. I have been in those States in 
 all seasons of the .year, and have friends farming in Minnesota, who 
 are desirous, if thoy can soli out, of coming hero. I havo seen 
 peo[)le, newly arrived from the old country, grumble for a time, and 
 allerwards you could not induce them to go back. Some that did 
 go back soon returned. 1 have hoard of some faint-hwartod 
 Canadians who, frightened with tales of grasshoppers and otht! 
 drawbacks, returned without even examining the country, but I 
 think, wo are well rid of such a class. We havo a largo increase 
 this year, principally from Canada, and I think they are likoly to 
 prove good settlers. I think, however, immigrants from the old 
 X'ountry will be better olf, as the population there is denser with less 
 chances, whilst Ontario for those who are already settled there, 
 offers as good a chance, as here, without moving. The grasshopporii 
 that came hero are driven by the wind from the de^*>rts south of us. 
 Our storms are not so bad as those in Minnesota, as the reports of 
 the last few winters show. 
 
46 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 MK. SHANTZ ON MANITOBA. 
 
 BEST TIME TO GO, AND WHAT CAPITAL TO COMMENCE WITH. 
 
 Mr. Jacob Y. Shantz, of Berlin, Ontario, who wrote in 1873, at 
 the request of the Minister of Agriculture, a narrative of his visit 
 with a Mennonite deputation, gives the following opinion as to the- 
 best time for the settlor to go to Manitoba, and the amount of capital, 
 on which he may begin. 
 
 THE BEST TIMB FOR THE SETTLER TO GO. 
 
 The settler should, if possible, be on his land by the Ist of June,, 
 when he would be in time to plant a patch of potatoes which will 
 grow in an ordinary season when ploughed under the prairie sod. 
 The ploughing for the next spring's crop should be done in June or 
 July, when the sap is in the roots of the grass ; being turned over 
 at this season of the year it will dry up and the sod will rot, so that 
 the ground will be in proper order for receiving and growing crops 
 in the following spring. 
 
 WHAT CAPITAL IS NECESSARY WITH WHICH TO COMMENCE. 
 
 This is a question frequently asked — the answer dsperds entirely 
 upon surrounding circumstances. A young man without family, 
 willing to work and save, would secure himself a home in a few 
 years, provided he had only ten dollars to pay the fees for a free 
 grant homestead claim. Work is to be had at high wages, and he 
 could work for other parties part of the time, and then hire help 
 again in turn to assist in putting up a small homestead house. After 
 
 * In respect to work it should be borne in mind that while wages are high, the 
 country is new, and the labour niarkot therefore limited. Mechanics especially 
 should^ take special^ information !^>re they start. The Paci^c Railway works 
 will, of course, c '1 for a good manv men ; and the progress of agricultural settle- 
 ment will pave the way for many kinds of artisans. 
 
47 
 
 that he could 'plough and fence in a few acres for a crop in the 
 following spring. The next year he could earn enough to buy a 
 yoke of oxen and other cattle, and thus, in a short time, he might 
 become, comparatively, an independent farmer. A settler with a 
 family ought to have provisions for one year (or the wherewithal to 
 procure them). 
 
 Such a one, desiring to start comfortably, should have the follow- 
 ing articles, or the means to purchase them, viz: 
 
 One yoke of oxen $120 00 
 
 Onewaggon 80 00 
 
 Plough and harrow 25 00 
 
 Chains, axes, shovels, etc 30 00 
 
 Stoves, beds, etc 60 00 
 
 House and stable, say 150 00 
 
 Total 1465 00 
 
 A person having $800 or $1,000 can, if he wishes to carry on 
 farming on a large scale, purchase another quarter section in addi- 
 tion to his free gi-ant, when we will have a farm of three hundred 
 and twenty acres of land for cultivation, and in addition can cut alt 
 the hay he wants in the marshes, if he thinks it desirable. 
 
 In conclusion, I would remark that a poor man can adopt tho 
 mode of farming on a small scale for the commencement, as prac- 
 tised by the half breeds. They have carts made of two wheels and 
 a straight axle, with two poles fostened on the axle to form shafts 
 and a rack or box thereon. To a cart so made is hitched one ox! 
 The cart costs about ten dollars, and the ox and harness $50 to $60* 
 With such a vehicle a man can do all the teaming that is required 
 on a small farm— and after the first ploughing one ox can plough all 
 that is required. . • ° 
 
 I strongly recommend Manitoba as a home for German emigrants, 
 and as they can obtain large grants of land en bloc, they can form a 
 settlement or settlements of their own, whereihey can preserve their 
 language and customs, as in the Western States of America. 
 
I» I 
 
 48 
 
 CHAPTER Vir. 
 
 DOMINION LANDS ACT. 
 
 The following is a summary of the Dominion Lands Act : 
 
 An Act waspassed in IST-t (35 Vic. cap. 23, 37 Vic. cap. 19) 
 ^mending and consolidating the laws and Orders in Council respect- 
 ing the public lands of (he Dominion, and was further amended by 
 the Act 39 Vic. cap. 19. 
 
 The administration and management is effected through a Branch 
 of the Department of the Minister of the Interior, known as " the 
 Dominion Lands Office." 
 
 The surveys divide the land into quadrilateral townships contain- 
 ing thirty-six sections of one mile square in each, together with 
 road allowances of one chain and fifty links in width,' between all 
 townships and sections. 
 
 Each section of 640 acres is divided into half sections of 320 acres, 
 quarter sections of 160 acres, and half quarter sections of eighty 
 acres. All townships and lots are rectangular. To facilitate the 
 descriptions for letters patent of less than a half quarter section, 
 the quarter sections composing every section in accordance with the 
 boundaries of the same, as planted or placed in the original survey, 
 .«hall be supposed to be divided into quarter sections, or forty acres! 
 The area of any legal subdivision in letters patent shall be held to 
 be more or lesx, and shall, in each case, be represented by the exact 
 quantity as given to such subdivision in the original survey; pro- 
 vided that nothing in the Act shall be construed to prevent the lands 
 ujvon the Red and Assiniboine Rivers, surrendered by the Indians to 
 the lale Earl of Selkirk, from being laid out in such manner as may 
 be necessary in order to carry out the clause of the Act to prevent 
 fractional sections or lands bordering on any rivers, lake, or other 
 water course or public road from being divided ; or such lands from 
 being laid out in lots of any certain frontage and depth, in such 
 manner as "may appear desirable; or to prevent the subdivision of 
 bectlons or other legal subdivisions into wood lots; or from describ- 
 ing the said lands upon the Red and Assiniboine Rivers, or such 
 subdivisions of wood lots, for patent, by numbers according to nlan 
 of record, or by metes and bounds, or by both, as may seem expe- 
 dient. ^ 
 
 /. 
 
 4' 
 
 f 
 
 I 
 
49 
 
 PRICE OF DOMINION LANDS. 
 
 fi 
 
 Unappropriated Dominion lands may at present be purchased at 
 the rate of $1 per acre; but no purchase of more than a section, or 
 640 acres, shall be made by the same person. Payments of purchases 
 may be made in cash, excepting in the case of Railway land or in 
 «crip, at the option of the purchaser. The Minister of the Interior 
 may, however, from time to time, reserve tracts of land, as he may 
 deem expedient, for town or village plots, such lots to be sold either 
 
 inoHon %fJ r """"^ ^^' '^'^t*, ^'^".^ ^' ^'^ '»*^ «^« ^t, or at public 
 auction. TheCrovernor in Council may set apart lands for other 
 public purposes, such as sites of market places, jails, court houses 
 places of public wership, burying grounds, schools, benevolent in- 
 stitutions, squares and for other like public purpos«s. 
 
 FREE GRANTS OR HOMESTEAD RIGHTS. 
 
 f 
 
 Free grants of quarter sections, 160 acres, are made to any male 
 or female who is the head of a family, or to any male not the head of 
 a family, who has attained the age of eighteen years, on condition of 
 three years' settlement, from the time of enteHng upon possession 
 A person entering for a homestead may also enter the adjoinin^r 
 quarter section if vacant as a pre-emption right and enter into im* 
 mediate possession thereof, and on fulfilling the condition of his 
 homestead may obtain a patent for his pre-emption right on pay- 
 ment for the same at the rate of one dollar per acre. When two or 
 more persons have settled on, and seek to obtain a title to, the same 
 land the homestead right shall be in him who made the first settle- 
 ment If both have made improvements, a division of the land may 
 be ordered in such manner as may preserve to the said parties 
 their several improvements. ' 
 
 Questions as to the homestead right arising between different 
 settlers shall be investigated by the local agetft of the division in 
 
 mSo %r t'' «itu^^ef»> whose report shall be referred to the 
 Minister of the Interior for decision. 
 
 ^w^JiT ^?"'''" ^'^""'."^^ ^, homestead right from actual settlement 
 must file his application for such claim with the local airent pre- 
 viously to 8U(3h settlement, if in surveyed lands; if in unsurveyed 
 lands, within three months after such land shall have been surveyed 
 
 Ko patent will be granted for land till the e^cpiration of three 
 years from the time of entering into possession of it. 
 
 When both parents die, without having devised the land, and leave 
 a child or children under age, it shall be lawful for the exec »ior« 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
60 
 
 (if any) of the last surviving parent, or the guardian of such child or 
 children, with the approval of a Judge of a Superior Court of the 
 Province or Territory in which the lands lie, to sell the lands for the 
 benefit of the infant or infants, but for no other purpose; and the 
 purchaser in such a case shall acquire the homestead right by such 
 purchase, and on carrying out the unperformed conditions of such 
 right, shall receive a patent for the land, upon payment of the office 
 fees, SIO. 
 
 The title to lands shall remain in the Crown until the issue of the 
 patent therefor, and such lands shall not be liable to be taken in 
 execution before the issue of the patent. 
 
 If a settler voluntarily relinquishes his claim, or has been absent 
 from the land entered by him for more than six months in any year, 
 then the right to such land shall be forfeited. 
 
 A patent may bo obtained by any person before three years, on 
 payment of price at the date of entry, and making proof of settlement 
 and cultivation for not less than tewlve months from date of entry. 
 
 All assignments and transfer of homestead rights before the issue 
 of the patent shall be null and void, but shall be deemed evidence 
 of abandonment of the right. 
 
 These provisions apply only to homesteads and not to lands set 
 apart as timber lands, or to those on which coal or minerals, at the 
 time of entry, are known to exist. 
 
 ■ 
 
 l/l 
 
 li 
 
 GRAZING LANDS. 
 
 Unoccupied Dominion lands may be leased to neighbouring settlers 
 for grazing purposes ; but such lease shall contain a condition making 
 such lands liable for settlement or for sale at any time during the 
 term of such lease, without compensation, save by a proportionate 
 deduction of rent, and a further condition by which, on a notice of two 
 years, the Minister of the Interior may cancel the lease at any time 
 during the term. 
 
 Unoccupied Dominion lands will be leased to neighbouring set- 
 tlers for the purpose of cutting hay thereon, but not to the hindrance 
 of the sale and settlement thereof. 
 
 MINING LANDS. 
 
 As respects mining lands, no reservations of gold, silver, iron, 
 copper or other mines or minerals will be inserted in any patent from 
 the Crown, granting any portion of the Dominion lands. Any person 
 may explore for mines or minerals on any of the Dominion public 
 lands, surveyed or unsurveyed, and, subject to certain provisions, 
 may purchase the same. As resnects coal lands the^ cannot be 
 taken for homet^teads. 
 
' 
 
 l/l 
 
 li 
 
 51 
 
 TIMBER LANDS. 
 
 Bubdividoa into »Jch nt L .VU ^t/rf t,? ol';"^ T' '", 
 not more than twenty acres in picI, !„/ „. -ii A- . ''"'" '''" '"«' 
 lot t« each ,„a..te,. JJ^:]ZSfl^ :,' tv ,5:"^"* "•""' 
 
 the adjai^nt wood ]ot" vvhi" l'^ , , "' f ' I'-fte,- section one of 
 
 may be prosecuted theS oV L l 'h If o^fhif ? "^^ '' '?'^'''' ^"^ 
 
 The word timber uicln Ips I. ^ ^V.^ ''''^'"^ absolutely, 
 
 including, firewood or bti '^^''' ^"^^ "'' P^'«^"^^« ^^ timber, 
 
 sold to the hiX.t^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Hituat.ou arul value of the limit and 
 public auction.'^ '' ^^ competition, either by tender or by 
 
 The purchaser shall receive a Io'ko fm- 91 ,,..„ 
 of cutting timber on the Cd wth ih\ I ? •'' S'^'^nting the right 
 erect a sSw mill or milU inMn !■ ^ /"^'^^^ving conditions: ^fo 
 
 capacity to cut'^t'th" .te of "^^^^^^ ""^'^ ?' '--'^ -f'- 
 
 every two and a half square mirs of lin. !f ''!''' '"^ "^ ^^«"'-^' *'^^- 
 
 «nd_.ana..act..o SI.^ ^^X^^C ^^^i^^^^^ ^^• 
 
 the price and value therlof ' ^'' "o'-^™"!, bark, etc, and 
 
 per'S'^itindVrtht aToZwoTr' «™""''-' "^^^-O* 
 
 account • mrinei, a royalty oi 5 per cent, on his monthUr 
 
 7 J' 
 
52 
 
 To keep correct books, and submit the same for the inspection of 
 the collector of dues whenever required. 
 
 The lease shall be subject to forfeiture for infraction of any of the 
 conditions to which it is subject, or for any fraudulent return. 
 
 The lessee who faithfully carries out these conditions shall have 
 the refusal of the same limits, if not required for settlement, for a 
 further term not exceeding 21 years, on payment of the same amount 
 of bonus per square mile as was paid originally, and on such lessee 
 jigreeing to such conditions, and to pay such other rates as may be 
 determined on for such second term. 
 
 The standard measure used in the surveys on the Dominion is the 
 English measure of length. 
 
 Dues to the Crown are to bear interest, and to be alien on timber 
 cut on limits. Such timber may be seized and sold in payment. 
 
 Any person cutting timber without authority on any Dominion 
 lands, shall, in addition to the loss of his labour and disbursements, 
 forfeit a »um not exceeding ^3 for each tree he is proved to have 
 cut down. Timber seized as forfeited shall be deemed to be con- 
 demned, in default of owner claiming it within one month. 
 
 FORM OF APPLICATION FOR A HOMESTEAD RIGHT. 
 
 I of do hereby apply to be entered, under the 
 
 provisions of the Act respecting the rublic Lands of Dominion, for 
 
 qliarter sections, numbers and , forming part of 
 
 section number of the Township of , containing acres, 
 
 for the purpose of securing a homestead right in respect thereof. 
 
 AFFIDAVIT IN SUPPORT OF CLAIM FOR HOMESTEAD RIGHT. 
 
 I, A B, do solemnly swear (or affirm, as the case may be,) that 
 I am over 18 years "of age: that I have not previously obtained a 
 homestead under the ])rovisions of the " Dominion Lands Acts " ; 
 that the land in question belongs to the class open for homestead 
 entry; that there is no per,-(m residing or having improvements 
 thereon; and that my ajiplication is made for my exclusive use and 
 benefit, and with the intention to reside upon and cultivate the said 
 hind. So help me God. 
 
 On making this affidavit and tiling it with the local agent, and 
 on payment to him of an office fee often dollars, he shall be permitted 
 to enter the land specitied in the application. 
 
53 
 
 LAND SCRIP. 
 
 1 Tht" "."i^" ^-There aVel Toot ,S o"f"Sr ^°"'""«-. '" 
 
 2.. Simfla,. oertifeate a ;"'it'„oa''b "Tho "?",'^ ^"""^ '''••"■'•""to 
 -v,co3 rendered to the Goven^ttt to r^lh^^y-^rn^:;! 
 
 assignable, and whoever 101^1,0' C'Th^-P"''^^ ^"^ ^^o 
 
 proper form of as8ignmentrnel,Hif^ ^'"'^ ''^'"^'' ""^^^ a 
 either in the Jocating o^LyZlT^Z ^'"'1:^'^ ^''' ^hem, 
 from the soldier or policenZf.fhJ ' ^"^ V'^ ^''^^ -issignment 
 on the bacJ. of the warrant ' '"' ""^'^ ^'' "^"^* ^^ «"^<>^-«eJ 
 
 Commissioner for takino. affidavits Th ''^^'"^^^ed, either by a 
 
 Any subsequent assir.^,ment mw^^^^^ 
 must be regularly attested beforTfro"^^"- '" ''P''^''^^^« P^P^'"' but 
 
 offamitstlt'ooilfetSirt^ ^^? ^-'^-b'-d heads 
 
 A chiim against the Govern ment for hn' ""^''; """""^ ^^^s. 
 m.tted by an issue of scrip wSvvouldb^ " '"?'^' ''•^- '"^^' ^' '^^'■ 
 issued tK) the Half-breed hSs of T^ti; ^^ ^hat 
 
 mentioned. ^ ^* families and old settlers before 
 
 neltr;t'\,!:„:ferr:w^;,::fp'''^-^ ■■«, - ---gnmont thereof 
 w held to be the owner, and we Accent inl ,h n"'' '"': """^ '''"» ^''"H 
 .n payment for Dominion todMhTaame ■^'car'"'"" ^"""^Offle? 
 
 i»n^d^:c^rr=Te™kn''i^^^^^^^ 
 
 s:f uort^rL-b:'i:§EiS^^^^^^^ 
 
 which lands belonging to minofs^i n^^'^P J^''^^''^."; ^^''^ ^'^^^"^ to 
 upon whether steps bt Z^ntTn^'- f /'^^ "P ^'^' ^^P^nd greatly 
 to make sales, o upol i o'her lo""'"''^ ^"^^" ^^^"'^ b« -ble 
 might see lit to adopr wrthe v iew om!*"'" -'"' *t" Government 
 the market. ^ ' "'^ '"^''' "^ '^i-"ig»"g these lands into 
 
 I 
 
54 
 
 The only otlior reserves in theProvinee are those of the Men nonites, 
 which are rapidly filling up. There in still a very consideral'le 
 extent of excellent land in the Province now available for settle- 
 ment, but it can easily bo understood the people who have been 
 going into the Province for the last four or five years have selected 
 the most favorable locations, and, consequently, the most of the good 
 land in those localities have been taken up. The lands remaining, 
 although gcneially desirable, are not so conveniently situated. 
 
 Col. Dennis further stated in answer to questions: The Province 
 of Manitoba contains nearly nine millions of acres. 
 
 The Hail way reserve contains about 1,900,000 acres, and the Men- 
 nonito townships about 500,000 acres. 
 
 The Hudson Bay Co.'s one-twentieth contains about 430,000 
 acres. 
 
 There are granted for school purposes two whole sections, or 1,280 
 acres, being sections 11 and 29 in each township, which are, by law, 
 dedicated throughout the whole North-West for educational pur- 
 2)0ses, and the grant amounts in Manitoba to 400,000 acres. 
 
 In Manitoba the greatest quantity of land available for settlement 
 is in the west and south-west. 
 
 Miles of railway located in the Province are about V^S ; the main 
 line of the Canada Paciiic Eailway about 77, and the Pembina 
 Branch about 81 miles. 
 
 lload allowances are laid out on the ground in the townships in 
 Manitoba which correspond to concessions and sid. -oads in Ontario 
 and Quebec. Each section or square mile there is surrounded by 
 an avenue of 99 feet, or a chain and a half, in width, resulting in a 
 magnificent dedication to the public for highways. 
 
 Q. Are any of the lands fronting on the main river in Manitoba 
 available for settlement? — None, with the exception of lands on 
 the Assiniboine Eiver, above Prairie Portage. As a rule, the lands 
 on the Bed Biver and Assiniboine Biver were laid out and settled 
 upon, previous to the transfer, in narrow frontages, running back 
 two miles, called the '< Settlement Belt," and the township lands 
 available for sale and settlement lie outside of this Belt. There are 
 many unoccupied lots in the Settlement Belt, but people are not 
 allowed to enter them, as they are considered to possess a special 
 value. The intention is, shortly, to offer the unoccupied lots belong- 
 ing to the Government, in the Settlement Belt, at public auction, at 
 an upset price, with conditions of actual settlement upon the land. 
 
 COLONIZATION. 
 
 If any person or persons undertake to settle any of the public 
 lands of the Dominion free of expense to the Government, in the 
 proportion of one family to each alternate quarter section, or not lesa 
 
 U. 
 
 1 
 
I 
 
 55 
 
 than sixty-four families in any one township, under the Homestead 
 provisions cf the Act liereby amended, the Governor in Council mav 
 withdraw any such township from public sale and general settle- 
 ment; and may, if he thinks proper, having reference to the settle- 
 ment so eflFocted and to the expense incurred by such person or 
 persons in procuring the same, order the sale of any other and ad- 
 ditional lands in such township to such person or persons at a 
 reduced price and may make all necessary conditions and agreements 
 for carrying the same into effect. 
 
 The expenses, or any part thereof, incurred by any person or 
 persons for the passage money or subsistence in bringing out an 
 immigrant, or for aid in erecting buildings on the homestead, or in 
 providing farm implements or seed for such immigrant, may if so 
 agreed upon by the parties, be made a charge on the homestead of 
 such immigrant, and in case of such immigrant attempting to evade 
 such haoihty by obtaining a homestead entry outside of the land 
 withdrawn under the provision of the next preceding section, then 
 and in such case, the expense incurred on behalf of such immigrant 
 us above, shall become a charge on the homestead so entered, which' 
 with interest thereon, must be satisfied before a patent shall issue 
 lor the land : provided as follows : 
 
 (a.) That the sum or sums charged for the passage money and 
 subsistence of such immigrant shall not be in excess of the actual 
 cost of the same as proved to the satisfaction of the Minister of the 
 Interior ; 
 
 ^ (b.) That an acknowledgment by such immigrant of the debt so 
 incurred shall have been filed in the Dominion Lands Office; 
 
 (c\) That, in no case, shall the charge for principal moneys ad- 
 vanced against such homestead exceed in amount the sum of two 
 hundred dollars; 
 
 (d.) That no greater rate of interest than six percent, per annum 
 shall be charged on the debt so incurred by such immigrant. 
 
 FOREST TREE CULTURE. 
 
 Any person, male or female, being a subject of Her Majesty by birth 
 or naturalization, and having attained the age of eighteen years shall 
 be entitled to be entered for one quarter-section or less quantity of 
 unappropriated Dominion lands as a claim for forest tree planting 
 
 Application for such entry shall be made in the forms prescribed in 
 the Dominion Lands' Act, which may be obtained from the local 
 agent and the person applying shall pay at the time of applying an 
 office fee of ten dollars for which he or she shall receive a receinr and 
 
56 
 
 also a certificato of entry, and shall thereupon bo entitled to onter 
 into possession of the land. 
 
 No patent shall issue for the land so entered until the expiration 
 of six years from the date of entering into possession thereof; and 
 any assignment of such land shall be null and void, unless permission 
 to make the same shall have been previously obtained from the Minis- 
 ter of the Interior. 
 
 At the expiration of six years the person who obtained the entry, 
 or, if not living, his or her legal representative or assigns shall receive 
 a patent for the land so entered, on proof to the satisfaction of tuc 
 Local Agent, as follows : — 
 
 1. That eight acres of the land entered had been broken and pre- 
 pared for tree planting within one year after entry, an equal nuan- 
 tity during the second year, and sixteen additional acres within tho 
 third year after such date : — 
 
 2. that eight acres of the land entered had been planted vnth 
 forest trees during the second year, an equal quantity during tho 
 third year, and sixteen additional acres within four years from tho 
 date of entry, the trees so planted not being less than twelve feet 
 apart each way : — 
 
 3. That the above area, that is to say, one-fifth of the land, has, 
 for the last two years of the term, been planted with timber, and 
 that the latter has been regularly and well cultivated and protected 
 from the time of planting. The entry of a quarter section for pre- 
 emption m connection with homestead miy be substituted in whole 
 or part for one for tree planting. 
 
 1 
 
 i 
 
 i 
 
57 
 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 ANALYSIS OF SOIL, BY A GERMAN CHEMIST. 
 
 The following is an ^nalysisoftho soil of the Province of Manitoba 
 by Professor V. Emmerling, Director of the Chemical Laboratory of 
 the Agricultural Association of the University of Kiel, Holstein 
 Wormany 1 his scientific analysis confirms in a remarkable manner 
 eoflo/Manit^br received of the great fertility of the 
 
 Translation of Letter to Senator Emil Klotz. 
 
 "Kiel, 29th April, 1872. 
 " Hon. Senator, 
 
 Potash 228.7 
 
 Sodium , 33.8 
 
 Phosphoric Acid 69.4 
 
 Lime 682.6 
 
 Magnesia 16.1 
 
 Nitrogen. 486!l 
 
 " Yours truly, 
 
 (Signed) " V. Emmerlino. 
 
 Extract from Letter of Senator Emil Klotz to Jacob E. Klotz Agent 
 
 for the Dominion Government. ' 
 
 u Kti ' " K\q\, 4th May 1872 
 
 f .u^f <^.0"f^erable delay, I succeeded in obtaining the analy'sis 
 of the xManitoba soil from Professor Emmerling, Director of the 
 cheniical laboratory of the Agricultural Association of this Blace 
 and hope it may be of service to you. Annexed I give you our 
 analysis of the most productive soil in Holstein, wher?by you will 
 Bee how exceedingly rich the productive qualities of the Manitoba 
 Boil are, and which fully explains the fact that the land in Manitoba 
 18 so very fertile, even without iianure. 
 
58 
 
 r.hlTn'°„''•'V''^"•"l'''''"*' "''^' ^''^^' n'<»*^;?on, then potafth and phos- 
 phonc acid, wind, prodominutcH there; but vvlmt i' of purlicular im 
 
 nee, ana leaJy to be absorbed in vcL'otablo oriranism fhn lnffA> 
 property ,h defbc^tive in many soils, Li when .^t ^ lund defoc^^^^^^^^ 
 recourse muHt be had to artifu-ial means by puttinriime m mLrl 
 (a clay which contains much lime) upon the Jame^ T 
 
 doul>f n.?.^^^,'^^''" """'r'« «^ ^'-^ ^'^"'^^^^^^ ^^il, there i«"no 
 CO Iv wh cVl ;7^ who desires to select for his future hie a 
 country which has thomost productive so I and promises the lioho^f 
 
 ^V:^iZTm:V^ ^'t'-;;' '^^'^ ^-ealerauraclt 'u"n 
 me 1 lovince ol Manitoba, in the Dominion of Canada." 
 
 Anali/sis of the HohUui Soil and Manitoba Soil compared. 
 
 Holstein Excess of Properties 
 
 Potash on • of Manitoba Soil. 
 
 ^oalum on ,o Q 
 
 J liosphoric Acid... AO . 994 
 
 J{'"^« . 130 552.6 
 
 Ma^rnesia ]o ei 
 
 Nitrogen 40 446^1 
 
 LANDS NOW AVAILABLE FOll SErTLEMRJ^r IN MAVT 
 TOBA, KEEWATIN AND NOKTH-WEST TERRI^OKr 
 
 re^^:?t^^ 
 
 purpose of inibrmat.on of the iiumc-ous cmi.rrLf! w i"^' ^^'^ 
 
 Department op the Interior. 
 Surveyor Generals Office, 
 o,„ -p . . , Ottawa, Gth April, 1878. 
 
 to settle upon lands reserved for railway purSrin Monti """^'^ 
 
 I may say that the lands so far re--"'H Kf-i '^'^"^^0^^. 
 those for twenty miles on each pvde'n/fi • v^"^ r^rposes are 
 the Canadian Pacific Railway " ""'"'" ^'"' «"^^^^«d for 
 
 ? 
 
59 
 
 9 
 
 >/ 
 
 It is ])robablo that lands which may bo soltltHl on within tho 
 Kailway Kosorve out.v't/e the Piovinco, ho lon^ an tiioy form no part 
 of'a KoHorvo for town plot piirpoHOs, Hucli as at Hattlotbrd, may, on 
 boin«j included within tho Township Survoys, bo acquired on tho 
 terms of tho Order in Council. 
 
 With regard to your orKpiiries as to the lands open for general 
 settlement outnido of townsliips es])ecially reserved lor colonization 
 or for half-breo(]s, I be<ir to lomnrk that a very lai-i^e area of do- 
 Hirable land is open for entry in tho several portions of tho Province 
 desci'ibod as follows • 
 
 1. Tho lands on each siilo of the Canadian I^icific Kailway lino 
 Ihroujjfh tho Province, not reserved for half breeds, are OfKjn for 
 settlement u])on tho conditions sot forth in the Order in Council 
 enclosed. 
 
 2. There are a number of townships avail!il)lo to the east and 
 Jiorth-oast of Emerson. 
 
 3. Hetwcon the Mennonite Reserve west of the Pcd River, and 
 the half breed Keserve to tho north, and in the townshi|)s within 
 and to the vvesi and south-west of what Is known as the Pembina 
 Mountain Settlei.Tont. 
 
 4. In the viciniiy of Palestine and the Beautiful Plain. 
 
 5. A very extensive district containini,' valuable lands for sottlo- 
 mont is found in the Little Saskatchewan and Riding Mountain 
 country, being in the Territories from ton to forty miles west of 
 the westerly limits of tluj Province. 
 
 6. The land fronting on the north side of the Rainy River in 
 Koewatin, is of excellent qr.ality, and presents an e;'.tcnsive field 
 for settlement. 
 
 It is a wooded country, however, and ttierefore requires a greater 
 expenditure of labour to bring a given area under cultivation. 
 
 In reply to your enquiry as to the position of people who may 
 settle ui)on iinsurveyed lands, I beg to say that in all such cases 
 persons so settling must take their chances of being found on land 
 which may pi-ove to belong to the IludsonV Bay Company, part of 
 the one-twentieth reserved to the said Company by the Deed of 
 Surrender. 
 
 In tho regular township surveys, sections eight and twenty-six 
 reprof-ent this one twentieth, bu* in tho river belts, the Company's 
 l)roportion will probably be dote lined by loc. 
 
 Tho Dominion Lands Act provides that when the townsh'lp sur- 
 veys may embrace settlements previously formed (on land open at 
 the time for general settlement), such settlers will be confirmed in 
 their several holdings as homesteads, up to the extent of one hun- 
 dred and sixty acres, in legal subdivisions, including their improve- 
 ments. 
 
60 
 
 Settlers on land within the limits of the Railway Reserve having- 
 taken up the same after the date of the 9th No\ jmber, 1877, will 
 require to pay for the lands in accordance with the provisions of 
 the Order in Council of that date. 
 
 Those persons who may be found settled upon the borders of 
 navigable rivers, sucli as the north and south branches of the Sas- 
 katchewan, outside of tlie Eailway Reserve, will be confirmed in 
 possession of the lands on which they may have settled, provided 
 they conform to such conditions as the Government may have made 
 in respect of the manner in which title for such lands may be 
 acquired. 
 
 I have the honour to be, 
 Sir, 
 Your Obedient Servant. 
 
 L. S. DENNIS, 
 
 Surveyor Getxeral. 
 JOHN LOWp; Esq., 
 Secretary^ 
 Department of Agriculture 
 and Immigration, Ottawa. 
 
 ORDEE IN COUNCIL RESPECTING THE SETTLEMENT OF 
 
 RAILWAY LANDS. 
 
 Copy of a Report of a Committee of the Honourable the Privy Council, 
 approved by His Excellency the Governor General in Council, on 
 the 9th November, 1877. 
 
 On a report, dated 30th October, 1877, from the Hon. the Minis- 
 ter of the Interior, stating that, ir: consequence of the rapidly increas- 
 ing demand ^or hinds for settlement in Manitoba, and also of the 
 continued di; satisfaction of the locking up of the lands withdrawn 
 for twenty ir-iles on each side of the line surveyed for the Canadian 
 Pacific Railway by the Order in Council of the 20th December, 1874, 
 he is of opinion that it is expedient to effect sume amelioration of 
 the conditions of the said Order in Council so far as relates to the 
 lands within the Province. 
 
 He, therefore, recommends that the lands in Manitoba withdrawn 
 as above be thrown open to actual settlement, but not for homestead 
 or pre-emptive entry, or for entry by military bounty or police 
 warrants, or for ordinary sale. No person to be allowed to acquire 
 more toan one-half section or 320 acres, and such land to be paid 
 for by the occupai't at whatever rate and upon such terms »is may 
 be fixed therefor by the Government when the remainder of the 
 
 la 
 
 lids in 
 
 the rrovince, of this class, are disposed of. 
 
61 
 
 He furllier rcconuneiuls that persons desirino; to acquire such 
 lands shall, previous to settlement thereon, be required to be entered 
 therefor at tlie nearest Dominion Lands office, and, in order to prove 
 their good faith, the applicants shall be obliged, in each case, to 
 make a payment, in advance, at the time of enuy, of one dollar per 
 ^cre in cash on account of tlie purchase, and further be required to 
 settle on and commence to cultivate the land within one year from 
 the date of entry, or, in default thereof, the payment so made to be 
 foj'feited. 
 
 No scrip of atiy kind, or military bounty, or police warrants to 
 be receivable in payment of the lands above described. 
 
 The Minister observes that the withdrawal of the lands in ques- 
 tion was cliected under section 105 of the Dominion Lands Act, 
 circumstances not ])ermitting the application thereto of the Act 37 
 Vic. cap. 14, whicl) provides for the construction of the railway, and 
 as no statute exists authorizing the special mode above suggested of 
 dispo ;ng of the lands withdrawn, it will be advisable to confirm the 
 action proposed to be taken as above in that respect by legislation 
 during the ensuing session of Parliament. 
 
 r The Committee concur in the foregoing Report, and recommend 
 that the same be approved and acted on. 
 
 Certified. 
 (Signed,) W. A. inMSWOHTII, C. P. C. 
 
 FARES AND TRANSPORT OF EMIGRANTS. 
 
 {The following Rates are for the Seamn of 1878.) 
 From Toronto or Hamilton via the Lakes and Duluth to Winni- 
 
 1st Class 142 50 
 
 2nd or Emigrant Class 21 00 
 
 " From Sarnia, Goderich, Kincardine, Southampton or Windsor to 
 Winnij)eg ; 
 
 1st Class $40 00 
 
 2nd or Emigrant Class 20 00 
 
 Weight of Emigrants' baggage allowed, 150 lbs. 
 
 I Emigrants' effects by the car load : 
 
 From BrockvilletoFish;3r's Landing, one car, $200 : at this rate a 
 span of horses would cost about $35 ; or one horse and a cow about 
 $17.50 each. They might be driven from Fisher's Landing to 
 Winnipeg. 
 
 From Toronto or Hamilton to Winnipeg, one car, $260. 
 
 From Sarnia, Windsor, Goderich, Kincard' ) and Southam.ptQn to 
 Winnipeg, one car, $245. 
 
62 
 
 Special urmngoments have boon niado bv tho Crvu,,] T.-nni. n^ 
 the caseof e<ich n- tv T ; ^ C application should be made in 
 
 begin. ^^'^^"^' '''^^« '*^^^'c quoted to Winnipeg 
 
 DOMINION GOVERNMENtI^NTS TO WHOM APPLIOA 
 
 TJON MAY BE MADE AlPLICA- 
 
 JTallfax, N.S p (^,„„ 
 
 c^^^-(^/^.)..:.;:;;:;;;;:::::::il^^ 
 
 Jlonfrea/ t i n i 
 
 Otfrn/ri il. Uubhard. 
 
 y/r;' W.J. WilL.. 
 
 Joronto 1 A r\ .1 
 
 JlamUton i't ^^nuldson. 
 
 /v.v, 7 /,\ 1\ John Smith, 
 
 Undon {Ont)...,^^^^_^ ^. ^ g„^^^^^^ 
 
 T, . AT DULUTW, 
 
 ot^i uJti™'^r'ro^. ',:"',"'„ '? '|"f -"^ «-''-' "y his disinterested 
 
 «oti.„ow, w.,o';;.7i::™ i^t^-e^rrSi'v-e-jhr- ^'''"'" '^^^^^ 
 
 AGENTS IN MANITOBA. 
 
 f?!f^'^{'« J. E. Tetu. 
 
 ^^'''^*W W. Hespelor. 
 
 geu'L^thoiHS. " '^■"" '^""^ ^'^-^^^^-'^ ^-^to go about 
 SPECIAL CAUTIOJS^ TO SETTLERS 
 
 r 
 
 ► 
 
 I 
 
63 
 
 I 
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAPTER I.-INTEODUCTION 3 
 
 General Description— Extent of Manitoba 
 — Communications, 
 
 CHAPTER II.— EARL OF DUFFERIN'S VISIT 4 
 
 His Lordship's views of the Country — 
 Answer to Corporation of Winnipeg- 
 Rapid Growth of Winnipeg— Remarks at 
 Selkirk — Address of Mennonites — His 
 Lordship's Answer— Icelandic Settlement 
 — Speech to the Icelanders— Final Speech 
 at Winnipeg. 
 
 CHAPTER III.— HON. MR. SUTHERLAND'S EYL 
 
 DENCE ... 23 
 
 His evidence before House of Commons 
 Committee — Experience as a Farmer — Ad- 
 vantages of Manitoba for farmers. 
 
 CHAPTER IV.-NORTH-WEST TERRITORY 25 
 
 Professor Macoun's Evidence — Observa- 
 tions in North- West and Peace River Dis- 
 trict—Opening and Closing of Peace River 
 —Fertility of Peace River District— Com- 
 parative Table of Temperatures— Fruits 
 and Trees in the North- West, &c. 
 
 CHAPTER y.— FARMING IN THE NORTH-WEST 37 
 
 M. Kenneth Mackenzie's Statements — Ex- 
 perience of an Ontario Farmer in Mani- 
 toba — Practical information for Farmers. 
 
64 
 
 CHAPTER VI.— ME. SHANTZ ON MANITOBA 46 
 
 Best time to go— Capital to begin with, &c. 
 
 CHAPTER VII.— DOMINION LANDS ACTS 48 
 
 Price of Dominion Lands — Free Grants or 
 Homestead Rights — Grazing Lands — 
 Mining Lands— Timber Lands — Forms of 
 application — Land Scrip — Colonization — 
 Forest Tree culture. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII -ANALYSIS 57 
 
 Scientific Reasons for great Fertility of 
 Manitoba soil — Lands now available for 
 Settlement — Settlement of Railway Lands 
 — Rates of Fare — Dominion Government 
 Agents to whom application may be made 
 — Special caution to set.lers.