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Las diagrammas suivants illustrent la mAthode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 '■ -^Ti A Hthor Amerk N «4*^ From BRITAIN TO BRITISH COLUMBIA, 4 CONTENTS. 1 ! I* I ' i J IntrodiiPtion ... ... ... ••• ••• 'The Allan Lino The Canadian Pacific Railway Montreal ... Ottawa ... ... ... To \Vinnij)eg The City of Winnipeg Westward IIo I f ruit ... ... ... ■.. ... .•• Ranching British Colambia The City of Vancouver The Island of Vancouver , The Manitoba and North-Western Railroad Minnedosa ... •>• .•• ... .. Shonl Lake « Binscarth ... ... ... ... .. Langenbnrg ... ... ... ... .. The Commercial Colony Experimental Farms Ontario Quebec and the Maritime Provinces Trade and Commerce Wages, &c., &c. Concltuion ... ... ... ••• .< PAGE 1 ... 3 I • •• 5 • t* 7 • •• 12 • •• 13 • •• IG ... 18 • •■ 19 • •• 28 • •• 29 • •• 86 ... 41 • «. 44 ... 47 • at 49 • •• 52 • •• 65 • •• 68 • •• 60 • •• 64 ... 66 ... 68 ... 70 • •• 71 .•• 73 FROM BRITAIN TO BRITISH COLUMBIA; OB, CANADA A8 A DOMAIN FOR BRITISH FARMERS, SPORTSMEN, AND TOURISTS. INTEODUCTION, To the average Engliihman the Dominion of Canada, as it is now eompre- iiensiTely and properly termed, was a terra incognita, just aa the North-West Derritory was to the average Canadian, not very many years ago. In other words, ie knew little or nothing about it. It was vaguely understood that a country Iforming a considerable portion of the British Empire, lay to the north of the iTTnited States, and stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific ; but it was supposed ■to be a land of forests and fur-bearing animals, with long and severe winters, land of second-rate importance from an agricultural point of view The great I North-West was the happy hunting ground of the Hudson's Bay Company, who [naturally desired that it should remain so. Twenty years ago the British North America Act united into one Confederation the Provinces of Ontario, Quebec, New I Brunswick, and Nova Bisotia — in themselves an empire— and at the close of the Bed Biver Bebellion, three years later, the Province of Manitoba was formed, and the whole of the North- West Territory brought within the pale of the Dominion ; in yet another year, 1871, British Columbia came in, followed two years after by Prince Bdward Island ; but Newfoundland still remains separate and autonomous. The I Act of Confederation did away with the Hudson's Bay monopoly^ and opened up the I country. A flood of light was thrown over the North- West Territory, which was found to contain a vast area of land, free for the most part from forests, and eminently well fitted for farming operations and for emigration. The Dominion of Canada, occupying more than one-third of the area of the British Empire, naturally occupies the front position among Her Majesty's ubiquitous colonial posflessions. It is more extensive than the United States, and has a wonderful I diversity of soils and climates, along with timber and mineral wealth so vast as {almost to defy eomputation. With my readers' consent, I propose in the following pages, to take them, in [mind, through a trip which I have recently taken in person, and to introduce them I to a people who are genial, hospitable, and loyal to the empire which is the mother lof us all. The journey 'vcill be rather a long one, for it covers a stretch of land and ■water whose extent can only be realised in full by th'^se who have passed over it ; land I can only hope that the recital of my impressions and of the information I ■have collected at various times and in many places will be as little tedious to them las the trip was to me. I propose to describe what I have seen, and to repeat what I |have heard, at all events in part and so far as it relates to what is properly the lomain and scope of this report. Not to the experience of this last journey alone Ishall I confine myself, but I hope to convey to others the essence of what I have lleamt in several visits to Canada. The physical features of the Dominion are so ■ vast and varied that I cannot undertake — indeed, the limits of my report will not ■admit that I should undertake — even to touch, however slightly, on every point I and detail in them; yet, as I have in all travelled nigh on thirty thousand miles I in that country, noticing things as closely as I could, refreshed by the influence of (' npeatcd visita, I may ventnre to tell my tale for what it !■ worth. The flora and fauna of the country, as they are seen in a nntural and nncaltivnted condition, I ■hall npcak of only inuidently, as Riiitn my purpose, and it niii8t ho nndnrstood that I write from the standpoint of a farmer, chiefly. AVith the b'-'".iy, the peolony, the natural history of no vast a territory it is expedient that I si dd have little or notliinj; to do, first, because they mi^ht well occupy volumes upon volumes; nnd, second, because others will describe them and have already done so in part, and tlicv form a va'down essence of a great mass of evidence. They do not pretend to be in- Ifallible, and must be taken earn gramo talis, subject to approval or disapproval by men I whose experience of Ganada is as wide or wider than my own. Even as I write these words I have received a letter from an £ns;lishman in Manitoba who consulted me before he went out, now six years ago; he had little or no capital to go with, save what is embraced in a wife and family of young children. True, he is not a farmer there, though he whs to some extent in Eoglaud, and he has succeeded well in business. He is now worth more than fifty thousand dollars, which sum in his hands will go on increasing. He says, in his letter: — " We have done very well since we have been here ; we have a nice home of our own, a solid br.ck house ; so you ! see I have every reason to be thankful that I came." Testimony such as this is, of course, very gratifying to me ; but I am aware that he could not have Aont so well in I farming. He is, of course, a steady man, and, I need not say, has quite his share of brains and application. He speaks of Englishmen who have done no good as farmers land thinks the fault is chiefly their own; the fact remaining that the canny Scot land the German or Russian Menonites succeed better as farmers in Manitoba than [the average Englishman. For this, however, it is obviously the average Englishman Iwho is to blame. THE ALLAN LINE. Under this designation runs one of the largest and most successful steAuiship leompanies so far known to the world. In skill allied to caution lies the secret of its succesH, as in safety lies its reputation. For five and thirty years its steamers Uiave earned the mails under contract with the Canadian Government, and the bumber of people — emigrants, business men, and travellers — who have crossed in jthose boats is simply and literally enormous. The part and lot it has had in uuilding up the Dominion of Canada, in adding to the population of that, va.st country, and in developing its resources so far, suggests a train of thought that is full of the deepest interest. The Allan Line, in fact, is contemporaneous wilh Canada's rapid progress in modern times. It has taken out the produceri>, and prought in the products. It has woven the warp and woof of a fabric which binds |together very strongly the peoples of the Old World and the New, and it is weaving Btill! With the history of Canada it is, and will remain, inseparably aaiociated. 6 I h!' !|p The TMt work Already done by it i* an uarnest for tha future, to whoae requirementi it will b« found adaptire and equal. I ipeak of the Allan Line thus, because it haa ciirried me pretty often across the Atlantia, and always pleasantly — always safely. On my last way West I travelled in the "Sarmntian," which is known as the Boyal boat, because H.R.H. the Princess Louise, Marchioness of Lome, repeateiily crossed in her during the Uovernor-Oenaralskip of the Marquis of Lome. The • graos fields and the yellow ones of grain, the vast ranges of mountains on j ' liiy iu the world that is approached trom the sea. The Citadel of Quebec, standing uu a commanding promontory between ihe two i^ven Bt. Lawrence and St. GharlcR, with itrteta eluiterinf< Ixneath HR if fur protection, and with ini|)uaing buildin(i;s aruund, formH a most Htrikii)|; and imp<^)iing spectacle ai we approacli } and if we atuy till evening tlie electric lif^ht, hif^h up aloft, addn a new element of beauty to the icene. To the nu-inory of Wolfe, who won Caii.ida for us at the coat of his life, a monumiMit BtiindB plainly in view, and on the rock beneath the Oitadel in a tablet to indicate where Mont({uiner7 full. For a ilistiince of nearly two hundred miles from Quebec we speed onward to Montreal, wliere, if they wish it, saloon passengei e now landed, instead of at Quebec as heretofore. Thii portion of the river, the b , « being; low and flat for some diHtance inland, and more thickly populated, is difTe-ent from that east of Quebec, but it if very interesting, and the river is wide -^na noble to a degree. Lastly the spires and roofs of Montreal come into view, ^ t.r ling cosily beneath the great Mount Koyal from the summit of which one of the finest vie 's imaginable is obtained of the city and the broad, shining river beneath, and, soinowl: 'it reluctantly, we prepare to go ashore. During the voyage I had an opportunity of going vith the purser on a tour of inspection through the ship. My object v,a,a to notice the accommodation given to steerage passengers, and the food with which they were supplied. Necessarily the space allotted to each passenger was limited, but everywhere cleanliness and order prevailed, and I was struck with the complete absence of impure air or unpleasant oilours ; the ventilation indeed was perfect, and the Mght sufficient. Dinner was bt'ing served as we passed along, consisting first of soup, which I tasted, followed by flsh, then by beef, with vegetables ad lib. — the mealy potatoes bursting through th<)ir skins in a manner most inviting ; puddings to follow, and plenty of everything, with appetites to match! It is doubtful indeed if many of these steerage passengers ever fared so well on food for a week together in any previous bit of their lives, for every- thing was good, and there yraa no stint of anything. The steerage passengers land cultural lands in Manitoba and the North-West. The lands belonging to the company in each township within the railway belt, which extends 24 miles from each side of the main line, will be disposed of at pricer ranging from $2 60c. (lOs. sterling) per acre upwards, according to location and quality, without any conditions as to cultivation Detailed prices of lands can be obtained from the Land Commissioner at Winnipeg, J. H. McTavish, Esq. These regulations are substituted for and cancel those hitherto in force. Tkrhs or Payment. If paid for in full at time of purchase, a deed, of conveyance of the land will be given ; but the purchaser may pay one-tenth in cash, and the balance in nine annual instalments, with interest at 6 per cent, per annum, payable at t.\e end of each year SisTKif OP Survey. The Canadian North- West is laid off in townships 6 miles square, containing 36 sections of 640 acres each, which are again sub-divided into quarter sections of 160 acres. Each square on the land map represents a township of 640 acres. A road allowance, having a width of one chain, is provided for on each section-line running north and south, and on every alternate section-line running east and west. The following diagram shows a township with the sections numbered and apportioned : — Township Diaokam. a41i acbkr. n. M 31 32 33 0. N. W. 84 8 B sis 0. P. E. Got. 1 or O.P.B. : Gov. 0.1 '.B. Gov. : 90 Gov. 29 Soboois. i 28 ■ Gov.' ■■■ 2V O.P.E.'" 2 H. 6 B." ■ 28 O.N.W. or 0. P. E. : , 19 20 1 21 0. N. W. i 28 2 3 ; 24 w. 0. P. E. Gov. or O.P.E. Gov. 1 O.I >.E. Gov. 1 18 2 ; 17 1 18 i IS 1 4 IS 0. N. W. Gov. 1 b. P. E. Gov. I •O.P.B. : Gov. or 0. P. E. ! 7 1 8 9 O.N.W. 10 t A IS 0. P. E. H.B. or 0. P. E. Gov. Bch ooU. Gov. i 6 "s : : 4 : : 8 8 i 0. N. W. GoV. 0, p. B. Gov. ■ d.p.E." G< JV. or O.P.B. ■ Ji!; I ! 'Si, 1 5ii , . '01 IM "■■ lit 1. 'HI '11 !) '^' i! '! 12 C. p. H.'-CanatUan Pacific Railway Company's Landx. GOV.— Govarnmsnt Uotr.eRtead and Pre-emption Lands. bOHOOLS.— Sections renerved for support of BcIiooIh. H. B.— Hiidooii Hay Company's Landn. 0. N. W.— Canada North-West Land Conipany'n Landx for a« far wast from Winnipeg as Moo«e Jaw only. Sectionn 1, 9, 18, Sl, 26, and S3, from Moose Jaw westward, stlU belong to the Canadian Pacific Railway Company. It will thus be seen that the sections In each township are apportioned as follows : — Opin ?or Homestead and Pek-khptions. — Nos. 2, 4, 6, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 28, 30, 82, 34, 36. Canadian Pacific Railway Sections. — Nos. 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 13, 15, 17, 19, 21, 23, 25. 27,31,33,35. Nos. 1, 9, 13, 21, 25, 33, along the main line, "Winnipeg to Moose Jaw, sold to Canada North- West Land Company, the balance of their lands being in Southern Manitoba ■ ' ' ' School Sections. — Nos. 11, 29 (reserved by Government solely for school purposes). Hudson's Bay Sections. — Nos. 8 and 2G. . i r i General Conditions. All sales are subject to the following conditions:— 1. All improvements placed upon land purchased to be maintained thereon until final ])ayment has been made. 2. All taxes and assessments lawfully imposed upon the land or improvements, to be paid by the purchaser. 3. The company reserves from sale, under these regulations, all mineral and coal lands ; and lands containing timber in quantities ; stone, slate and marble quarries ; lands with water-power thereon ; and tracts for town sites and railway purposes. 4. Mineral, coal, and timber lands and quarries, and lands controlling Avater- power, will be disposed of on very moderate terms to persons giving satisfactory evidence of their intention and ability to utilise the same. 5. The company reserves the right to take without remunerjition (except for the value of buildings and improvements on the required portion of land) a strip or strips of laud 200 feet wide, to be used for right of way, or other railway nurposes, wherever the line of the Canadian Pacific Railway, or any branch thereoi, i& or shall be located. liberal rates for lettlers and their eflects will be granted by the company over its railway. 1 will now invite the .eader to accompany me on a trip over the Canadian Pacific Railway — the '• C. P. R.," as it is universally designated in Canada — from Montreal to Vancouver, noticing the more remarkable scenes and places on the way : — I 1! • - MONTREAL, ■ ' ' ; Two and a half centuries ngo the Indian village of llochelaga occupied the site of the city's park of to-day and now the handsome city of Montreal has, with its suburbs, an estimated population near upon a quarter of a million. The name of the place is an abbreviation of " Mount Royal," the commanding eminence beneath whose shelter the city stands. With the broad St Lawrence in front, and the lofty Mount Royal behind, the city occupies one of the finest sites imaginable. From the summit of the mountain a majestic view is obtained of the city, the river, and the country beyond; probably this view is, of its kind, unequalled in the world, and no one visiting Canada ought to miss it, Montreal is known as the " City of 13 jr for school thereon until nprovements, jompany over Churches," of which there are a great nuralier, and the ecclesiastical jiroiMrty in and around the place ia immensely valuable. There are also very many iiiie buildings of a secular nature, amongst which the Windtior Hotel stands first and furemost. CITY OP MONTKBAIk To a great extent the city is built of the limestone which abounds, and a large proportion of the buildings are of a kolid and substantial character. During the summer, and up to about the middle of November, a great number of steam and also sailing ships go up to Montreal, but in winter the Bt. Lawrence is frozen up, and Halifax is the port until spring. Montreal, in fact, is the chief Canadian port for almost everything, a good deal of the trade of Quebec having retreated inland thus far, and it is consequently a place of comnaanding commercial importance. In this age of canals for shipping, it is quite feasible, I think, that means will be found for steamers to run from Manchester to Toronto, and possibly even to Chicago. Many men believe that Toronto will eventually become the largest city in the Dominion, and its growing importance will probably demand that ocean ships shall have access to it; such access, indeed, would not require works of a very formidable character. All this, however, is in the air at present. OTTAWA. The vr.lley of the Ottawa, through which the Canadian Pacific llailway takes its way to the west, is well worth seeing ; but the steamboats up the river afford by far the most comprehensive access to the scenic charms of the valley. The river^ indeed^ with its lake-like reaches here and there^ should be travened once bjr !' :i I J ll' I I) : 14 thoK who like Ane views of land and water oombined, for the Ottawa it indeed one of the several very fine rivers in Canada. The valley, generally speaking, is well i4 M k H H O o H < Hi Mtf led, and a largje acrea(?e of land has had its heavy primeval forest cleared away. The city of Ottawa ia the political and adiniiiistrative capital of the Dominion, and i ■! 16 It indeed one S j, situated just within the province of Ontario, at the junction of the Bideau riyer |king, !• well fl ^ith the Ottawa. The HouBes of Parliament, flanked by Departmental BuUdings, are perhaps, all things coniidered, the handsomest set of buildings in any country and they occupy an unrivalled position on a high and handsome promontory, PART.IAHaWT H0U8I, OTTAWA. round which the Ottawa flows. These buildings are Tery striking indeed, of magnificent proportions, and of Gtothlc architecture highly ornate in character They are built of cream-coloured sandstone, with red sandstone comers and casings — '•A.BJII.C* DBPAKTMBNTAL BCILDIMOS, OTTAWA (WBST BLOCK). Ifl II combination which falls with a pleasing^ effect on the eye. The foundation itone W.18 laid by the Prince of Wales in 1860, and the cost of them was about £800,000 I! • 'li 1 111 h It' ;; ilia ■ \ UBPAUTMKNTAL BUILDINGS, OTTAWA (KA8T 11L0CK> Sterling Save and except the Canadian Pacific Railway, there is no great work of man in Canada of which the Canadian people may be so justly proud as of the Public Buildings at Ottawa The annexed view of the Parliament Buildings shows the main building and the west block, the east block lying as far on the other side as the west block lies on this side of the central structure. It may be doubted if any city in Canada is, relatively speaking, increasing in population as rapidly as Ottawa, BO far. Formerly a mere lumbering town, to which industry it is still very largely devoted, it is rapidly becoming a place of general commercial and manufacturing importiince ; and it has already, because it is the administrative centre, become the leading home of the social and political aristocracy of the Dominion. TO WINNIPEG. Away from Ottawa to Winnipeg, a distance of 1,114 miles, the railway runs for the most part through a rocky and well-timbered country, containing here and there greater or lesser areas of land suitable for agriculture, once it is cleared of timber and drained. Numerous rivers are crossed, and lakes, great and small, are skirted on either hand. The course of the line is more or less sinuous all the way to Port Art hur, accommodating itself to valleys which lend facilities for the construction of a railway. Save for lumbering and mining industries, which await certain and very extensive development, the country along this portion of the route would not ever be likely to become thickly populated. It is known, however, that vast stores of minerals, whose extent cannot yet be even estimated with any approximation to correctness, are in existence in various parts, while the wealth of timber is there to be read by him who runs. Approaching Lake Superior the scenery becomes beauti- ful and even magnificent in places, and there are many examples of bold and difficult engineering. The northern shore of Lake Superior is extremely rocky and precipitous, of volcanic origin, deeply indented with bagra of irregular lise and shapti 17 mdation itone ibout jC800,000 arid withal WTicommoTily bold nni Rtrikinpr from a Rcenio point of view. The rocky •oinmtions are of vavioiis l of bold and ely rocky and ise and shaiw, o a M a: [leight, perpendicularly. Granite, sandstone, ignetnis conglomerates, columnar basalt standing on end like the pipes of a lofty organ ; rooks that are grey, or brown, \\ blood.ved, and some of colours mixed— this is the sort of chaotic geology through i •»'. ; '1 ■^1 HI' If which the line ii laid. And the train ulipe along through nuinnrous tunnela.cuttingii, natural gorges, over bridges, viailucts, and vast embiiiikuientB ; sometimes along the foot of a precipice, and again high up among the crags ; soinetimi-s along the shore of the lake or one of its numerous bays, and again a mile or two away. Perhaps the prettiest if not the finest scene in this pqrtion of the route is where the Nepiffon river is crossed, but it is difJlcult and possibly invidious to pick out one portion from so much that's beautiful. The thriving town of Port Arthur is situated on the shore of the lake, away from the rocky region, the const being flat and tame. When I saw it first, seven years ago, it consisted of a few houses and stores little better than huts; now it is a town of nigh on 4,000 people, with many large and substantial buildings, long piers and wharves ■unning out into the lake for the convenience of the great shipping trade that is done, and a large grain elevator for the storage of wheat. Port Arthur, along with Fort William, at the mouth of the Kaministiquia river, a few miles away to the west, form together the shipping point on the lake for the Canadian Paciflo Hai'way, and turn a considerable portion of the North- West traffic down to Owen Bound, Colling- wood, Sarnia, and other places to the south. At Tort William is another elevator, whose capacity is 1,200,000 bushels of grain. These places have been evolved as it were out of the overflow of the Canadian Pacific Railway, for they were insignificant before the railway came along. To the west the country is again rocky, for the nujst part, and heavily timbered as usual. The district is rich in minerals of various kinds, a valuable silver mine having very recently been opened out. At Rat Portage, 297 miles west of Port Arthur, the line skirts the northern end of the Lake of the Woods, perhaps the handsomest of Canada's great inland sheets of water ; it is nearly a hundred miles in length and of varying width, thickly studded with wooded islands, hardly numbered as yet, and of great beauty everywhere. Here too is seen a geological curiosity in the form of a junction of the vast Huronian and Laurentian systems of rock. The province of Manitoba is entered at Rennie, 1,222 miles from Ottawa, the whole of which distance lies with! a the pi-ovince of Ontario. At Selkirk the jiniirie and farming region begins, and stretches for a thousand miles right away to the Rocky Mountains. Canada is, indeed, a country of magnificent distances ! THE CITY OF WINNIPEG. Tlie city of Winnipeg is situated in the wide and level and extraordinarily fertile valley of the Red River, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers. Twenty years ago the old Fort Garry, a trading post of the Hudson's Bay Company, was solitary on the spot, save for a few huts and wigwams; now it is a handsome city of nearly 30,000 people, and constantly growing. It is the distributing centre and the eastern focal point of the great North- West, and is probably destined to remain the chief city of that vast region. The growth of the city, for a few years on either side of 1880, was quite phenomenal; then occurred a period of reckless inflation in land values, known as the " boom," whose collapse checked alike tiie expansion of the city and the prosperity of the province. The boom did immense harm all round, and the reaction from it carried everything into a slough of despond much farther than there was any need to go. The city and the province are both well on the road to recovery at the present time, and their progress, it is to be hoped and expected, will be wisely directed in the future. The Manitobans have " touched sand " in these fiscal matters, and a boom, alike unreasoning and unreasonable, is not likely to lead the people astray again for some considerable time to come. They have had their period of rampant but unhealthy prosperity, followed by one of adversity, and the lesson will not soon be forgotten. These violent fluctuations seriously impeded for a 19 inelB,cuttin|i^, lies along the ig the sill ire of Perhaps the i the Nepigon portion from he hvke, away it first, seven I now it is a long piers and shipping trade Arthur, along es away to the iciflc Rai'way, JoundjColling- )ther elevator, n evolved as it e insignificant f, for the must als of various t Rat Portage, e Lake of the f water; it is d with wooded [ere too is seen nd Laurentian !22 miles from o. At Selkirk les right away distances ! dinarily fertile liboine rivers. Bay Company, is a handsome •ibuting centre bly destined to a few years on ckless inflation e expansion of larm all round, i much farther 'ell on the road i and expected, sand " in these , likely to lead have had their ersity, and the impeded for a time the tide of immigration and the settling of the province. The boom had cauMsd II rush in one direction, and the panic which followed sent it off in the other. Men's I heads were turned by the speculative spirit of the day, and had to be restored to [position. The few who were wise and cautious came well out of the trouble; the many who were otherwise were "stuck," with greatly depreciated property on their I hands. This is now all a thing of the past, a matter of hisUjry, but the efiPects of it have not yet disappeared. Men have had, of course, to shake themselves down the best way they could, or submit to be shaken down, into harmony with the new order of things, and a casual observer would think they had done so with considerable success. For Winnipeg is quite a busy hive, the people are evidently in good heart, and the place is increasing in size and improving in various ways, and the province is raising more grain than before and is already going pretty extensively into stock- I breeding and the manufacture of cheese and butter. In 1880, 1 spent some little time in Winnipeg, again in 1884, and yet again in September ot the present year. Un each occasion I saw, for no one could help seeing, very striking advances achieved, alike in the size and the architecture of the city. There are now very many [ excellent buildings, public and private, hotels, warehouses. Governmental and municipal buildings, and so on, some of them very large. Main Street, one of the finest and broadest thoroughfares in Canada, is now well paved with blocks of wood, and the volition and comfort of the people have recently had considerable facilities 1,'ranted. The cloud, indeed, is lifting — has already lifted to a great extent — and the ]Manitoban8 are people who « never say die." Farms may be bought on very ruasonable terms within sight of Winnipeg, as the following advertisements, copied from the Manitoba Free Presi of Sept. 19, will plainly show : — FOR SALB— 228 ACRES OF LAND, WITH pOR Hai.« — 240 ACRES EXCELLENT a mile froniuge on the Red River. 60 acres J? Lnnd for Mixed Farming, snrronnded by busli. Almut lut) acrns high rollini; prulrie ; bal. wood and a river ; 12 miles from the city ; only aiice, hay. 40 uores caltivated ; two log houses; $600. Owner leaving Manitoba next week. log Htalile for abont 40 head. Good looklity ; only $1,UU9 oa«h, worth $2,600. WESTWARD HO! "Go West, young man," said Horace Greely many years ago; and it must be admitted that Americans and Canadians alike have obeyed the injunction tolerably well. Ontarians have gone to Manitoba, and Manitobans have gone to Assiniboia, and Britons have pone everywhere. .Indeed, the injunction has been too much obeyed, and many have gone farther only to fare worse. A curious spirit of restlessness pervades, or did pervade, the people of Canada, but the spirit is tamer than it used to be. A larger proportion of emigrants have remained in Manitoba this year than in several previous ones. Ontarians go west, and should go west, a ji;o()d many of them ; but the Manitobans have discovered that there is no province e([ual to their own ; so at least, many of them say. And, indeed, it is true enough of Manitoba, and of the eastern half of Assiniboia, that there is nothing west of tliem to induce farmers to go at present. Millions upon millions of acres of good land there are in Manitoba and eastern Assiniboia still to be taken up, so what is the good of going farther west f Thousands of acres of good land there are west and east and south and north of Winnipeg, within sight of the spires of the city, that is being held by speculators who are now tired of holding it, and would be glad to sell out at a price which is really intrinsic for agricultural Lind. Farther away there is plenty of land which may be homesteaded from the Government, free of j cost, to the extent of a quarter section, or 160 acres ; and an additional quarter section may be pre-empted at a moderate price per acre. I have driven over vast I areas of such land in Manitoba and eastern Assiniboia, in the north of both provinces, II. 't l,il- Bl-i' nil of it ftCcrsRil)l fiirtlier west at present. 1 shall probably liave more to say on tliis subjiu-t later oil, and inj-aiitiiiK^ we must gn west on »Mir jonrney, IjOiivinK Winnipeg for the west, the train strikes out into a preat plain, wliicli appears to be perfectly level for scores of miles. Murh of this land, alongsiiie the railway at all events, has never yet been under cultivatimi. Hundreds of hay ricks, however, are seen upon it, and thousands of cattle i\nd sheep grazing, and also many horses Many railroads radiate from Winnipeg, but my remarks at present rcliiti) to the Canadian Pacific Railway. Torty-flve miles west of Winnipeg stands the town of Portage-la-Prairie, in the midst of a district which may, I fancy, be regarded as the cream of the province, so far as quality of land is concerned. Portage- la-Prairie is so named because in old times it was known as the nearest point on the Aasiniboine river to Lake Manitoba, and goods were carried or " portaged" from one to the other. Fourteen miles away ta the north lies Lake Winnipeg, an extensive sheet of fresh water, which moderates the climate in respect of unseasonable frosts; and the immunity of the district from this most serious enemy of the arable farmer in many other places, stamps Portage-la-Prairie as one of the most fnvourable sections of country in the whole North-West. The valun (.f the lanil is from $10 (or two pounds) per acre up to $70, according to situation, ([uality, and nature and extent of improvements in the form of build, ings, fences, and cultivation. Virgin prairie of excellent quality runs from $20 to $80 jier acre, favourably situated, but without improvements. This land is not, properly Kpeaking, the prairie, but the widened-out valleys of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, which mingle their waters at Winnipeg. The course of the last named river is marked away to the south by a belt of trees, and scores of ,„»,,S!llii!;H!iiSS;;i,.. . ,|.|iHl.:ilii!h'i5ii!:!ii,l h 4 1 A BAILWAT STATION ON THK PRAIKIB. well-tiH.d farms are seen in that direction away from the line, -with pleasant, looking honpes peeping out from among the trees; while to the north are vasi meadows and pastures, and cattle without number. Away a few miles from the 21 for KPtHern to I gubj«c,t. Inter t plain, which alongsiile tlie I of liay ritkH, ing, and also rka at present nnipeg stands y, I fancy, he is concerned, 18 the nean-st ire carried or irth lies Lake le climate in •cm this most bage- la-Prairie bh-West. The >, according to orm of build- runs from $20 This land is I of the Red rhe course of and scores of •with pleasant- iiortli are vasl iniles from tin; Itiwii lives my old friend, Mr. Kenneth Mackenzie of Burnaide, who came to LMiiiiitoha from Ontario some twenty years ago and located himself before the |l,iiid was taken up, or the town, or even the city of Winnipe.', had any practical . xixtence. The district from I'ortape and Burnaide to Carberry is called the '• licautiful Plains," and beautiful indeed it is to him who has an eye for wheat. In 1 my two visits to this locality, going to and returning from tlie west, the wheat was '.>eing cut and stacked, and afterwards thrashed. As far as the eye could reach, I Hided by a strong fleld-glass, the plains were one vast sea of grain, lazily waving to and fro in the bright sunlight ; later on, the landscape was thickly dotted over with ricks, many of wliich were being put through the thrashing machine and turned into cash. It is a valuable peculiarity of the wheat in the North- West that, owing to the dryness of the atmosphere, it is tit for thrashing even out of the stooks, and almost the day it is cut. The straw is set on fire when the thrashing is done, to get rid of it, for at present it can be put to no profitable use. Vast quantities of clean, bright straw are annually burnt — straw that would fetch £3 to £4 a ton in England lit the present moment. To burn the straw in this fashion, vast heaps of it, where [it was thrashed, looics like wanton destruction; all the same, however, there is at present no help for it, though in course of time the straw will be utilised in cattle sheds in winter, and turned into manure to enrich a soil which then will need it. As we are now in the Portage-la-Prairie counti ,, I may as well transcribe notes taken [ of the farming experience of an old settler : — Mr, James Bowman bought in 1882, in the boom period, a farm of 320 acres for I $9,000, or $26 per acre, say £5 10s., nearly. There was a stable, granary, and small house on the farm, and 204 acres had heen ploughed and backset. Two men put in the seed, IJ bushels per acre ; in the fall, 3,600 bushels of wheat at 8oc. and 3,000 ot I oats at 60c. were sold; the thrashing cost 5c. a bushel, and other wages, for harvesting, Ac, and a son's time not reckoned, caaie to $250 ; 67 acres were in oats, 1 m roots, and the rest in wheat. The account stands thus : — Cr.— By 3,600 bushels of wheat at 85o $3,060 3,000 „ oats „ 1 acre of roots, say... Dr — To thrashing „ other ex^/enses, say 50c. $330 370 l,5t0 40 8,600 700 $2,900 Here, then, wo have nearly one-third of the cost of the farm repaid in produce in the Hist year. Mr. Bowman had the farm in his own hands and " ran it/' as the Americans say, until October 1886, when he let it on lease; terms: landlord finds one-half the ed, pays half the cost of thrashing, and receives half the produce. This year's cro> has yielded 3,500 bushels of wheat, 2,300 of oats, and 1,050 of barley. Wheat was w( . ih 53c., oats 25c., and barley 30c. per bushel at the time. The account therefore would be as follows : — Yield. 3,500 bushels of "'heat at 5Sc, 2,300 „ oats „ 25c. 1,060 ,1 barley,, 30c. $1,K.".5 575 815 2)2,745 Half cost of seed, say .. „ „ thrashing, say .. Landlord's share in gross... .. $100 170 Landlord's share, net 1,372 170 .'$1.'-'02 I -ii. 22 m hi!. J- 1 Ki'li ri ■■:i If we set aside the ^202 to meet repairs and taxes, &,c., there is the net sum ut' $1 ,000 accruing to the landlord, which, as he said, would he 11 per cent, on the original cost of the &rm. Mr. Bowman is an agent and has farms to sell which will do equally well with his own, he says, if men with capital will come out and work them properly. If the landlord gets 11 per cent, as rent in times like these, with wheat scarcely more than half a dollar a hushal, land at the current rate, which is perhaps ahout one-half what Mr. Bowman paid for his, ought, as it would seem, to return a very handsome percentage to an occupying owner, who would do his work well, in the form of owner's rent and occupier's profit. Land is summer-fallowed once in a while, by the better fanners, in order, chiefly, to kill the weeds, of which " lamb's quarter " is the most common This particular weed, though tall and vigorous in growth, ought not to bea very difficult weed to deal with ; it certainly is not comparable with oouch or twitch grass (Triticum repetu), which gives so much annoyance to arable farmers in the Old Country, The summer-fallowing which the land in Manitoba gets, certainly does not err on the side of being too much of a good thing ; it consists, as a rule, of one ploughing only during the summer, ^he weeds being turned under. Once-harrowing at least should be done after the ploughing, in order to close up the teams and cracks in the furrow-slices, and to cause the weeds to rot all the more thoroughly. As the matter stands, with once-ploughing only and no harrowing to follow, we eee the weeds rearing up their heads along the furrows and ripening their seed with impunity. Thoroughly buried, these weeds, ploughed under before they have arrived at their tall growth, will form a good green-manuring; and one year's rest in four would be none too much for land which is devoted entirely to wheat. Here is a list of prices that were current in Poitage-la-Prairie in tiept., 1887 : — Wheat, 53 to 66 cents per bushel of 60 lbs. Oats, 25 „ 27 i> 1) 84 i> Barley, 30 „ 86 >« » 40 II Potatoes, 20 „ 25 » If 60 II Beef, 4„ 8 >» per lb. Mutton, 12 „ 15 » i> Pork, 8„ 12 >i II Cheese, 12 „ 16 » I) Poultry, 8„10 n Eggs, U „ 16 n per dozen. Away to Carberry and Brandon are seen, on both sides of the line, farms which are excelled by those in the Portage country only, if indeed by them. Crops that would be called good in England, so far as bulk is concerned, are seen all along the road ; and it must be borne in mind that a crop of wheat in Manitoba will yield a great deal more grain, probably one-third more at least, in proportion to the balk of the straw. At Brandon I saw growing in a garden, potatoes, cabbages, beets, turnips, carrots, onions, and " green com,'* the last named a species of maize whose ear of j gr:iin is eaten as a table vegetable. The land is rolling, the soil black, and as far ai j uiie could see there was wheat, wheat., wheat— nothirg but wheat, but plenty of that. It was estimated that over a million bushels of wheat would this fall be trained from Brandon alone. The straw is shortish, very bright and clean, with an almost I complete absence of weeds ; yet, as there is nv purpose at present to which it can be put, it is simply burrt. Prom Qriswold 260,000 bushels would be marketed, u against 140,000 last year. The best sample of wheat (No. 1. Hard) was worth from 64 to 680. at harvest time, the first week in September, in many parts the wheat crop < was estimated to «zceed 40 bushels per acre, and the oat crop 76. Summer-fallowing aa [i^ found to 1)6 very beneflcial to the land, with fall -ploughing after it, or cnltivatini? ' in iprinjo;. A furrow eight or ten inches deep, the dry surface soil turned under and fresli sul)soiI brought up to the surface, to be operated on first by the mellowing influence of the sun, then by the disintegrating and mellowing pi)wer of frost, is ni) doubt a good feature in a sound system of cultivation. New soil brought up from bi'low nei'ds oxidising, and is all the better for a good roasting under a September sun, before llie seed is put into it. This need — this law of vegetable nutrition — is recognised, though perhaps not consoiouBly so, in the practice which prevails on the prai rie of " backsetting" the first ploughing that is done. This is what it is : a shallow iiul broad furrow is turned first of all, early in the summer, and in the autumn it is iiiriied back again with two or three inches thick of subsoil on the top of it; con- sequently, what was the grassy, original surface of the prairie is now a few inches below the surface, with soil over it tha*'. was originally under it. And herein occurs the recognition spoken of, for the backsetting is done in the autumn as a preparation of the seed-time of the spring to follow. When land has been autumn-ploughed, as soon as possible after the crop has been removed, and a downpour of rain occurs, the soil is saturated to a considerable depth ; tliis moisture freezes solid, and, when spring time comes, gives off moisture to the growing crop — gives it off slowly for weeks as the subsoil thaws. Early in the spring, so soon as the surface of the land has thawed a couple of inches deep, the seed-grain is put in, and its moisture is supplied by capillary attraction .'rom the softening frost below. Besides which, the frost has mellowed the soil, am', the air has oxidised it, and the tender rootleto of the young wheat plant can fieely permeate a mellowed soil which has also, chemically speaking, been specially prepared for them by the atmosphere. All this is very beautiful, no doubt, when rightly understood j but it is something mure — it is very useful and beneficial to man SE'riLER'S HOUSE. Sheep are being cultivated with success. They are found to be very prolific in so fine an atmoapliere, with thousands of acres of prairie grHss to pirk and choose from. In summer thev cost, absolutely nothing, save for shepherding, for they run at large on unappropriated prairie. It used to be said that " spear grass," whoie awns are sharp and spear-like, and have a knack of penetrating into things, would make sheep farming impossible on the prairie where it grows. This, however, is found to have been a scare, with little or no foundation, and that "spear grass" ii a bugbear whom nobody now -o frightened at. Anyway, the sheep themselves don't seem to miud it, and nobody else has need to. In these dry regions, where water is scarce, ?'1 I I ' . i 'it lib |l 'Hi ,il^ 24 tod creeks and lakes and rivers are few and far between, sheep are far less trouble than cattle or horses, for, comparatively speaking, they are independtut of water. In winter they are in sheds surrounding an open yai'd, into or out of \vliicii they run or not as they like, and are fed on hay. A ton of hay — Canadian ton, 2,000 lbs. — will winter three sheep ; and any quantity of hay is to be had for the harvesting of it in the swampy land. The ewes commonly bring tw'> lambs each, and sometimes three ; and I heard of spring lambs being sold to '. butcher, in September, at $8 each. The Qu'Appelle Valley and vicinity, a disinct of very large extent, is found to be well adapted to sheep husbandry as wtiil as to other branches of agriculture. The continued low price of wheat has civused farmers to turn their attention what is vaguely termed "mixed farming" <»nd the settled parts of the Nortb-West are gradually becoming the home of cattle, sheep, and horses. Thrifty, hard>working settlers, who understand how to farm, get along well in the Qu'Appelle district. Four years ago a German, with three sons and $300, came into the country. This year they have 300 acres of land under wheat, from which they have a yield of 11,000 bushels. An average of 36 bushels per acre, throughout the district, is estimated for the current harvest, and some crops will reach 50 bushels. The crop of 1887 i? certainly a very good one, and it thrashes out unusually well. The grain, as a rule, is well fed, plump, bright, and of very good quality. Frosts occur some years in late Au st and early September, doing considerable harm to the ripening grain; but it is expected, and I think reasonably so, that such early frosts will become rarer, and, perhaps, disappear altogether, when the country becomes more thickly populated and the land is more widely and generally cultivated. A remarkable fact in reference to the province of Manitoba is the recent drying of many swamps, which the people think will remain dry. This phenomenon, which I found to extend to many parts, is supposed to be owing to a progressive system of surface draining, which has influenced swiiinps at a distance. It is, however, more probably owing to a cycle of dry seiisons, and will most likely be altered by a cycle of wet ones — wet, that is, for Manitoba. Anyway, the fact exists ; and I heard of one farmer who this year sowed with oats the dry bed of what was till recently a shallow lake, simply harrowing them into the bare, dry mud. The crop is said to be very heavy — as might, indeed, have been expected — and, though sown late in the spring, it will probably have ripened in the very line tieptember which the people have enjoyed. The drying up of tliese damp places is supposed to have had soitething to do with the absence of early frosts. In reply to a series of queries propounded whilst I was in the North-West, I liave received the following letter : — " AssiNiBOiA, October 25), 1887. " Dear Siu, — In accordance with your request I write you respecting my experience and views of tliis country; and in the first place I must state tiint my experience will not coincide in evei-y respect with tiiat of every one else, though 1 think it will with the majority "I came out from England in April, 1884, three and a half years ago; and I t iiink early in that month is by far the best time of the year for anyone to come out. Seeding begins in this country about April 10th, and if a labourer arrived here the lirst week in April the chances arc that he would get work without nuicli trouble, as it is an exceedingly busy time, and extra hands are rtquired on a farm. l''iirm labourers as a class are not likely to do well in this new country, although a few more than we liave at presiiit would be very desirable. "The class of emigrants that are likely to do best are tho^u with caiiital and •onxe knowledge of farming; and the minimum capital an emigrant fanner — a single 26 [man — should bring out with him is i,'4lH). To try to begin farminfj; on lesn than tlmt would be hurd, misur.iblc work. A married man, with a family of course, would liiive to bring out more; and [ should certainly advise married men to come out, even with young children, as the climate, so far as I can see, seems to suit tlitnx splendidly^ und, more than that, schools are sp'inging up in all parts of the country, for which inuit efficient teachers are obtained. The younger an emigrant is the better chance he has to get on — it is difficult to put a limit as to age. As to wheat-growiny, my oi)inion is that it is going to be one of the chief features of this country, as the climate and soil are admirably adapted for it; mixed farming, though, is a mi>;e piomising pursuit. The question as to how the fertility of the soil is to be raaintc.ined is a diflicult one, unless fallowing after every crop will do it. After a few more years' experience we shall know. " Horse-breeding is likely to be exceedingly profitable, as the climate is dry, and, when running out ail the year round, they keep fat and healthy. " Taking this country all round, it is one of the best of the British Colonies for lirilish emigrants, if not the best. It has a splendid climate, and diseases incident to man and beast ai'e almost unknown. Cyclones, hurricanes, and earthquakes, which visit the States at intervals, never appear on this side the border. The winters, of course, are cold, but not so much so as to prevent them being exceedingly enjoyable. Cereals, and all kinds of root crops, grow to perfection; and cattle running on the prairie grass all summer are rolling-fat in the autumn. "I remain, faithfully yours, "J. F. M." The writer of this letter is a son of a manufacturer in the Staffordshire Potteries. He, no doubt, would take out with him X400, or even more, and he naturally thinks every emigrant ought to have a similar sum in his pocket when he lands on Canadian soil. This, however, cannot be, and I may remark that I have conversed with many prosperous farmers in Canada who started with much less than X400, and even with, in some cases, nothing at all. Instances of such men are given later on in this report, — not selected instances, but such as happened to come in my way. All the same, however, an ample capital is, no doubt, a great help to an emigrant, if he knows how to use it wisely ; but ho may, if he likes, get on very well with one to which the tei ni " ample " would hardly be properly applied. Mr. Malkin does not think there is room for many farm labourers as such, and that farm labourers as a class are not likely to do well " in this new country." Well, if a man goes out as a laliourer and remains ii labourer, that is primd, facie and conclusive evidence that he has not done well ; but farm labourers of the right sort will become farmers ere long; and men go to Canada to rise, not to remain stationary , and if they do not rise it is, as a rule, their own fault. I herewith append a letter from another Staffordshire man, who is settled in Slanitoba : — "Sm, — As there are so many enquiries made regardiig Canada as a field for eniioiration, I have taken the liberty of endeavou.ing here to j^ive the very besf, information I can respecting the Province uf Mmiiioha. "The steauisliip rates for passengers are now made so reasonable that it is not siK h a very great item to muster up enough to bring one to Manitoba, if only for experience. But it is chiefly tp those bent on working their way up, with or without I'.ipital, that this province offers the greatest inducements; and to this class, if they are prepared at the first to rough it a little and not afraid to work, the prairies offer such chances lor line soil tiut can be made by labour into the very best of farms. Thii i II* "I* u I 'lit ■ ':« Hi '3 I in 26 fine land, at first prairie-grasi land, is generally clear from any obstructions that wuuld make it any way difficult to improve and work; the roupfheat of unimproved lands have often more than half that can be ploughed without stones or ponds ; wood and water are seldom so very difficult to get. "I am four years out in Manitoba, and from South Staffordshire, England, end I am well prepared to gay, without exaggerating, that strong farm workers come here, and without capital, or not more than £10 ; they secure their 160 acres horaesteiid by paying the fee of £2 Is. 8d. and work for other farmers, do their land duties, etc., and often make the best of settlers here in course of time. But if they have about £100 it will at the first enable them to have their own house, stable, team of oxen, cow, pigs, plough, harrows, and waggon — so that, whether it be a married man or single, you haveyour home on what will be your own land; besides, you will be able to derive some benefit from your land after the first year. And, until your f;irm is in shape for cropping, there are chances (quite plentiful) for earning money in many ways, helping other farmers, and with boys or young women too — the demand for them is great — the particulars respecting wages for males and females can be easily ascertained. So that, if you have a class of people for farm work, there are plenty of chances for them here. A young man has written to me, stating he has £10 and the clothes on his back, and wants to know if by any honourable means he could be his own master, and I have given him everything as straight as possible, with the chief thing — that he must not be afraid to work, and, in return, he would have the chance held out to him of being his own master on his own land. Of course it is two or three years before any man accomplishes all this, so that during this time one must exercise patience, be careful, and keep clear of any debt or encumbrance, look well what is before you, and, no matter whether your capital is much or little, you must economise in every way at the first and not lay out more money than you see some return for. So that it is not always the amount of capital that is the most important thing; in Manitoba it is by working your way up, whether you have capital or not. I enclose my address in Manitoba, and will at any time give any further information. " I am, yours &c., " A. H." li. 'I i! V V The farmers of the North-West have been and still are discussing, with much interest, tiie reputed merits of a variety of Russian wheat which has been introduced into the country on, I believe, official authority and recommendation. It was introduced, in the spring of 1886, small experimental parcels of it being sent out to farmers in various districts. I have seen reports from several of the.se men, all of them speaking highly of the early maturity, the cropping capacity, and the apparently high quality of the new wheat. The early maturity side of the question in the most important feature in the estimation of Canadian farmers, and this wheat is said to be from ten to fourteen days earlier than the Eed Fyfe, which is the kind universally grown in the North-West. That it will be superior, or even equal, in quality to the Red Fyfe may well be doubted until proved by the highest practical standard, viz., that ot its milling properties. The Red Fyfe has, I understand, the highest reputation of any wheat known to the great millers of the United States, for hard and " flinty " milling properties. This is believed to be owing to the singularly high proportion of gluten which it contains. Gluten is an elastic substance, which becomes brittle when dry ; it has the. same percentage composition as the albuminoids, but it may be separated into two distinct substances, the one soluble in alcohol and the other not so, and it is therefore not a simple proximate principla or element. It coutributea greatly to the nutritive properties of tli«i 27 ^ris that vuuld iproved lands lis ; wood aud ngland, and I jrs come here, •ea homestead : land duties, t if they have table, team of arried man or a will be able our farm is in ney in manj' e demand for can be easily are plenty of 8 £10 and the could be his rith the chief ve the chance se it is two or me one must ice, look well tie, you must you see iome ost important ipital or not. information. ;c., " A. H." t, with much m introduoed on. It was U sent out to 8 men, all of ty, and tlie the question d this wlieat I is the l Settlers on easy terms. The treelessness of the pi-airies probably is owing to the fires which for ages have swept the plains in autumn ; yet, on this point, certainty of opinion is hardly obtainable. Commonly, where rivers are found, there are belts of trees which the rivers, forming a break, have protected against the prevailing winds which carry the prairie fires along. Naturo, indeed, would soon cover the plains with trees, but for one of nature's most destructive agents — fire. Prevent the fires, if possible, and trees will soon appear; and, indeed, in many parts of the country, reafforesting will be aided by the cultivation of the land, because cultivation checks the fires. This, however, will not be enough, for the best sorts of trees will hardly come by natural means. Yet, after all, the prairie fires — repeated, for aught we know, annually for hundreds and perhaps thousands of years — have saved incalculable labour on the part of the North-West farmers. But for these fires the prairie might for the most part have been covered with a forest, to clear away which would have involved enormous toil; now tie land is bare, save for dwarf scrub here and there, and the plough meets with but little obstruction. EANCHINO. In the vast district to the south and north of Calgary, and lying in what arc called the "foothills" of the Eocky Mountains, is found the great vanching country of C uiada. There are minor ranches elsewhere, but this is where all the great and most of the smaller ones are located. South of Calgary there is a ranching country said to contain upwards of four million acres : north of it the area is also very extensive, though, perhaps, less so than in the south. In the genial company of Major Milliurne, of Brighton, and Dr. Edmunds, of London, I drove some 200 miles in this very interesting country, visiting one of the largest of the ranches, which I shall ])resently describe. The district has considerable altitude, being from tliree to four thousand feet above the sea level. The town of Calgary, the connnercial and social metropolis of the ranching country, is situated in a saucer-like hollow, near the junction of the Bow and Elbow rivers, and is 3,388 feet above the sea. It is the capital of the province of Alberta, and is reputed to contain the finest shops and the most wealth of any town of its size in Canada. Its population is said to be 2.000, a not excessive estimate, I imagine. The town and tin; surromulioj^ fnnitry are not by any means attractive to the eye, chiefly because of the absence of trees; it is hilly enough ai'ound to be pretty, but it has a look so cold and bare, so forgotten and desolate, that I wonder the authorities of the place do not bestir themselves and plant some trees. An "Arbor Day" would be a fine institution in Calgary. The town is Well arranged, and fairly well built, but its sanitary arrangements are, I fancj', susceptible of some improvement. Its water supply is limitless, powerful, and of the finest quality — cold and clear. To what extent the water is laid on in the it 30 i^m \ j>ti "ill 4 'I li' i^ ■'I i IMS town I am not a^fare, but its potentialities are equal to any demand. The place is, of course, supported chiefly by trade with the ranchers, of some of whom it is the frequent haunt. Not a few well-bred young Englishmen, whose friends suppose they are leading the sweet, pastoral life of a cowboy, spend a good deal of time in it. They linger there day after day, always about to go but never going. That their minds are good to go finds proof enough in the fact that all the while they are in tlieir "war paint," ready for the saddle. With legs encased in leather, and heads thatched by wide sombreros, these dilettanti cowboys look picturesque enoug:h for anything. Well, how can they. help it? — help lounging around the town, I mean? On a ranch there is little to do in summer, no round-ups, no cutting.out, no corralling, no branding; and the time is pleasanter killed in Calgary. His "cuyuse". IS in the livery stable, and he thinks nothing of a canter of 60 miles away to the " shack " on the ranch. His " pater," no doubt, supplies him with shekels, and so the time goes merrily on in learning the business of ranching. " These young English, men," said a shrewd and experienced rancher to me, « are well-spoken and polite. They can give you some Latin and Greek, but they know nothing about hitching a horse or making a Are ; they know how to dress. Still, they are willing, as a rule, to learn their work, and would be more so if they had no allowance from home — this spoils some of them." The " Red Deer Country," north of the town some sixty miles, is said to be one of the best in the province for stock. All the way up to Edmonton, indeed, the country is, I am assured, a good one for stock farming. Pastures are good, hay is plentiful, and roots can be grown to any extent. Still is there room for men with capital in the ranching line, in a country as yet but barely touched. The editor of the Alberta Live Stock Journal — a very useful paper, printed in the interests of ranchers— says, •« A few years more will develop the Red Deer Country into one of the best farming districts we have; "and he speaks highly of it as a country with plenty of wood, grass, hay, water, and natural shelter. So far north as Edmonton good crops of wheat are grown, and this is owing to the fact that the isothermal line runs in a north-westerly direction along the great prairies east of the Rockies, giving to Edmonton a climate which is not enjoyed all along in the same latitude It is said that wheat would be a success in the foothill country for a considerable distance, if only the farmers would plant it in the autumn, so as to give it an early start in the spring ; the frost, too, I was informed, does not throw the young plant out on the surface during the winter or in early spring. "Wheat, indeed, is grown in sheltered and low-lying portions of the foothills, here and there in places. As a . Apples, pears, plums, peaches, apricots, grapes I nectarines, strawberries, and so on have an inherent ridaptability to the climate, cr it I tu tliem ; and the soil in many parts is, I feel sure, just the soil to suit the taste of a Igardener, Bo far, at all events, as my own observations go, I am free to confess I my belief that in the future the province will be known — as Ontario now is — as a ,'reat fruit-pvoducing country. It is time, however, now 10 make the trip from [t^ulgary to the coast. The railway follows the valley of the Bow River right into the heart of th»j I Kocky Mountains, disclosing at every turn stretches of magnificent scenery. The I outline of the Rockies, as seen from the plains, or from anywhere else, is broken and seriated to an extent which, as we may well think, could not be exceeded. The valley of the Bow, leading up to the Kicking Horse Pass, widens and narrows, turn and turn about, as we go along, in a manner which lends yeicy striking variations to the views of the mountains. Sometimes it is a narrow gorge through which the [snowy peaks are peering down upon us, so to speak; then it widens out into a natural amphitheatre of vast dimensions a J of wild and striking boundaries. Tlie [ i)yramidal and castellated mountains — ^many of which pierce, as it were, the sky — ;ire thrown up in the grandest confusioii, and to an altitude which is almost l)e\vildering to look at. Not pyramidal and castellated mountains only are there, liowever, but all shapes and sizes into which enormous geological masses can be thrown. Not only are the outlines vild and fantastic, but the strata are twisted and contorted into every imaginable form of which tliey are susceptible. lu tlie'r cold and awful solemnity these cnow-clad peiiks, the glistening glaciers, the cold liare rock, the dizzy gorges, the rushing torrents, fill the mind with a sense of ilazed fatigue. J. have repeatedly heard it said that no tongue, or pen, or pencil can convey an adequate idea of the sublimity of the mountain scenery in the province of lii'ili«h Columbia; I endorse the declaration, I have also heard, on more than one occasion, the confession that man really feels how little and insignificant he is in scenes like these ; this, too, 1 endorse. Here, indeed, it must have been that Natura ''* . '-"I' It HHIBMIIIMHHI t-i '^S I, : 1 «' 'A = i ' if - 1' ri I) 38 I d l.iS'' -' 39 left off making a world, with no end of materials to spare— material! thrown together in vast heaps and in the wildest confusion. If a man wants to see how prodigal the geologic ages can be in this sort of thing lee him go to the Bockies, or, better still, to the Selkirks I And what, indeed, do not these mountains oontain P The National Park at Banff is on the line of the Canadian Pacific Bailway, on the eastern slope of the Bockies. The following paragraph is copied from an official publication : — "National PAEK,?\NfF. — A large tract of land enclosing the hot mineral springs at Banff, N.W.T., was reserved and set apart as a National Park, under an Order in Council passed 25th November, 1885. The reservation has been surveyed and plans made for the construction of roads and bridges, while the grounds are being laid jut under a Government superintendent. Numerous applications have been made for the purchase and lease of building lots and sites, and several hotels have already been erected. The hot springs, the use of which is subject to Government regulations, have been found to possess most remarkable curative and sanitary qualities, and it is believed that this park is likely to become before long the most successful health re-sort on the continent. Over fifty persons spent the last winter there for the bHnefit of their health. Four othe- park reseivati jns have been made in the Eocky Mountains, under an Order in Counoil passed 10th October, 1886." In the pass through which the railway surmounts this stupandous range of mountains there are two streams, almost from one source; ono of them finds its way into Hudson's Bay, and the other into the Pacific Ocean. The Bockies, indeed, are the great water-parting of, at all events, the Canadian half of the great American continent. The highest point touched by the railway is at Stephen, which is about 100 feet more than a vertical mile above the level of tha ocean. Near to is Mount (Stephen, named, like the station, after the President of the Canadian Pacific Company — a peak of vast height and size, whose summit is said to be 8,240 feet, or more tlian a mile-and-a-half above the railway track. At Stephen we are met by "Jumbo," a huge locomotive monster, weighing 112 tons, who is sent to escort us down tlie western slope, and whose arm we metaphorically take until we are well down in the valley below. And thit Jumbo is a terri>ile fellow to push, either backward or forward--the one going down and the other going up this western slope of the Bockies. The grat'e is said n places to be 4| per cent., but Jumbo thinks nothing of that I When he puts h-s shoulder to the wheel, as one may fairly say, something has got to move along the track I Grand as the Bockies are, however, the Selkirks are grander still ! I give this as an opinion, in the holding of which I am not at all solitary. The rear end of a Pullman car, out on the platform, is the most effective way possible of seeing the niounUin scenery. In no other way is the sublimity of those vast solitudes to be so impressively perceived First, because, by way of contrast, a railway train is a mere worm pursuing its sinuous course; and, second, because successive scenes come quickly into sight, and are ever changing as in a veritable panorama. " But the llockies and Selkirks j/row upon you," people say sometimes, " when you remain in one spot for hours at a time." True enough this, no doubt, but we don't want them to grow; they are quite sufficiently overwhelming as it is! All the same, there are spots where I should like to remain, not hours but days at a time ! The chief spot among them ah is the station called the "Glacier House," iust a milts or two west of the summit of the Selkirks. At this point the scenery is superbly grand, whichever May we turn. A very pretty Swiss cli&let has been built for the accommodation of passengers and guests, and the grounds around it are being laid out in a very tasteful maui.er, so that anyone may stay thero for a week y«ry mp i^'t ' (..|,; l||; '^1 i'l ,'.** .! :a >i lip' 'i«l ' '18! r, .;^:j .; li?^ '^: -'il :?: fj ■ii" ■: 'J'^ ;'il „„ .,, ,, l: :; J-.. .'f ■ \? H •■,^ '11 s '■? .r! ' *' ;'« i ■■*! H. i'l :'' ,.11* V' ■JI3 «il ■;!? '. (ih ■' i.;|.* ■« !•'- ,IS '^ !* •St \|| j ■' ' i? if' ' '4- ■ .i « If' »> ti4 ' , '* •. !'* •1 'If * '•'^ ,f ■'!! 1 .if i i1 Hi ••1. / *! i 2 • ;;■!: m 40 delightfully. Behind the ch&let, less than a mile awa}', and not many hundred feet above its level, crawls the biggest of the Selkirk glaciers , it is a very thick and wide ice-river, and the foot of it, in the clear mountain air, seems almost within a stone's MOUNT STBFHXN, MBAB THX BUHUIT OF TUX KOOKIBB. throw. In front of it is a vast valley full of splendid pines, and on either side of it prodigious mountains. Here the line runs round a double loop, a gigantic letter "8," with its ends extended ; and the letter leans against the side of the mountain, f!a -i 41 ■ forming a sinuous path by means of which the train climbs down into the valley, |iiiany hundreds of feet below the chalet. The train travels nearly seven miles in loii'er to advance two and a half 5 but it has got down in this way into tlie valley where it can go straight ahead. To go round these loops on lofty trestle bridges, to •slb tiie foaming torrent hissing down below, to crane one's neck in order to catch the ■uiiuiits of the mountains, to hear the roar of the train, to feel the grip of the breaks ' lii^litening on the wheels — to do these things all in the space of a very few minutes s, 1 submit, something in the nature of a sensation. This is in the gorge of the lllicilliwaet, a mountain stream fed by the glacier, whose pea-green mud colours the water for some miles below. Later on the Columbia River is crossed, and we skirt t hi: i^reat Shushwap Laive, following its sinuous banks for half a hundred miles, and •<) Oil to the Thompson River, down which we run until we strike the Fraser, which is i he chief water channel of the province. The scenery down the Fraser Valley, for A long distance, is very fine, the banks being for the most part very lofty, bold, and |)iecipitous. The Fraser, indeed, has cut its way through a province of rock, and its ( reamy waters tell that it is still «' on thecut." The engineering probleir'.s to be solved in tliis region were large and numerous, and one wonders how it was a line came to be liuilt tluough such a country. On the equally precipitous banks on the other side of tiie river we see, however, the old "Cariboo" wagon road that was built by the Government many years ago j and the sight of this unique piece of macadam, fit i>nly for rabbits and goats as it seems, points to the fact that it was this route or none in the south of the province. We call at North Bend, where is another of the very pretty Swiss chalets, whose dining-room is uncommonly tasteful in decora- Mon and arrangement; at Yale, beautifully situated at the head of the niivigabie portion of the Fraser; at Harrison, famous already for its hot medicinal springs; at Iliimniond, where the handsomest farm in the world is seen, surrounded by lofty, snow-capped mountains, and sheltered from eveiy wind that is not vertical ; and aw.ty We go, by the New Westminster Junction, past Port Moody, which was at first tlie western terminus of the Canadian Facifie Railway, and on to Vancouver, th^ most wonderful city on the American continent — which is saying a good deal. THK CITY OF VANCOUVEft Three years ago the primeval forest covered the peninsula on which the city of Vancouver stanas to-day \ And it is primeval forest down there — something worth the name of i'orest ! For five hundred miles the line runs through a forest whose trees keep getting bigger as the coast is approached. All things considered, I am not clear that I did not admire the trees most of all, and I was cei'tainly saddened to see thousands of acres of them that had been wantonly or carelessly destroyed by fire. These tre'^s, indeed, are marvellous. The Douglas Kne is the king of the forest, and is seen in all its majesty from Yale to Vancouver. We may write accounts of this tree, of i(s habits, its size, its perfect straightness, and men may read them, but no one can properly realise what the trees are like unless he sees them. The following is a perfectly fair account of them, copied from an illustrated ijuide to British Columbia : — " Douijlai Spruce (otherwise called ' Douglas Fir,' • Douglas Pine,' and, com- mercially, 'Oregon Pine'). — A well known-tree. It is straight, tuough coarse- ^'rained, exceedingly tough, rigid, and bears great transverse strain. For lumber of ill sizes, and planks, it is in great demand. Few woods equal it for frames, bridges, ties, and strong Avork generally, and for shipbuilding. Its length, straightness, and strength especially fit it for masts and spars. Masts, specially ordered, have been s'.iipped 130 feet long and 42 inches in diameter, octagonally hewn. For butter w I n I ■•i ,.1 ,; ■ j ..: " ''-J^ 1, i^ .•! •: M h -11 'H * ■■^:| ,. ,;fl . iVi; r: ■,»• • ■f ,i ■« Q J :' '■♦' ,■■ ■N '■i i'* * '*■ ...» «:!, ■'« ft i" '! 1 ,.;? »■; 1U i- -■ i\ ."* ,it I 1 M ^* «l 1*! i. , Ml. 1*1? ■»■ 42 anu other boxes, that require to be sweet and odourless, it is Tery useful. There is I a large export of the Douglas spruce to Australia, South America, Ohina, etc, Wuodmen distinguish this species into two kinds — red and yellow — but these are not separated in manufacture or in scientific nomenclature. The one has a red, liiird, knotty heart ; the other is less hard, and with a feeble tinge of yellow — the hitter is supposed to be somewhat less lasting, though both are very durable. The Douglas spruce grows best near the coast, close to the waters of the bays and inlets. There it frequently exceeds eight feet in diameter, at a considerable height, and reaches 200 to 250 feet in length, forming prodigious, dark forests. Abounds on mainland coast, as far north as about the north end of Yancouver Island ; also in Vancouver Island, but not on Queen Charlotte Island. In the arid southern interior of the province, grows on the higher uplands, and here and there in groves, on low lauds, where the temperature, rainfall, etc., are suitable. Occurs abundantly on the Columbia, and is scattered irregularly in northern portions of the interior." Well, it was of such trees as these that the site of Vancouver had a mighty covering three short years ago. They grow much nearer together than anyone would think, considering the height of them — so near that they mingle their boughs a little, and the boughs are very short. And in addi Jon to these vast flora of the pine spbcies, there is a thick undergrowth, consisting of various kinds of trees and scrub, so thick indeed that it would be with great ditticulty that a man could .' )rce Ills way through it. To clear the land therefore of its trees and scrub was no little task ; it was done, however, and a town was built, only to be burnt down and rebuilt in the time I have named. Miles of streets are laid out, sidewalks planked, sewers put in, and so on ; and a large number of stone and brick buildings, as well as a still larger number of wooden ones, have been erected. The Canadian Pacific Eailway is putting up a very fine hotel, and laying out a large sum in workshops, a " round-house," and other • rks, for the good of the line. Meantime the primeval forest is left around the point from English Bay, and a drive is being cut through it ill places and along by the coast. This part will be retained as a park and pleasure-ground for the town. Extensive wharves line the shore alongside the railway, and the whole place is a marked instance of rapid progress. Months ago it had a population of 5,000, but it is growing daily, °,nd the population of to-day can only be spoken of as one that will be exceeded by that of to-morrow I Vancouver is therefore a town which will soon be a city ; it is not only the western terminal point of the longest railway in the world, but it is the port of departure for Japan and China, and for many places on the Pacific Coast Its situation is uncommonly fine, on a magnificent harbour, with stupendous snow-capped mountains partly surrounding it. In the heat of summer these snowy peaks will please the eye, forming as they do a striking contrast to the dark pine forests below; and the inland winds, sweeping down from the snow, will bring some relief in the " dog- days," if any such thort^ be on the Pacific Coast. The Indian paddles his own canoe on the waters of the bay, and be fishes to his heart's content; all the way down the Eraser we find his platforms hanging from the rocks, and his salmon, split into halves, hang drying in the air. Tiie " Heathen Chinee " is there in force, doing all sorts of work — clearing forest, chopping cordwood for the engines, side-dressing the road, cradling for gold-dust on the banks of the great rivers, and so on. He will turn his hand to anything that has dollars in it. In Victoria he is laundryman, cook, household servant — anything and everything that's useful and earns money. The vast forests of British Columbia contain an enormous wealth of timber, which is only now just starting on the road to realisation. If need be, they could tiinl>| r.\ (iiiiber the world for a lung time to cuuie. That the lumber trade will be foHtered a III il.'vcloped, by tho Canadian Paciflc Eailwa.y, fijoes without sayinjr, for the new ' r i.i'l su]) iUlh arlciiiil comniunicaiion to the eiist, aiiu to tlir wust.the i)oiuts wliere >.' ""It r had a mighty many one would their boughs a 'ast flora of the ids of trees and ■t a man could id scrub was no >urnt down and iwalks planked, ildings, as well inadian Pacific in workshops, a e the primeval ng cut through as a park and ' alongside the Months ago it I of to-day can ^r I Vancouver stern terminal ture for Japan s uncommonly intains partly lease the eye, low; and the in the "dog- lis own canoe he way down aon, split into I'ce, doing all Bide-dresaing on. He will laundryman, n» money, h of timber, B, they could XUii liKAUT or I'Uli bKLKiilKS, VlliW MiAU XUH ULAClliil UUUb£. J'! I lH!! t I'' 3; Wi: A n "' .«' .,. '?■ '- if :.* }^l , ■ .- W ' '1 ^' 1J ^? 1 "! ^ , t -4: !r .: 44 the lumber is wanted. The potentialities of this trade are hardly calculable ; in any case they are vast, and, for a long period ahead, practically limitless. From the Hookies, and the eastern slopes of the Selkirks, the great North-West prairie country will be able to procure all the timber it will need for building, fencing, and ao on; while from the Pacific slope, from the vast regions which are drained by the Fraser, the Columbia, and the Mackenzie, the demands of the Western people may be supplied perhaps for all time to come. There are, of course, only two means of utilising these vast forests — rivers and railways — but these will be found equal to any demands made upon them. Golncidently with the development of the timber industry, mining and agriculture will proceed ; indeed, it may he said, that mining will go ahead of lumbering in the more remote and less accessible diotrlcts; but in any case these three great industries will accompany, or quickly follow, each other into every portion of the province which lends encouragement to each and all of them. THE ISLAND OP YANOOUVEB. A very pleasant steam-boat ride of eighty miles or so, through an archipelago of islands, brings us to the Island of Vancouver, and to Victoria, the capital of the province. The city of Victoria has a delightful situation in a beautiful harbour on the southern end of the island, and boasts a population of 20,000. Away to the west is the Olympian range of mountains in Washington Territory, snow-clad and impiessively vast, from which the island is separated by the Straits of Juan de Fuca. No doubt \the western breezes, sweeping over the mountains, temper the heat of summer ; while, on the other hand, the warm breezes of the Pacific make the winter mild. Originally the city of Victoria was merely a stockaded fort of the Hudt the year roand, or Joit aboat ^100 per annum. Qardenen earn $2| per day all the year round. Artisans earr. $2^ to $5 per day. And as for female servants- well, there are so few that wage^^ cannot well be quoted, and domestic work is usually performed by Chinamen. I hara, 10 cents; a. 12^ cents THE MANITOBA AND NORTH-WESTERN RAILROAD. On my return from the Facifle Coast, I went np the Manitoba and North-Western Railroad to its present western terminus at Langenburg, in Assiniboia, calling at various places, and driving about among the settlers. It« eastern terminus is at Fortage-la-Prairie, from which place it runs, as its name indicates, in a north- westerly direction, and it taps a very extensive and favourable farming country. The station-houses along the Una are uncommonly neat and trim, much after the pattern of the Canadian Pacific Railway stations in the North- West. The Company have put up, at different points, ten warehouses for the convenience of farmers in storing grain. At other points the farmers are building warehouses of their own, and are leasing those built by the Company. Stockyards for the loading of cattle, &c,, on the cars, are also provided at all the stations where they are needed. The country through which the line runr, is, as a rule, well wooded, and water abounds in many places. Away to the north is a vast stretch of elevated country called the Biding Mountain, heavily timbered, and forming an excellent shelter to a very large area of farming land. The Company has a great quantity of land for sale, all the way along, on either side of the line. These lands have been examined by competent men, and reports can be obtained from Mr. A. F. Eder . :n Winnipeg, describing the soil and what there is upon it. Diagrams of each seu. v. .i, or square mile, 640 acres in extent, may also be obtained, and these show the form and location of every lake, pond, creek, and river, with probable depth of them, and also every swamp, marsh, meadow, bluff, hill or valley, timber, scrab, and bare prairie. The price of these lands is regulated by location and quality of soil, and will run from $2^ upwards per acre. If a purchaser pays down the whole of the purchase^money, a discount will be allowed; or he may pay one-sixth in cash, and the rest in five yearly instalments, with interest at the rate of 6 per cent, per annum. Special and favourable terms are allowed to actual settlers — on condition of residence, building, and cultivation— enabling them to pay for the land wholly out of the produce of the soil. The lakes abound with wild duck; there are also geese, prairie chickens (which are a species of grouse), partridges, snipe, plover, Ac. ; and in the forests, moose, elk, deer, and a yariety of the smaller fur-bearing animals, while the lakes and rivers contain plenty of fish. So fast as the settlement of the country goes on and the population of a given district is sufiBcient for the purpose, municipalities are formed, in each of which a reeve and council are annually elected to take charge of roads and other matters of a local nature. Towns and villages are springing up along the line, and settlers' hoasei are dotted all about the landscape. Still, the country is sparsely inhabited at prosent, and there is room for thousands, and even Ill ■ 2< m "• i\\ f If \ * - 48 tnillioni, on eitlier lide of the road, M it' ii and it to b«, away to th« North Saskatchewan River. For a distance of upwards of 80 miles the line, on leaving Furtage-la-Prairie, runs through a very fine >/heat.producing country, a portion, of course, of the district I have spoken ahout already. The town of Oladstone, 35 miles up the road, is one that went a-head too fast during the "boom," and is now recovering from the effects of its impetuosity. It is a straggling town at present, but has a future in store. A few miles away to the north-east is a hay marsh, extending to upwards of 50,000 acres, on which vast quantities of excellent winter forage may be cut, and thousands of cattle grazed in summer. At prewnt, however, its vast gramineous capabilities are only utilised to a small extent. This locality ought to become great for cattle ; it is already great for wheat. Mr. Burpee, whose farm lies l)etween the town and the marsh, will market from 8,000 to 10,000 bushels of wheat of this year's crop; he has over 200 acres in wheat, 170 of which are ii ''ne undivided block. A steam thrasher was at work in the field as we drove by, a rought away a sample of the wheat. The town is prettily situated on the Mud Greek, and is surrounded by belts of trees. The smart little market town of Neepawa is twenty-six miles farther up the track, and in the midst of a fine wheat-growing country. The name is of Indian origin, pretty enough, as so many Indian names of places are, and it signifies " a land of plenty ; " the interpretation might also be reversed into " plenty of land," and each meaning be perfectly correct. It is sheltered by the Biding Mountain, and is free from early frosts, save where the land lies low in the sloughs. The timber in the mountain is being carelessly and recklessly destroyed by forest fires, and this is lowering the water in the creeks during summer and autumn. Vigorous steps ought to be taken to prevent the recurrence of these forest fires, for the district is becoming destitute of surface water, and the trees will be wanted some day ; very good water can, however, be obtained by digging wells of ten to twenty feet deep. I saw " a deal" in wheat at the station : — A farmer drove in a waggon-load ef sacks, direct from the thrasher on the prairie, standing on the load. Fulling up at the crossing, the waggon was instantly boarded by three buyers, who proceeded to sample the grain. "How much have you got to send in P " said one of them. *' A thousand bushels," was tha reply. " I'll give fifty-two cents," said the first speaker. '• Fifty-three," said another of the buyers. " Fifty-three and a half," said the first. " I'll give fifty-four," said the third. «' Any- body give more F " said the farmer; and as there was no advance the last man got the thousand bushels. The load was then taken to the side of a railway car, weighed, and emptied out of the sacks, and away went the farmer for load number two. Before the line came along, these farmers had practically no market for their products, and could make no money; now tLvy are doing well. We drove out some ten or a dozen miles, to a place called Eden, and lunched on bread-and-butter, with milk to drink, at one of the farm houses, daring which our horses ate a feed of oats off the ground and quenched their thirst with water drawn from the well. This was on the 29th of September, a beautiful day, my thermometer registering 82° in the shade; on the following day it stood at 98° in the sun. These hot days, late on in the season, com- bined with a very dry atmosphere, enable the farmers to thrash out their grain soon after it is cat, and the grain is hard and dry enough to store in bulk. The heat, though considerable, was not oppressive, but rather agreeable, whereas in an English atmosphere at the same temperature one should have felt, to say the least, uncom- fortable. The question turns on the degree of humidity in the air; and, indeed, it is the dry air of the North- West which renders tolerable and even pleasant the intense cold of winter ; a damp air conducts away the heat of one's body, while a dry air, acting as an insulator, enables one to r«>taiu iU 49 to the North MINNED08A, The town of MiniiMlosft, now incorporated, and )iavin||; from 800 to 1,000 iiili!il)itrtntg, is vtry snugly situated ontlm Little Saskaichewan Jtiver, and sheltered i.y liit;h hills well wooiled. In location it is a reduced edition of Calgary, but with SI ry different surroundings. It is equally well adapted for mixed husbandry or for I'liiin-raisiiig, and the country around offers inducements to settlers. \t is the most important town north-west of I'ortage, from which it is seventy-nine miles distant, .iiiii is the market for a large extent of country. Its relative imi)ortance will I lobithly remain as u poHseBsicm, for it has advantages which will cause it to go on jirospering coincidently with the filling up of the country around A small cheese. Uctory is in operation ; and stock-breeding is an important industry around. We t.ink a lon>^ drive, behind a fine span of tri'^y which my friend Major Milburne drove Willi niucii delight, into what is known :' i he "Olanwilliam" country, calling at farms on the way. This district is one of excellent land, and farmers have every appear- mice of prosperity. Mr. Jackson of Hose Bank, a prosperous young bachelor, at whose call 1 was not surijrised to find female help available during the busy time of harvest, is one of the most pushing farmers I saw in the whole North- West. His hii.d is well farmed, and his crops were heavy and well harvested. lie had 76 acres nf wheat that he believed would average at least 40 bushels per acre ; 30 of oats, up to i;5 husliels; and 20 of barley, up to 40 bushels; while on land in second crop and wiiiiout manure he had a crop of grand potatoes, which he estimated at 400 bushels \)tv acre. These potatoes — just put in roughly, never hoed, simply having the |)loiit,'h run down the rows a time or two, and " nothing done to coax them along," as Mr. Jackson expressed it^were smooth, clear-skinned, and of a size seldom seen in i;iif,'land. [From a report received since the foregoing was written, I gather that Mr. ■lai kson has finished his thrashing, and that his wheat averaged 45^ bushels, oats 80 inisliels, and barley 60 bushels per acre. From 130 acres he had 7,0U0 bushels of grain, 01' an average of 53 bushels all round.] ]\tr. Frazer farms 1,200 acres, and had 60 head of well-bred shorthorns, some ixcellent horses, and a number of well-bred Berkshire pigs. At this place 1 saw two extraordinary roots of oats, grown accidentally in the garden; each root was evi i ■, It* hill ';• ' PS y' -■? ■*■ ■; ■ If " ■• ■■ »m, ! &'^, ■ |i ! If' s 51 s fitiiner,' truatiii!^ entirely to wheat-growing and ignoring atock o( all kinds. This cliiss of farming ran liigh from 78 to '&j ; it is now fast disappearing, and farmers are adopting tlie hundred-aud.oua chances of mixed farming. The present price of land is f ro;»i $4 to $8 per acre Land in this country is much of the same quality — very rich — the difference of value lying in improvements, location, and twe presence of water and timber. Good water can be had anywhere for thb digging, and in many districts running streams of pure spring water exist, pai'ticularly in the eastern rilling of tilt county. At present this is the English settlers' choice, and I am glad it is so, .or it is comparatively free from the damaging frosts of August. Large and small game and fi^ll are here, and it cannot be excelled for stock. Settlers have the choice of two markets, Minnedosa and Neepawa." In respect of cheese-making, Mr. A. Malcolm, of Minnedosa, writes as follows to the Minriednsa Tribune: — «'Oiirs is a private dairy of 36 cows. From these we make aiiont 90 Us. of cheese daily. The factory building is about 16 x 20 ; it contains two 130-gallon vats, four screw i^resses, curd sink, milk, &c. A spring of cold water runs throut(li the factory and supplies the vats with plenty of pure cold water for (Mjoliiig the milk ; thus we have no trouble in keeping the milk perfectly sweet flit 18 lioHis in the hottest weather. The curing room is a separate building, being aliout the same dinien;uons as the other. I commenced to make about the 1st of April. TIk! product of April and May were sold at 12 cents per lb; June, 10 cents. U]) to within the last two weeks the weather has been very favourable, both for the production and quality of fine cheese, bat since then we have had more or less trouble with tloating curds. The true cause of this trouble has as yet not been ascertained by scientists, but it is generally attributed to atmospheric causes, swampy grasses, bad water, over heated cows, etc. Fortunately, Professor S. M. liano, recently appointed by our local government for the purpose of giving instruction in both butter- and cheese-making, arrived here just as trouble ounimenced, and through bis experience and skill we succeeded in getting over the tr' ible remarkably well; so that now, even with a porous or floating curd, we can by his method make a fine cheese suitable for any market. The time is close at hand when we will have to Ink to a foreign market for our surplus; and too much pains cannot be taken to .^nd abroad the finest articles in the start. The first 1 -,w shipments will, to a iarge extent, fix the reputation of Manitoba cheese for some time; therefore tae action of the local government in securing the services of such an expert as Professor Barrd cannot be too highly recom- mended." Tainted milk and floating curds have been a trouble since the start of the sy> m n American factory cheese-making, and they are not entirely unknown in Knglish factories. They are the result and evidence of the presence of a ferment of some kind in the milk; the torment may have existed in water which the cows drink, or in the food they eat, or it may have been absorbed by the railk from the air, or from contact with unciean vessels in which it has accumulated. The best way to deal with it is to hasten the formation of the curd, and tho removal from it <>r the whey, cutting the curd into small pieces and turning them freciuently over; keeping the curd warm in the bottom of the vat all the time and exix>sing it t Kiroughly to the air in order that it may be oxidised and purified. Yet, as prevention is better than nure, farmers should supply tneir cattle with pure water, aid not trust too blindly to the ais mediaUrix natural and >.ll vessels with which nii'k comes in contact should be kept thoroughly clean, well scalded with boiling water, and scrubbed with a stiff brush, aloiig with a little saltpetre. I believe that neaily all the trouble at clieese- factories, in hot weather, springs from unclean xailk vessels, ,3 i< 1» 62 SHOAL LAKE. .•;n " If- If ^1 1 1 IM" 'HI?- l» it' ' !! '«1' ! .J 1* i If ^r !K *' • If 1 . Ntnr to a beautffiil sheet of fresh water, and in the midst of excellent land, the pretty little town ul' Shoal Lake stands, 36 miles west of Minnedosa. This place promises to htscome a favourite resort, on accoant of boating, fi..hing, shooting, picturesque scenery, and an atmosphere as healthy as any in the world. On the lake; shore, about lilcKenzie. Rapid City — Andrew Patterson. St. Lauv. lit — Lacours ore. Pigeon Lake— Pearson. Joiys_C. Migneault & Co. St. Charles — G. Caron. Cubaubbies. St. Francois Xavier — IVrras. Austin— Sir W. Clifford. I The land in the Shoal Lake district is undulating, and the s li ;rong and good and ?s a rule there is plenty of water. I have seen in that I ly a very fair crop of swedes and a really good one of potatoes, both of which were grown without nuuiure and with absolutely no cultivation at all subsequent to the putting in of the seed, and with as little as possible before. The seed was put in, evidently very rouf^lily, and the turnips were not even thinned, or hoed, or anything ; the potatoes were just as severely let alone. The fact is, nature does so much for the tanners, that they consequently do little or nothing themselves beyond what they are obliged vo do. This is true of some of "le faimcrs in the North-West, but not so of all. I do not "divide them all into one heap, " as Josh Billings would say. Indeed I will say this: all of them work hard encmgh, at times, m seed timo and harvest for instance ; and the women work hard too, all the time — harder I think tlian the men. Here is a case: — J. Armerston and wite, living six miles south of Sljoal Lake, this year cut and stooked one hundred acres of grain ! The wife drove the binder ; the husband stooked the sheaves. The wife did the loading and stacking, the husband did the pitching on the cart and on the stack. These people are probably exceptional. And, again, — some Canadian farmers have the farm- Vard aud premises in a gratuitously rough and untidy condition, with ploughs, and 1 I'l I'' "'V I!* ' :' a, :i B4 Iiarrown, and wagons, and lowers, and logs of wood, and various other sorts of impedimenta left tumbling anywhere and anyimw about the place. Costly implenientJi and machines and tools are left out in the weather — to be roasted in the sun, or drenched in the rain, or smothered in the snow in all probability, I have heard of implements being put into a bunch in a field and, with a fireguard ploughed round them, left out all th'' winter. I have seen a horse-rake, a grass mownr, a twine binder, and a wagon pushed into a bluff of trees and there left to take their luck. And y( t such people complain if their machines don't work well the following year. I don't think the inferior Canadian farmer cares to fill up his spare time in doing odd jobs around the place. If he did, his place would be more orderly than it is. There are numerous natural meadows and swampy tracts of land where large quantities of hay may be cut free of charge ; hay, indeed, is cut to some extent, but -*i|. 11 ■■■?:' i si,-; ■ if'.' THE FRAIKIB. m iti 1 J %' . f -f '!| *■• n i: when men cun nave all they wvnt f )i tlie tremble of harvesting it they suem to care nothing about it, and the harvestinj^ is done in a slipslmd fashion : the buy is left out too long after it is cut, baking in the '*un until its nutritive i^roperties are greatly diminished; indeed, the hay was still out in lumps, in many places, when the wheat was being cut. Well, the country is g'ood enough and it only remains for man to do his duty. "There is plenty of wood, water, and hay, and any amount of ploughable land," as one of my companions for the day tersely and correctly put it. The wheat yield was extraordinary this year. 1 heard, on what ought to be good authority, of a case where a fanner thrashed out nine stooks of wheat, each stook having ten sheaves just as they came from the binder, ninety sheaves in all j the yield of wheat was twelve and a-half bushels. There are, of course, sheaves and sheaves, even from a binder, and these sheaves might have been just al)out as big as the binder could make tliem with comfort ; I only repeat the story as I heard it. Taxation amounts to ^28 per section of 640 acres, including bonus to raihvay ; this is 4J centfl, or 2^d. per acre, and it covers everything. Not a few farmers came into the district about the year 55 1880. and, having no market within reach, tiieir little money slowly dribbled away ; in)w tlie railway has given them a market, and, being well rooted in the soil, as one may saj', they are likely to prosper better than new comers; at all events they ought to be able to do so. Since the " herd-law " ciune in force stock farmers are beginning to fence their land, in order to save the trouble of herding their cattle, sheep, and horses, and to prevent ti*espasa on neighbours' crops ; for the owners of stock are responsible for the mischief it does. The fencing is almost invariably done with wooden posts and barbed wire. The snug little town of Birtle is prettily situated in a well-wooded valley, down which runs a stream called "Bird -tail Creek," of which Birtle is obviously an abbre. viation. It is, in fact, on the Bird-tail, and is called Birtie for short. A grist-mill is on the stream ; and a lumber-mill, driven by steam, standi near the town. New houses are being put up, and, though'Birtle may not for some time to come increase very much or very rapidly, it is already an important market town, and will surely hold its own in the future. It is only some ten miles east of Fort Ellice, a well-known trading post of the Hudson's Bay Company. I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Barnardo up the line, en route to his new colony between Birtle and Russell. The location is well chosen, and the country is adapted to mixed farming. This sort of land is just thr p ace for such a colony as J)r. Barnardo is establishing; for young men who understand mixed farming will do tor any part of the Dominion. Seven sections of land, or some 4,500 acres, have been secured, all of them ■"■ell watered and wooded. The Doctor intends to locate a lot of his lads there, and liri -e them trained for farming. Premises will be built at some central phice, and the management of the colony will be in competent hands. A cheese-factory will be established, and it is in contemplation to build a «' cannery" to utilise the fruits which the country will so freely prodi'ce. The lads will be taught to do all kinds of farm work, from driving a plough to milking a cow ; and, as they become proficient, thirty acres of land will be allotted to each one who desires and deserves it, with thirty more to follow if advisable. Other lads will go out as farm servants, if they like, or they will be free to take up a homestead of Government land. This new development of Dr. Barnardo's philanthropy appears to me to contain the elements of success, and it certainly deserves to be well supported. ' BINSCARTH. One nundred and fifty-flve miles from Portage, and almost on the edge of the beautiful valley of the Assiniboine, the rising town of Binscarth stands. The country around is one of hills and dales to a great extent, and picturesque to a degree nut too often met with in the North-West. There are numerous lakes and streams, and plenty of timber. The soil is a deep, blacn loam for the n ost part, suitable alike foi crops and grass, and all kinds of farming live stock. An Indian reserve lies directly to the south-west of the town, and another to the east, about a dozen miles away The Scottish Ontario and Manitoba Land Company own a large portion of three townships about the place, and on one of them the famous Binscarth Stock Farm is situated. The premises at this place, comprising church, hotel, liouses, barns, work- shops, and other appurtenances, are situated on the edge of Silver Creek, which is certainly a beautiful valley. The farm is under the management of Mr. Smellie, and is in good hands. A large herd of pedigree shorthorns is kept on the farm, and among them are many animals of very considerable merit. One of them, a bull, '• Frince Arthur " by name, is a long and level beast of excellent quality ; he is big, massive, symmetrical, with grand quarters, well let down everywhere. Ke wai t nil' \ '■, '"1 1 !l i*^ 4 n !iii "; is., 1 M ■; ■^ j!| (.1 >t«4( ,j"« 'i f 1$-™ ■J If" %iJ a if- ^' $i 66 sired by "Knight of Warlaby," and hiB live weight is 2,800 lbs. 'J'he object of tlie company is to disseminate good bovine blood throughout the country; and of course to make money. A considerable area of land is under crops, which are subsidiary to the live »tock. A well built barn, one of the biggest in the North-West, shelters the herd in winter. The cattle are in the basement, and overhead are coripartments for hay and straw and grain, and the preparation of food for the stock. A huj;e avalanche of animal manure has tumbled headlong into the valley, and awaits the time when it will be wanted for the land. I saw a crop of swedes, many acres in extent, grown without manure ; it would average quite thirty tons to the acre, I believe, and the mangels would be nearly as much. A strip of land running across the crops has been manured, and here the swedes and mangels were decidedly better than elsewhere. Some Canadian farmers tell one tha\< the land needs no manure ; my impression is that they say so as an excuse for not taking the trouble to apply it. No doubt there is land in Manitoba so rich in the elements of plant food as to grow good crops during a succession of years without manure. A few inches of sub- soil brought up fresh now and dgain, refertilises the surface no doubt; but there is no land which, after a few years' cropping, would not be all the better for a dressing of farm-yard dung. The most prolific and carefully tended garden I have seen in the North-West, is at the Binscarth Farm. A large variety of vegetables were grown on a manured and well -tilled soil; the crops were heavy, and free from weeds. As a matter of fact, the soil will grow excellent crops of almost any kind of garden or field produce, if only it has fair-play and is well attended to. "We drove round the country and called on a number of settlers, some of whose teHtimony, supplemented by my own observation, I herewith append : — John Kennedy Bott came from Ontario in 1882, without capital, and had of course to earn money as best he could. He " horaesteaded" 160 acres in the north half of section 18, township 19, range 28, and hag pre-empted yet another quarter section at $2i per acre. He had to hire n team to plough his land until this year ; now he has a team of his own. He has 33 acres of land under crop, and seven head of cattle. His seed was sown from April 7 to 10, and harvested from August 25 to September 6, and he estimates his wheat to yield 30, oats 60, and barley 85 bushels per acre. He has put up a good log-house, with good buildings for stock, and reckons he is now worth $2,500 — not a bad result of five years' exertions. He does not find the winters any colder than in Ontario. A good help-mate he has in his wife; but tliere are no children. Long before old age comes on, Mr. Bott will, all being well, have won a handsome retiring competency for his wife and self. Near to this place I saw some very fine potatoes, grown as a second crop, on unmanured pniirie sod. I believe I could have tied a score of them up in a bundle with a piece uf rope and carried them off in that way. Thomas Frazer (section 21, township 19, range 28) was brought up on a farm in Scotland until he was eighteen, when he became a carpenter. He had learnt but little farming, nor kept that little long. Coming out in 1882, v/ith £200 in his liocket, and a good wife along, he built his house the following year, and invested the rest of his money, in one way or another, on the farm. He considers that £100 will go nearly as far now as £200 did when he came out, at which time everything was dear to buy. He had to gain experience not in farming only, but in Canadian customs of farming. His place ia now worth $3,000 (or £600), just as it stands, and low as everything is in price. He truly says that a knowledge of farming siives time and money to an emigrant ; but now he can hold his own " as well as any white face," to use his own expression. He thinks old country farmers who have aWO, and especially those who have families as well, ouuht to '*come out." 57 object of the and of course subsidiary to t, shelters tlie ipartments fur uck. A hu;^e nd awaits tlie Qany acres in to the acre, I unning across uidedly better ,s no manure ; ■uble to apply int food as to inches of sub- but there is for a dressing ve seen in the '^ere grown on weeds. As a of garden or »ve round the supplemeuted had of course north half of ter section at is year J now seven head of August 25 to ey35 bushels )r stock, and ma. He does le has in his Bott will, all d self. Near I unmanured with a piece on a farm in d learnt but £200 in his ind invested rs that £100 » everything in Canadian stands, and rming saves well as any s who havo Mr. rium also came in 1882, from London, Ontario, and had to borrow $10 to oiiie Willi, lie likewisu hoinesteaded a quarter section, on which he hi:v,i'u the need there is of making a caielul beiuutiou. w 58 " il ]»■■ ■n' i!.5- if W. m h a'' It ill l.'i 'iff! SI II IJoiueateaders naturally like to pre-empt as well, in order to own 320 acres in one block ; but it may be doubted if they are always well-advised in doing so. Men of slender means often cripple themselves very seriously, and sometimes never get over iti ^'y P'lying down the pre-emption money, which they may have had to borrow, or by paying interest upon it. But when a man has means he does well to pre-empt. The prohibition against repeated homesteading by the same person will have the beneficent effect of causing men to settle down and stick to one place. Hitherto they have been apt to move about from place to place, trying first one location and then another, and io they were restless and dissatisfied. Thej' were like lads in an orchard, going about from tree to tree, tasting apples and throwing them away. Far better for the lad to squat down, and eat one apple well ; and so with the farmer, far better that he should do one farm well than have a nibble at half a dozen. Home- steads may be taken up directly from the Government, wherever they are still at liberty, throughout the whole of the North.West, and indeed throughout the whole of Canada. LANGENBURG / , Another five and twenty miles and we reach the present western end of the road, still within the limits of Manitoba, and 180 miles from Portage. Not far from the station a German cabinet-maker, Theuer by name, has homesteaded land, and, with his son and son-in-law, has built a Buperior house, and very substantial buildings for cattle and horses. These are people of some little capitvl, no doubt, and soon they will increase their store. In spring, summer, and autumn they attend to their land and stock as far as need be, and in winter earn money at their trade. Such people are sure to get on, and they are setting an example, sorely needed, to settlers who prefer to hibernate in winter. The Germans, indeed, being a thrifty, ingenious, and industrious people, usually make good colonists, and there are a good many of them at Langenburg. Various Colonisation Societies have laid the scene of their labours in Manitoba aiid the North-West Territory. Their object has been to relieve the congested state of population in some parts of England, but they have not been always successful. Two of the lietter known of these societies have locations west of Langenburg, and it was with the object of inspecting them that I drove a distance of forty miles, or so, away west from the end of the line. The Churchbridge Colony, established under the auspices of " The Church Colonisation Land Society, Limited," is situated just within the province of Manitoba, and Ixjrdering on that of Assinibola. The Society is a very influential one, and its object is " to carry out, in connection with the Church of England, a practical system of colonisation on a self-supporting and remunerative basis — the settlers being assisted to attain independence, and tlie Sfxjiety receiving a fair return on the capital — the whole being in our own colonies, under our own flag." The Churchbridge Colony is affiliated to the Albany Colony, and both of them are promoted by the same society. " The mode of operation is to raise capital by issuing shares of £1 each (without further liability) for acquiring blocks of land for 40 and 160-acre farms, erecting houses thereon, and on the intermixed free homestead lands, breaking and sowing a portion, and providing stock and implement* ready for the settlers ; to purchase the whole, or to rent the 40-acre farms with option of purchase, at equitable prices, payable by instalments. The land is suitable for grain and cattle farming," I have not had an opportunity of paying a visit to the Albany Colony, which is located in the Qu'Appelle valley, also in Manitoba, but along the line of the Canadian Pacific JtailwaT. In thia colony a quarter section of land i« divided into four 40-acre 69 II Ills, and "a Rood, comfortable house is erected by the gociety on each 40-acre lot, lid four BcreH broken, cultivated, and sown in advance of the settler's arrival, so hilt the crops may be Krowini? from the earliest moment to provide food for the iiiiily of the settler the first season. These houses and 40.acre lots are rented by the •ithrs from the society at $5 each per month, or about £12 10s. per annum, with (le option of purchasing the freehold of the whole at any time, on giving notice yjthin three years of entry, at the price of £100, or thereabouts, which may be either Kiid down or spread over a term of years, at 6 per cent, interest on the balance for lie time being owing to the society." In the Churchbridge Colony the settlers are placed on free grants of 160 acres of ami, and are practically homesteaders who have houses put up for them by the ociety, and also implements and stock where needed, the whole outlay being secured ly mortgage, which is redeemable by the settlers. This is the second and larger ystem, and in each the settler may enter on a farm on which the first necessaries lave been provided for him, and he can remain upon it or not as he chooses. It is lulerstood that settlers will provide their own passage and outfit ; yet probably some f tliem will receive direct or indirect assistance in these respects, though I am not [ill a position to say to what extent they will. " If a settler under the first system quits his holding, he will leave his improve- iiiciits behind him, for which the society may, but is not absolutely bound to, |ci)iiipeiiaiite him; each case would depend upon its merits. If a settler under the second system quits his free holding, provision is made by law for the mortgagee to take possession, and put another settler in his place. There is, therefore, great inducement to stay and provision against loss in case of quitting by any restless settler." " The society does not collect and dispatch numbers of men, women, and (liiklren to the colonies and leave them to shift for themselves, but does its best to si luct suitable emigrants; requires them to pay their passage out, or the greater [lait of it ; provides them with homes on arrival, and a portion of their land broken and sown with food for the first year ; assists them with cattle, implements, and practical supervision ; and finally looks after them spiritually as well as temporally, HO that they shall not in going to a new country be utterly deprived of the 'ocial and religious advantages of the land of their fathers." Fourteen houses have been provided at Churchbridge, small but 'omfortable houses of wood, and about sixty persons have arrived in the colony. Mr Roberts, wlio hails from the neighbourhood of Melton Mowbray, in Leicestershire, is * good example of what a colonist ought to be. He has put up a good store of hay, has done a good ..stroke of ploughing for next year's crop, and may be regarded as a piHliing man who understands his work. Others, too, there are who appear to be taking advantage of the facilities ofifered to them, and these no doubt will rub along pretty well in time. But, as I was informed, there are a few, as may be expected in any community of the kind, who appear to he more or less shiftless and impro-ddent, p ssibly from ignorance of what a colonist must expect to do. " Are they idle ? " I asked of a man who knew them well enough to give an opinion. '■* "Well, no," jaid he, " but some of them seem to have been born tired." Whereat our party heartily lano;hed. Not all the settlers in any colony will do well, and here as elsewhere men \\ ill find their true level in time. The land on which they are located appears to be fairly good ; in configuration it is rolling, with bluffs of willow tree3 here and there, which will be useful for shelter, for fencing, and for firewood. Tha country, where water is sufficient, is adapted for stock-raising, and there are natural meadows on which may be cut hay for use in winter. 1 1; '•'I' .i ir M \'i "il If 00 TIIK COMMEKUIAL COLONY. Tlii« outtleuieiit is just witliin the province (if AsKJiiilioiii, iininediately weHtufl Cliurclibridj^o. It is ijiomoted by a binly of pnicticiil nu-ii, iiiultr tlie title uf the "Conmierriiil tl!oloiiiHiitiun Company of Munitolni, Limited." Tlie Cuinpiiny owns many sections of land iu Manitoba, which tliey offer for sale in large or small lots, ai well Hs alternate sections in the three townships in Assinihoia, where the colony ii located. The Company states, with a degree of candour which inspires conHectiou of and as a pre-emption on payment of an office fee of ©10 (£2). n " The pre-emption right entitlen a homedteartor, who ohtivinn entry for a pre- enii>ti(Hi, to purchase tho land so pre-empt«(l at $2J (IOh.) per aero, on iH-cominij entitled to his homestead patent; but should the homesteader fail to fulHI the li()iiu'Rte;id conditions, lie forfeits all claim to his pre-emption." it will be perceived that for £2 in fees, and £80 us purchase money for the pre- emi)ted land, a settler will at the end of three years be the owner of 320 acres of lii;eliold land; or, if he will content himself with 160 acres, all this quarter section will cost him will be the office fee of £2. Whether or not a man would he well mlvised to being content with 160 acres will depend on the man himself, on the iiKinwy he has to spare, and on the Jand. And the prospectus says : — " But even when the land is got, and the colonist hiis transferred iiimsclf and his family to Manitoba, capital is still required to stock the farm, and to buy food iiiiil other necessaries until the first crop is ready. It is here that so many settlers (iiul the rub, and it is here that the Company comes to their assiatauce. Under an Act passed by the Canadian Tarliament in 1886, and by an arran. \-[Wi t\ :? ^^ y: r^ I';;'' EXPKJilMENTAL PAIIMS. On my return to Ontario fron the North-West, early in October, I called at Ottawa, and had the lumonr and pleasure of taking a drive out to the " Kxivrinie.ital Farm," some two miles from the city, in company of the Hon. .lolin C-.rling, Dominion Jlinister of Agricnltur<^, and the Bishop of New Westminster. Tiiis larni is the flrst of a Series which wiii he located here and there to suit the needs of the entire country. This new departure is one of very considerable importance to Canada as a farming country. It is undoubtedly a step, and a great step, in the right direction. It is calculated to do untold good to the agriculture of the Dominion, which, aftei- all, is, and must remain, the most important industry ot tliH country. If it be true, as is so often said, that "the condition of its Bg^-iculturB is a nieasure of the prosperity of any given country ," then to raise the condition o< Canadian agriculture will be to add so far to the geuv^ral prosperity of the Dcninion i and, indeed, even if the quotation were not true, it will still be a beneficent thing to point out to farmers what is the best aystoni of cultivation, and what are the best crojis to raise, ba thuy fruit, cereals, roots, or live stock. This, in any case, will be a distinct gain to the country, even if the state of its farn'ing were no criterion at all to the state of the country at large. Iien''e it follows that the establishment of Experimental StaMo.is in typical parts of the country, may be regarded as a benefit done to the peo, le at large. Tlicsi! farms will ' ■ under the general supervision of Profe-^sor W, Saunders, who will have special cliarge of the central one at Ottawa; and ir is no surjiriso to learn that the sciieme "has met with hearty expressions of approval of farmer,? everywiiere, and has awakened a general interest in experimental agricultui-e to a degree never before manifested." The farm at Ottawa consists of KiO acrts, "possessing everj' desirable variety of soil and aspect to meet the varied renuiremi'nts of the experimental work to be conducted there." As an instance of the practical character of the institution, and of its direct connection with farmers, for Mhose Sjiecial benefio it has been establi.shed, it Mill be enough to mention that "every fanner in Canada will have the privilege and tlie right to send to the Experimental Earni samples of any seeds of which he may want to know the germinating power," and such seeds will be tested for him in the glass structure which has been erected for the purpose. '■' The returns of the germinating power of seeds will not be based upun a single test, but every sample will be tested in duplicate, once in the soil and again out of the soil, in the must approved form of apparatus devised for the purpose.'' Personally I have mncli jdc 'Sure in transcribing the following v.-ords, which appear in t>ie flrst bulletin of tli3 farm, issue, by Professor Saiindei.s: — "The ;{reat 65 IS, after all, a I- tra,iis].:\rc'T)t, All is still— (1 of a bird or niK-e a sound distiiTice tbiit le coyotes, or [or !i shot ; ill haviv,--, and tin: no more, and r, T called at Kxpiriine-iitdl lolm O-rlinp, iin«tor. Tills it tile needs of itniiortance to it step, in the ultiire of the t industry of ts ng'-iculture e condition Oi he ]")c:niiiion ; ieent ttiinti; to t are tlie best lasc, will be a "iteiion at all ahlishnient of d as a benefit W Saunders, 10 surprise to al of farmei.' ric'iiltiire to a 3f 3(iO acrts, renuiremj'nts the prafticai ^rs, for whose tliat ''every Exiieritnental atiiig power," I been erected not be based \ the soil and vised for the v/ords, Avhicli — " The ijreat jinpurldnce of encouraging and stimulating tree-planting among the fanners, esiiocially in the North- West provinces, is beyond dispute." And in order txj do this, the seeds of various forest trees will be planted, and instructions will be given as to tlie best method of raising young trees from seed, as well as to the best sorts to r.iisi'. The testing of seeds for the North-West will be conducted on the two farms which will be estr-olished in that region, one of them in Manitoba and tln' iither in the Terri^o-ies. The department will no doubt raise a large number of young trees for distribution among fanners, and it may well undertake to distribute small parcels of seeds to farmers who will undertake to raise young trees for tlainselves. In this way the North-West may, in course of time, become sufficiently covered and ornamented Avith trees. And horticulture as well as agriculture will receive adequate experimental attention at the farm. There are already in the horticultural section, with the object of testing their value, about 75 varieties of gooseberries, 50 of raspberries, 20 of blackberries, 40 of currants, 12S of grapes, 100 of strawberries, and 240 of potatoes The hardy varieties of apples will also be tried, with the object of ascertaining what will do for the colder regions of the country. Meantime, the farm at Ottawa is being brought under cultivation. Forest growth has been cleared from scores of acres, stones and boulders have been removed, draining wherever necessary is being done, a new and handsome ring fence has been put up and superfluous interior fences have been removed, and, lastly, a fine set of farm buildings and houses for officials is being erected. All this has been done without much loss of time ; and, indeed, if it was worth doing at all, it was worth doing at once. A large portion of the farm will be virgin soil, from which the forest has been remoraelessly removed; when I saw it, it was being roughly ploughed, in order that the frosts of the coming winter might comminute and commingle it. It appeared to be of good quality, sufficiently varied, and deep enough for all practical purposes. I may venture to hope that I may inspect the farm at some future time, and to have the pleasure, which at present has been denied by the fate?, of making Professor Saunders' acquaintance ; when I Avas in Ottawa, he was away in the West. All things considered, Ontario may be rc;;avded not only as the wealthiest and most ■ irgely populated, but also as the irost desirable of the provinces of Canada. Its total area is 181,800 square miles, or upwards of 60,000 larger than the United Kingdom, and its population probably embraces one-fourth of the people of the whole mmm 06 m t y In P (U Dominion j still the density of its population is not equal to that of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, or Prince Edward Island. None of the othei- provinces can raise the variety, quantity, and quality of the fruit that is found in the southern peninsula of Ontario, which is bounded on the west, south, and east hy lakes Huron, Erie, and Ontario. Bo far as quantity of fruit is concerned, indeed, Ontario produces incom. parably more than the whole of the other provinces combined. Its agriculture is more varied and important, and it is hy far the richest of all the provinces in the domesticated live stock ofth(! farm, in crops, in cultivated land, and in pi'oducts of the forest. Ontai-io owns more than half the horses, and cattle, and swine, ard nearly half the slieep, that are fmind in the whole Dominion. Originally it was one viist forest, as the northern part of it still is, and tlie sum of human tf-M expended in clearing the millions of acres of cultivated land must have been prodigious. This clearing was mostly done before the great prairies of the North-West were accessible or even known, and it is going on still under the impetus and momentum con tributed by the increasing Avealth and the limitless potentiaHties of the province. I think I have said enough to establish the statements in the first sentence of this paragraph, and I may pass on now to look at the province as a place to which the. tide of British emigration may be directed. The geographical position of Ontario, apart from its meteorological advantages, gives it important vantage ground, as compared with the North- We«t, in reference to European markets; yet in this respect it is, or ouglit to be, a trifle inferior to Quebec, or the Maritime provinces. It is well adapted — ^I speak now of the southern half of it — to the pursuit of mixed farming, of stock-breeding, root and grain raising, and dairy liusbandry. Vfe may well doubt, hov ever, if its soil, on an average, is equal to tliat of Manitoba for the purposes named, while for wheat it cannot l)e compared. Land is dearer in Ontario than in Manitoba, but the markets are better, Jlanitoba, however, cannot compare with Ontai'io in variety of soils, in fruit, or in timber. Until recently, Manitoba has been regarded as suitable only for grain raising, while Ontario was the province par excellence for dairy farming. I have, however, already shown that she is coming forward in mixed and daii'y farming, fo that Ontario, with all her privileges, no longer possesses any special or distingaishing monopoly in this respect. I still think, however, tliat English farmers Avith, say one thousand pounds capital, and upwards, will find homes more congenial to their taste in Ontario than in Manitoba. Many Ontarian farmers, with that restless spirit so common in America, and no doubt captivated by what they have heard of the North-West, are prepared to sell their farms, and to go out to Manitoba and Assiniboia. Tins tendency, together with the depressed times, lias reduced the farms of the province in value, so that an Englishman's thousand pounds will now go farther tlian it would have done a few years ago. An English tenant farmer, preferring not to become a land-owner, may become a Canadian tenant farmer if he likes, for there are plenty of farms to let, with or without option of purchase, in Ontario. The greater part of the Canadian beef and cheese sold in England is from Ontario, and wliile Canadian beef is fully equal to American in quality, the cheese of the Dominion is admitted to be decidedly superior to that of the States. The cooler climate of Canada, and her ability to raise better root-crops and pasture grass, have a good deal to do with the superiority of her cheese. A large quantity of butter is also made in Ontario, chiefly however for home consumption. The value of Canadian cheese exported, in 1886, was ^(^),7o4,()2f?, and of butiA,r $832,355, showing in both a very considerable falling off, which is relatively the largest in butter. There i«, however, a much less falling off in volume than in value, because prices are lower 67 ew Brunswick, can raise the rn peninsula of iron, Erie, and •oduces incom. agriculture is 'ovinces in the in products of md swine, and ally it was one j il expended in litigious. This were accessible omentum con- e province. I sntence of this ' to which the, al advantages, it, in reference ifle inferior to f Ihe southern X grain raising, an average, is vt it cannot l)e kets are better. , in fruit, or in only for grain ming. I Imve, .iry farming, so rdistingiiishing uers with, say, igenial to their it restless spirit ■e heard of the Manitoba and 18 reduced the )und8 will now tenant farmer, nt farmer if he of purchase, in igland is from 1 y, the cheese of j es. The cooler ure grass, Imve ity of butter is lue of Canadian kving in both a tter. There is, rices are lower liian they used to be, and a larger volume of products is needed to realise a given aggregate sum. On various occasions I have travelled to a considerable extent in the eastern provinces, taking pains to make myself acquainted with the agricultural features and capabilities of the country. On the southern part of the province already alluded to in this section of my report, I have aforetime spoken as follows :— " This portion of Ontario may be regarded as the garden of the Dominion— literally as well as figuratively the garden — for it is here that apples, pears, grapes, peaches, melons, and the like grow in the greatest profusion, and with the least trouble on the part of the farmer. Every farm has an orchard, and it is purely the farmer's fault if the orchard is not an excellent one, for the climate and the soil are clearly all that can be desired, and the trees will do their share of the work provided the right sorts are planted. It is usual to plant out peach and apple trees alternately and in rows in a new orchard, and the apple tr-ees are at a distance apart which will be right when they are full grown; this is done because the peach trees come to maturity ti. st, and have done bearing before the apple trees require all the room ; the peach trees are then cut down and tlie apple trees occupy all the room. These trees are planted in rows, at right angles, so that there is a clear passage between them whichever way we look, and the land can be freely cultivated among them; it is, in fact, usual to take crops of wheat, or oats, or maze, from the land during the time the trees ai'e young, and we often see fine crops of golden grain overtopped by noble young trees laden with fruit. A farmer may not, of course, look to fruit alone to grow rich on, but he often nets a r'" roll of dollars out of it, and to say the least, it is conducive to happiness to be well supplied with fruit, while to live in a climfite and on a soil that will produce it abundantly is always desirable. " There are many kinds of soil in this part of the province, most of which are fertile and easy to cultivate. The most common soils are loams of ono kind oi another, comprising all the varieties included in the terms sandy and clay loams, tlien, there aie light soils of various kinds, clays ancf marsh soils, most ol them more or less impregnated with organic matter. Many of these soils — I speak now of farms that have been long under cultivation — were at first well adapted to the growth of wheat, but it' appears that in many places wheat has been grown so repeatedly on the land that it will no longer produce the crops of it that were formerly easy to obtain. The fact is, this one crop has been grown so very often that the land has become deficient in the elements necessary to it ; the same land will, however, grow very good crops of other kinds — roots, clover, barley, peas, oats, and the like, while in some parts profitable crops of Indian corn are grown ; the latter, however, is a most exhausting crop, even more completely so than wheat, but not so quickly, and can only be grown to profit on a rich soil and in a hot climate. The difference between the two crops is this : — Wheat ex'iausit a soil of certain elements, leaving the I'est comparatively untouched ; but maize is a generally exhausting crop, less dependent on special elements, but feeding, as it were, on all alike ; and so it follows that it can be grown for a longer time before the land shows signs of exhaustion, which at last is so thorough that fertility is restored with great difficulty. There is, however, a great deal of good wheat land in Ontario, and much more of it to be cleared. The partially exhausted laud, too, will come round again, and will grow wheat profitably as before, but it is only good farming that will bring this about. The farmers of Ontario declare that they would hardly have known what to do with their land if it were not for cheese-making, and partioalarly for the new cattle and beef trade with England. Wheat, wheat, nothing but wheat as a paying crop was simply exhausting the land, returning nothing to it; cattle raising jiaid poorly, because the demand v?s limited ; and cheesc-ma'tinj; could only be 08 W' lis profltably carried on in the district i^ suitable to it. But the demand arising in the old country for beef, and the improved means of transportation over the sea, have provided a new and profitable opening towards which the energies of the farmers are being directed. The raising of stock suitable to the English market is now a leading and profitable branch in this part of the Dominion, and it is encouraging to the cultivation of root and green crops, of clover, timothy, and other forage crops, of green corn, &c., for soiling. The growth and consumption of these crops, indeed, is tlie very practice that was needed to restore fertility to soils which had been injured by over-cropping with wheat. "The Canadian dairy farmer has several important advantages over his English contemporaiy, not the smallest of which is this : he can grow at a very moderate cost very large crops of forage for winter use ; clovers and timothy flourish well on most soils in Ontai'io, and I should say that rye grasses would also, though I did not find they were much employed, if at all, in the growth of forage. I think they might be used to advantage. It is also clear, from what I saw in many places, that he can raise abundant crops of swedes and mangolds, and very good ones of carrots, parsnips, and the like. Here, then, after the question of Avater, are the first requisites of successful dairy farming. A rotation of crops is jixst the system to I'e-invigorate the older soils of Ontario which have been over-cropped with wheat; and rotations work well in dairy farming. It is true that good natural pastures are scarce in the province, if indeed there are any at all which deserve the name from an Englishman's point of view (the best grass land I saw in Ontario was in the neighbourhood of London and on the way to Hamilton) ; but, as I have said, clovers, &c., grow well, and they will answer capitally for pastui-es for a year or two, a regular succession of them being provided, and it is a simple matter to produce a large supply of green corn— that is, maize before it comes to maturity — for soiling in summer when the pastures run out." ij : QUEBEC AND THE MARITIME PROVINCES. .', In the province of Quebec, chiefly south of the River St. Lawrence, there is st.ll a great deal of agricultural land available for settlement. The most inviting section of the province is that known as the Eastern Townships, bordering on the New England States. The land for the most part is well watered and timbered, suitable for dairying and stock raising, and for the growth of grass, green crops, roots, and such cereals as may be regarded suitable to what is meant by the abstract term "mixed farming," This district is being pretty rapidly settled, however, and the province, as a whole, does not offer inducements equal to those of some of the sister provinces for British emigrants. The valley of the St. Lawrence is, for the most part, well settled by our fellow-citizens, the French Canadians, who appear to regard the province of Quebec as being a land of promise. They are a plodding race, and have subdued a large area of uninviting country. They are now taking in hand more and more of the virgin soil of the province — clearing it of superfluous trees, and bringing it under cultivation. The province has attained considerable reputation for cheese- and butter-making, especially for the latter; and it seems to me advisable that such pursuits should be persevered with as leading and salient agricultural features. The formation of improved pastures may very properly occupy a good deal of attention — by draining wet soils, re-seeding such as require it, and top-dressing those that are inferior in condition. And witli respect to butter and cheese, the chief marketable products of dairy farms, it is a sufiiciently determined fact that the bust way of improving their average 69 sing in the e sea, have he farmers t ia now a uraging to ;e crops, of , indeed, is sen injured Ills English y moderate ish well on h I did not think they )lacc8, that of carrots, ; the first J By:jtem to ith wheat ; astures are name from was in the .id, clovers, or two, a produce a r soiling in lere is still ting section 1 the New ed, suitable , roots, and stract term ir, and the )f the sister r the most r to regard g race, and hand more trees, and reputation e advisable gricultural 1 good deal jp-dressing ts of dairy eir average quality is to increase the number of cheese factories and creameries. Professor Arnold, the well-known American expert in matters appertaining to the dairy, holds tlie opinion that Canada is losing some $5,000,000 per annum through defective methods of butter-making — want of care and skill in the management of milk and cream, and in the manipulation of the huttei". The province of Quebec submits to her sliiiro of this loss, and her share is that of the lion. The wife of a Canadian dairy farmer has usually so much of general housekeeping work to do that she cannot pro- jH ily attend to the products of the dairy, besides which she labours under the too common disadvantage of having inferior equipments and unfavourable accommoda- tion. Skilled cheese- and butter-makers are more effectively employed in cheese factories and creameries, because they have control of large quantities of milk, and are supplied with the most approved equipments. It would appear that, at all events for purposes of export, cheese is a more attractive product than butter, in the regard of Canadian dairymen ; for, while the export of butter from Canada has not increased for more than twenty years, the export of cheese has expanded to something like 800 per centum per annum. This is an enormous gain in the export trade in dairy pro- ducts, but the gain is wholly on the side of cheese; and this result is attributable, in a great measure, to the superior reputation which the cheese of Canada has won in British markets as compared with that of the United States. Tiie Maritime provinces export dairy products to an extent which is insignificant in comparison with those of Quebec — and this statement applies with special aptitude to the province of New Brunswick. And yet there is a vast quantity of land in those provinces which could be made available for dairy-farming. Nova Scotia and New Brunswick are, in respect of soil and climate, well adapted to stock-raising and ilairy-farming, and in course of time will no doubt go in for a quickened develop- iiu'ut of those iiursuits. At present they are short of population, and the people tliey have are much employeil in lumbering, shipbuilding, and fishing, to the disadvantage of agriculture. I have repeatedly seen in these provinces excellent crops of roots and of grass, and I know the hind will I'espond to careful cultivation and generous applications of manure. Where such potentialities exist, argument is not needed to prove that the soil is well adapted to agricultural pursixits. It is true that a considerable proportion of the good land of these pi'ovinces remains, at present, covered with trees, and that the labour of clearing acts as a deterrent to settlement; and it is probable that they contain a gi'eat deal of land, also covered with trees, which has little or no agricultural value. But the geographical position of the Maritime provinces and their comparative nearness to European markets, as well as to those of the Eastern States of America, ought to give before long an impetus wliich will powerfully tend in the direction of agricultural development. Prince Edward Island is more thickly, or rather less thinly, populated than I'ither Nova Scotia or New Brunswick, but it has room for many more people still. It is an attractive spot in the ocean. Its soil for the most part is a sandy loam, which yields excellent crops of turnips, potatoes, oats, barley, and so on. Tlie soil is naturally dry and friable, and therefore easy to cultivate. The island is singularly suitable for sheep, and its horses have a reputation superior, perhaps, to that of the rnuine quadi'upeds of any other province of the Dominion, or any State of tjlic Union. That the island is a healthy place is proved by tlie appearance of the people, who siem to me to lead lives which are tolerably free from care, and fairly supplied with I iintentment. Tiie island does not appear to be as well known as it deserves to be t I Europeans, with whom its communication is not sufflcientlj' frequent and direct. 1 liave no doubt that if it were better known it would bo more widely appreciated, and would attract its share of British emigrants. 70 * ^i: It; Ki^' In the three Maritime provinces — New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island — there is room for no end of emigrants, and it has often surprised me that a larger proportion of old-country people have not remained in these provinces instead of going farther west. It is no douht true they are less thinly populated than any of the others, but there is no such thing as dense population anywhere in Canada, us it is understood on the European side of the Atlantic. Prince Edward Island has 61 inhabitants to the square mile, but New Brunswick has only II, and Nova Scotia 21 ; while England and Wales have no less than i65. Consequently there is plenty of room in the Canadian provinces which are nearest to England as well as in those far away ; and it seems to me that a good many emigrants ought to go to them. In the province of Quebec there are 7*2 persons to the square mile, in Ontario 10o8, in Manitoba 0-52, in British Columbia 0*14, and in the North. West Territories 0-2. The Maritime provinces are, however, very small in comparison with the others. The provinces of Ontario, Quebec, and Manitoba are eacJi of them respectively (10,685, 67,573, and 2,085 square miles larger than the United Kingdom ; and British Columbia is nearly thrice as large. The area of the United Kingdom is 121,116, while that of the Dominion is 3,G10,257 square miles. Canada, indeed, is larger than the United States, nearly as large as the whole of Europe, and almost thirty times as large as Great Britain and Ireland. Her population, according to the census of 1881, was 4,323,810, so that, as will be noticed, there is room enough and to spare for the sui'plus population of Europe within the limits of the Dominion. The free grants of land available in the Maritime provinces are, it is true, covered more or less with timber, and this no doubt is, and for some time to come will remain, a hindrance to emigration ; but there are still many farms partly cleared which may be bought on reasonable terms. In the beautiful valley of the noble St. John river in New Brunswick there are numbers of desirable farms that may be bought at a rate which ought to tempt many British farmers, and the same may be said of the great and fertile district around the Bay of Fundy, in the province of Nova Scotia, and also in New Brunswick. In the neighbourhoods of Sackville, Kentville, Windsor, Urand Pre, and elsewhere within the influence of the remarkable tides of the bay, there is to be found the best grass land on the American continent. Some of the best of it has been sold, in times gone by, for as much as $400 (or £80) per acre ; but agricultural land in Canada, as in all other countries, is worth much less money now than it used to be. The wave of depression which has swept in recent years over the face of the whole earth, leaving its wreckage everywhere, has not passed Canada by ; and the effect of it is seen in the two following paragraphs, which I have taken from the " Statistical Abstract and Record of the Dominion " : — ' i tS TRADE AND COMMERCE. "The total value of imports and exports, and amount of duty collected iu 1886, as compared with 1833, was as follows : — Imports. Exports. Duty Collected. 1885 ... $108,9U,486 $89,238,361 $19,133,559 1886 ... 104,424,561 85,251,314 19,448,123 There was, therefore, a decrease in the value of importo of $4,510,925, and in the value of exports of $3,987,047, and an increase in the amount of duty collected of $311,504. " The extreme depression of trade whiah has prevailed almost all over the world during recent years, has been more or less felt in Canada, as is apparent from the following figures: — and I'rince urpiised me se provinces ly populated n anywhere tic. Prince unswick has less than inces which that a good , in Ontario Territories h the others. tively fiO,685, ish Columbia ivhile that of n the United s as large as of 1881, was iv the surplus !s are, it is nd for some e still many the beautiful p of desirable tish farmers, lay of Fundy, ighboiirhoods i influence of > land on the one by, for as 3 in all other of depression h, leaving its is seen in the Abstract and acted in 1886, !ted. 123 5, and in the y collected of all over the pparent from 71 Excess of total trade of 1883 over 1884 $22,636,287 „ „ 1884 „ 1885 y,62;V,692 „ lt8d „ 1886 8,503,972 Tlie decline in 1886 was less) than in 1885, anil in conjunction with the trade returns for the current year, which exhibit gratifying results, and with reports of renewed commercial activity from other countries, may fairly be taken as an indication that the depression is pansing away." This depression in trade is found to be reflected in agriculture, the two being interdependent to a great extent; yet, at the same tiino, my impression is that Canadian farmers have not been so badly bit, have not lost so much money, and are not now so despondent as farmers in the old country. As a matter of fact, in-calf cows for spring, and store cattle generally, and horses too, are actually worth more money to^ay in Canada than they are in England. I am writing these words on November 1, 1887, PUBLIC INDEBTEDNESS. "Owing to the increase in population, the proportion of the debt to population has, it will be noticed, not been more than doubled since Confederation, though the debt itself is three times the amount it was in 1867. The net amount of interest paid in 1868 was $1.29 per head ; in 1871>, $1.59 ; and in 1880, $1.G3, being an increase in the last seven years of only 4 cents per head, notwithstanding the large increase in the amount of the debt. The public debt amounts to nine cents per acre of the whole Dominion. In the United States the debt is 73 cents per acre of the whole country, exclusive of Alaska. In the United Kingdom it is $46.60 i)er acre If all file land fit for settlement in the North-West Territories was to be sold at the rate of §1 per acre, the proceeds would more than pay off the whole gross debt. If the 'i'luritories and British Columbia were to be put on one side, and the debt spread over the remaining six provinces, it would require only an assessment of 64 cents per acre to pay it off." — IStatistical Abstract}. The public debt of Canada has been contracted chiefly for works which develop the country's rtsources; and, indeed, the object is a sufficient one, and Canada can well uear a debt, for her natural resources are great and inexhaustible. CONSUMPTION OF TEA AND SUGAR. "The consumption of food is the best of all measures 'of a nation's prosperity,' and the consumption of the two articles of tea and sugar per inhabitant is generally considered by statisticians as the best indication of the people's condition. A com- parison of tlie figures relating to the consumption of these articles in Canada will serve to show that, juJgi^d by this test, the country has made and is making satis- factory progress in tlie accession of wealth. In 18G8 the consumption of sugar was 15 lbs. per head, in 1877 it was 23 lbs. per head, and in 1886 it was 37 lbs. per head. According to the most available returns, the consumption per head was larger in 1888 in Canada than in any other country with the exception of the United Kingdom and the United States, where the amount was 72 lbs. and 43 lbs. respectively. It will be seen that the consumption has increased 146 per cent, since 18(i7. On the amount consumed the duty was at the rate of 1^ cents per lb. in 1868, 2^ cents in 1877, and IJ cents in 188G. The figures relating to the consumption of tea indicate in the same favourable manner the increase of wealth. In 1868 the consumption was 2 lbs. per head, in 1877 it was 3;} lbs. per head, and in 188G it was 4| lbs. per head. According to Mulhall, the consumption in tea in England Avas not quite 5 lbs. per head." — ISlatiitiral Ahbtractl. WAGES. The following table of wages, copied from the Statistical Abstract, will indicate the places to which artisans, and servants of all classes, will be well advised to go. 72 Numbers of such emigrants leave the shores of England almost every day, a«id many of them have only nebulous ideas as to where they are going or ought to go, and to these the tables will be a guide at once definite and reliable : — hi m hi V'i i; CO 00 00 'A QQ o S 3 ^-3 S 8SK3 o .a8 SI8SSSS8 ■i- i e>4 t> S -* •« oj*m« : M •la ■-iMw*N mm 1^ « s M s 2 * * n a 2 g- 4» s 8 g :S Si8S : 8 :^3 SS8S88S rH CD »i CO n Nmmn N •^2 FH « N CO CI N CI «>* s "1" § 8 S 8 E^ * • u ia •fi m 1 I S o : ^ ! !>• a 8 o f^ SoS o ss Ml CI o s 'isssss ^>- 4J -«-• •«J -t-a -4>a ^ SSo o • » •> • KM . 8 o > • * * ■^"- ^ •♦* * N*" ■ " 4» i 8 8 ""s I iSS 8 8 838 8 : I 8SS o ■A r-« to <£) •H FN f-t •-4 O OJt. t^ l^rH FN § 8 8SS 8 K8 8 Si8 3di;S8 M o" , fH n CD 09W1 r4 '^ U3 O C/l' QD ^ a„,HF* s 8 s s 8 C IT. S2&S 19* ■ft f4 : OD s = =- S M GO --is-^g- o 4^ s 8 J s 8 oots 2 2 8 . .8 8 •" 282 8*8 1 25 70 to 00 ,. .id by 00 to ly piei N CO M : :^ «o CO o OrH^FH'^ <-t F-t 91 8 8 oSo S38S 8 » §88 S52588S rj "9 fH U) O NNC4 gO«C.|pH : : 5 5 U> fH O-i 3 FN d fN 04 91 fl^ 94 £ a o e^ rH * * £ « FN fH * £ ** I"" 4^ 8 8 8 sss 8SS8 8 8 O »■«. 13 8g8SiSS8 S •^ * «e lHi-(r-< S"-"- 8 - ODO lO "S" 8 8 C IC' O 88 8 8 li s;?s S388S 8 ft 5 to pi^ ^ l> N(Nf^ Qoe>« CO «D to e^OOB FHffl«U5(-t N ■*« ^ 1-H (M F-t to o 2 •t •t : : : ::S2 £ •> :-.^:-. tS2 «^ 8 8 8 ^SS SS^S 8 8 o o o <=> u o 05 lo an o o w otl i-t w >o MN^ - 5,* O O CO * S 8 8 8»88 8 8S8 SSSS 8 ,» ^ ^•4 10 M G&INCq 00 «aDi>. rHNrHg « Saj •*^ N F^ FN o 2 •• 3 gS?3 : § 2 : : : : : :S82 T1 1 ♦* 1 ^ : '';::;:: I 0) : » : 2 : : : C ! 3 : ense on British plough-lands, but grass-lands may weather the gale. But, in any case, the world's competition will increase as the years roll on, new steamships will be built, new railroads laid down Each countrj' will become the possible market of every other, to an extent wliich has no limit as to distance, and in this way a vast levelling process is going on. To this process we must all bow ; we cannot 8tx)p it; and we dare not if we could. The landowners of Britain feel the strain, and the farmers feel it too j the strain, indeed, is greater than many can bear. Where relief is to come from, tio man can pretend to say. Will any effectual relief come to us ? or must we go to the relief? Tenant farmers, and farm labourers may pack up their traps and go if they like; but how about the landowners ? Those who pay for land a rent are not anchored to the land ; or if they are they can lift the anchor or slip it. But the owner is anchored to it, and he, at all events, has no chance to move. The agricultural land of the British Islands is now going through a process which will make it harmonise a little better in price with land in other countries, and the process is one of "climbing dov/n; " it is, moreover, a process which may go on for some time to come. Tiiis, as it seems to me, is the tendency of the period, and I must leave British farmers to interpret it ai they plea.se. I have purposely avoided calculations as to the cost of raising wheat, or cattle, or fruit, or anything else in Canada, because such calculations, however interesting they may be, are seldom conclusive. At the best they can only be approximative, and applicable in certain instances, because so much depends on different soili', poorer at tli« people would iiy tliey could laiiy English, if they would vare that thuy ngenuity and the wrench to ray for a new however, have again, in our B must expect, tB wliicli will now-and-again gs somewhere, ormal drought ion in nature, e on any such minds that we pon the world, the hest of it ? North-West of every day and riea fare badly taxes. Rents Inland as things as those of the J much expense in any case, the )S will be built, narket of every !»is way a vast cannot stop it; too ; the strain, }m, lio man car ro to the relief? f they like; but anchored to the r 18 anchored to d of the British 3 a little better ling dov/n ; " it , as it seems to interpret it ai irheat, or cattle, iver interesting approximative, different soil?, m different geasona, different menj on tlie cost of land, of implementi, of team*, and so 1)11 ; on the yield and the quality of crops, on labour, the value of money, and a liuudred other things almost, each of which is a factor, more or less potent, in the cost of production. I have seen such calcnlations, and know what uncertain guides tiieyare; so that I prefer to advise emigrants to attend well to their work, to the cultivation of the soil, the management of stock, the care of premises, implements, fences, and bo forth — on the principle that by taking care of the pence the pounds will take care of themgelves. It is certain that, all other things being equal, some men will get on better than others in Canada, as indeed they will anywhere else ; this depends on the men, and I have already illustrated this phase of the question. This, indeed, may be said, that, in Canada as much as in any other country, industry is the mother of plenty, and idlenesg will cover a man with rags. JOHN rillNCE SHELDON, •:'t' I I i ),'i" ■; I': w 70 CANADIAN GOVERNMENT AGENCIES. Ill '1 \ \ . i ' J; ( ' i ALL PERSONS desirous of obtaining information relating to Canada, can make application to the following Agents IN THE UNITED KINGDOM: LONDON The IIioii Commissioner fok the Dominion, 9, Victoria Cliniiibere, London, S.W. ^1 Mr, J. Coi.MEit, Secretary, High Commissioner's Office, and ■'■■'■ Mr. C. C. Ciiii'MAN, Assistant Secretary (adUresB as nl>ove). LIVERPOOL Mr. John Dvke, 16, Water Street.' GLASGOW Mr. Thomas Graiiame, St. Knoch Square. BELFAST Mr. IL Mkruick, 35, Victoria Place. DUBLIN Mr. Tiiomau Connolly, Northumberland House. BRISTOL Mr. .1. W. Down, Bath Bridge. N.B.— At the London and Liverpool Of&oes of the Canadian Government, flies of the leading Canadian Journals, Statutes, Government Returns, Reports on Trade, &o., are kept for reference. In Canada the Government has Agents at the principal points through- out the country. The following is a list : — QUEBEC Mr. L. Stafford, Louise £mI)aQl(ment and Point Levis, Quebec. TORONTO Mr J. A. Donaldson, Strnchan Avenue, Toronto, Ontario. OTTAWA Mr. W. J. Wills, Wellington Street, Ottawa, Ontario. MONTREAL Mr. J. J. Daley, St. James Street West, Montreal, Prov of Quebec. KINGSTON Mr. R. Maci-hekson, William Street, Kinffston, Ontario. HAMILTON Mr. John Smith, Great Western Railway Station, Hamilton, Ontario. LONDON Mr. A. G. Smyth, London, Ontario. HALIFAX Mr. E. McC. Clay, Halifax, Nova Scotia. ST. .JOHN Mr. S. Gardnkk, St. John, New Brunswick. WINNIPEG Mr. W. C. B. Gkahamk, Winnipeg, Manitoba. EMERSON Mr. J. E. Tetu, Railway Station, Eniert