The first inquiry the intending immigrant makes is about frost.
At the Dunvegan and St. Augustine Mission farms, on the river bank
above the Landing, Father Busson told me that White Russian and
Red Fyfe wheat had been raised since 1881, and during all these
years it had never been seriously injured, whilst the yield has
reached as high as thirty-five bushels to the acre. Seeding
began about the middle of April, and harvesting about the middle
of August. He was of opinion that along the rim of the upper
prairie level wheat would ripen, but farther back he thought
it unsafe, and so no doubt it is for the present. Mr. Brick's
fine farm, opposite the Six Islands, and other farms also, were
a success, but, of course, all these were along the river. With
regard to the upper level, I heard opinions adverse to Father
Busson's, though, like his, conjectural. The inconsiderable
height above the sea (Lefroy, I think, puts the upper level at
about 1,600 feet), the prolonged sunlight, the whole night being
penetrated with it though the sun has set, together with good
methods of farming, will no doubt get rid of frost, which strikes
here just as it has in every new settlement in Manitoba, and in
fact throughout a great portion of the continent.
There were complaints, however, of a worse enemy than frost, namely,
drought, which we were told was a characteristic feature of those
magnificent prairies to the north.
Pages:
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117