May I, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



S93, 



EX-CEYLON PLANTERS IN THE FAR WEST. 



We are pernaitted to quote from the letter of a 

 gentleman who, after learning about planting in Cey- 

 lon, returned home and iy now settled in the North- 

 west division of the Canadian Dominion. He writes 

 to a Ceylon planter : — 



Fort Macleod, N. W. Territory, Canada, 



December 5th, 1882. [By mail of 15th.] 



My dear , — A letter from this cool clime may be 



welcome at ■ — •, as it is not a cool climb up to it ; 



you may also Uke to know what has become of me. I 

 came to Canada on a visit last spring, previous, as I 

 expected, to returning to Ceylon ; but while in Canada I 

 was strongly urged to go' in for cattle-raising up here, 

 so accordingly here I am, and from reports I get from Ceylon 

 I am well out of that uufortuhate isle as a land of settle- 

 ment, though "with all its faults I love it still," and shall look 

 forward to visiting it as soon as I can. I am situated at the 

 actual foo-t'of the Rocky Mountains about 50 miles N. of 

 the American boundary, on the E. side of the Rockies, 

 a splendid climate, fine scenery, and a very agreeable life. 

 I have appliedforaleaseof some 50, OtX) acres and have bought 

 some stock. Our cattle run on the open prairie all the year 

 round. It goes down to 35° below zero in the winter, but 

 the violent winds which are almost constant in winter blow 

 the snow off the grass. My rang-e lies between two rivers, both 

 of which are full of splendid fish wliich give good sport: 

 there is also sport with wildfowl of various kinds deer, bears, 

 &c., but the Indians are very destructive to game of all sorts. 

 Last Sejptember I took a trip to Winnipeg in Manitoba, about 

 l,eOO miles east ot this : there is plenty of fine farming 

 country all the way, but it seemed to me to be an uninterest- 

 ing country to live in. The Canada Pacific Railway is 

 being made from the Atlantic to the Pacific through Canadian 

 soil the whole way: it is beiug made at 3 or 4 miles a day, 

 and 1 saw | a mile of track laid in 35 minutes, and we rs- 

 turned over the rails that our train had brought at about 20 

 m. an hour. About 500 m. have been finished this season 

 in about 5 months, (Ceylon may take a lesson from this 

 covmtry in railway making!) This country is rapidly filling 

 up with settlers, it has only been open for settlement quite 

 recently; till now the Indians were troublesome, now they 

 are quiet and peaceable. All this part of the N.W. Territories 

 adjacent to the Rockies is let on lease for grazing piu-poses 

 as it is well suited to tliat. * * * AYe have to dojevery- 

 tliing here for one's-self, from building one's log cabin to 

 cooking one's own meals and washing one's owii clothes : a 

 change after Ceylon ! The new railway, which will come 

 near us, will place us within about 14 days of Liverpool. 



Another planter sends us a cutting from a Hamp- 

 shire journal from which we quote as follows : — 

 LiFK IN THE Far West. 



The following letter from an old Portsmouth Grammar 

 School boy, who went to Manitoba iu September last, will 

 hel^ young folk bent upon adventiuing iu the far West to 

 realise what to expect therf' ;— 



Brandon, Manitoba, Dec. 4th, 3883. 



Dear Sir, — I should have written to you before but I have 

 not had much time. 1 am usually at work all the week, 

 and ou Sunday I write home and rest for the remainder of 

 the day. I will begin at the bej,'iuning by telling you that 

 I did not like the trip across the ocean at all; "nor did I 

 relir^h the succeeding fourteen days' railway journey at about 

 tweutyfive miles an hour. They canuot go faster because the 

 track is laid just in the gi-ass of the prairie. Crossing the 

 prairie there is nothing to be seen as far as the eye can reach. 

 It is a\vfully dreai-y. I stopped a week iu Toronto and an- 

 other at the end of Lake Huron at Sarnia. There I had the 

 finest fishing I ever had iu my life. The fish were 3ft long 

 and there were as many as you liked to catch. They bite at 

 anything. It is really wonderful. When caught they are 

 worth nothing, bei-ause thoy are so plentiful. 



The jouruey up the lakes was as miserable as the voyage 

 across the ocean. Wc were out of sight of laud nearly the 

 whole time. I got off the lake steamer at Duluth. Then I 

 took to the train again and pot to Winnipeg. I stopped there 

 a week, and then came to brandon IdH miles west of Winnipeg. 

 Th-^^re I went land hunting, and had to sleep out on the 

 pra, "C for several nights. I can tell you times were hard. 

 Wo found laud, aud my friend took a half section. We then 

 went out shooting. I soon gave that up, and sold my gun. 

 There is uo real sport in this country, Prairie chickens, as 

 big as fowls, are as plentiful as stones ou .Southsea beach. 

 One has to shoot at them to make them get up. Ducks aud 

 113 



geese are in such quantities that they require to be aeon to 

 form any adequate idea of their number. In every little pond 

 ou the prairie there are two or three huf dred. When yuu 

 shoot al them they just rise and look at you, aud pitch again. 

 I soon got sick of them, and went out after the muskrats- 

 I got about a dozen, and have preserved their skin. It has 

 a very tine fur. I met a skunk. J shot him. but I could not 

 go near him, he stank so badly. The stink of a skuuk is the 

 worst stink I ever did smell; about a thousand times worse 

 thau H. S. Never again will I shoot a skunk, except with a 

 rifle. I shall get some sport when I t;o West next spring. 



I stopped doing nothing for about three weeks, paying six 

 dollars a week for board and lodging. Then I thought I had 

 better try to earn some money. Since then I- have saved 50 

 dollars and earaed over 120 doHars. I meet piouty of English 

 aud Irish gentlemen's sous. I have sceu a London cit> soli- 

 citor, a provincial attorney, and a Dubliu doctor all shovell- 

 ing dirt into the same waggon, at the tune of 10s a day. I 

 can tell you it is a hard life. For three Weeks I was herding ' 

 cattle out on the prairie. I had two dollars a day and board...'- 

 My lodging was a hut; my bed was potatoes. It is all very,., 

 well for fellows to sit at home and talk about the beautierf 

 of a wild life iu the West, but when it conies to tlie real 

 thing it is a diJi'ereut matter altogether. I get o'li pi'etty well, ' 

 but I cau tell you it is not a very fine thing to go t!o work 

 in the morning when the thermometer is 17 ' degrees below 

 zero. You don't know what that is iu England. Th?. cold is 

 intense. Even today at noon in the sunshine the ttiermo- 

 meter is 13 degrees below freezing. 



Ytm would like 1.6 wear the moccassins. They art* tTie tii'iest 

 things I ever put ou. The snow is so dry it does not wf-t them. 

 They are made of thin buckskin, and sewn with 3ine\\s. and 

 ornamented in front. The Indiana ranke them.. Three rj^airs of 

 I socks and the moccassius are required to keep one warm. Bran- 

 don is built iu the- Grand Valley of the A^isiuiboine. I can't say 

 much for the beauty of it. It is only a few tentV'&nd 'shaiities. 

 Wood is teu dollars per cord and coitl twenty duliars per ton. 

 I see plenty of Indians. There are lots of Siuux near u». 

 They are not up to much. Indians often come iu from the Great 

 Saakatchewau, They are fine men, dres.sed iu buckskin. ' 



This is an awful country for cold. The only comfortable place '■ 

 is bed. Tluit is where I am writing this. Excuse the haudwrit^; / 

 ing. Shovelling dirt for a period of time takes all the. symme,'^,,; 

 try out of a fellow's handwriting. I have only seen,, six women 

 since I have been in Braudou. They are very scarce ,here. If 

 one goes out in the street everyone is staring at'h^r, I shoftld 

 thiiik they must be very proud to be so much thought of I I guess ' • 

 that is the sort of thing that satisfies the vauity of the female.. j 

 mind. Men out here tight like brutes. If one knocks the other, r 

 down, he either jumps ou him or else falls on hiai aud bites, 

 him. They are an awful whiskey drinking, tobacco chewing. ot 

 All Uiey think about is laud and dollars. But in this 'place',' "as? 

 in every phice I have been in in America , every one is a gfnUcmdh. 

 Yet the JIagistrate chews and smokes in the Court. Tlie people '. 

 sit with tlu-ir hats on. In church, 011 the wall, is "Gentlemen, , 

 are requested nnt to spit tobacco juice ou tht^ floor !" The parson ] 

 reads the serujon out of a book. It is an awfuU place for a 

 civilised person to come to. but at the same time it is the place 

 to make money in.' I shall save .50/. next summer, come home:': 

 for the winter, arrange for funds for a settlement; and tlien go 

 out in the spring. T shall take lessons in bricklaying.. If I were 

 ouly a bricklayer I could get thirty shillings a day. I must stajr. 

 indoors the gVeatcr part of the winlcr. I have had my nose' " 

 and right car frozen hard. Icicles form on the no-*e , dii-ectly ope 

 goes out. But cold is not the only drawback. The waters is" 

 distinctly alkaline. No water not alkaline can be had in the 

 place. This water brings on the so-called Red River fever. 

 They tell me it is like typhoid. Both my friends have had it. 

 I have kept clear of it. 1 have not had a good driuk of pure 

 water since I have been in the country. A man has nbw come 

 in with both ears fi-ozeu hard. I must stop now. ^ ' V. ■ '- 



(f ' ! ■ ■ 



THE USES OF THE MUNGObSE. 



For years the Mungoose has done good service in the West - 

 Indies iu keeping down the plagu.- of rats infesting sugar 

 estates^ and so tending to diminish the damage done by them 

 to the cane crops. Now we hear tliat its aid is being sought'' 

 by the New Zealand farmers in order to mitigate, if possible, 

 the rabbit pest, which has recently assumt-d alarming pro- 

 portions in some parts of the coloiiy. The Government of 

 India has bteu requested by the autliorities of New Zealand 

 to collect and ship a number of mungooses for acclimatis- 

 ation, aud wc learn from Calcutta that 100 couples are being 

 got togetlier iu the Zoological Gardens there preparatory to 

 shipment to their new homes. Grav*^ doubts have been ex- 

 pressed both as to the capacity of the mungoose to cope with ' 

 the rabbit pest in certain districts where the animals have 

 firmly established themselves, as their fecundity is well 

 known to be something remarkable. It is also suggested that 

 the reraeily may perhaps prove even worse than tlu' disease. 

 Tho New Zealand farmers may, ho\w ver. take heart of grace 

 from the success which attended the analogous experiment 



