ll ; l CLIMATE, ETC. 



the season rain seldom if ever impedes farming operations 

 for three days in succession. These two reasons viz. the 

 loosening of the soil through frost action, and the stability 

 of climate during the farming season enable the Cana- 

 dian farmer to dispense with fully one-half the labour 

 required at home. As an example of this, I may mention 

 the system of haymaking common all over Canada. Early 

 in the day say on Monday morning the machine is 

 driven over the land. The following morning, as soon as 

 the dew is off, two or three hands go over it with forks 

 and shake out the swards. In the afternoon the horse-rake 

 is put on, and the grass raked into wind rows for the 

 night. On the third morning these are opened out with 

 the fork, and the hay is made and hauled into the barn 

 on the afternoon of Wednesday. 



Nature, by way of compensation for the long and hard 

 winter, during which not only many of the animals but 

 the land itself remains in sound sleep, has blessed Canada 

 with a marvellously rapid vegetation. Travellers from 

 England are always struck with this. The trees do not 

 slowly bud and struggle into leaf as do our English trees, 

 but they positively burst forth at once into glorious 

 bloom. So with the crops. The thaw heaves up the 

 surface of the soil into loose mould, thoroughly moistened 

 by the melting snows. On this comes a great heat, and 

 the fanner or gardener can see his seeds growing. I have 

 seen buckwheat, a rapid growing cereal, sown on the 15th 

 June and reaped on the 15th September. It is needless 

 to tell the practical farmer the value of this quick germi- 

 nation of the seed and rapid growth of the young plant. 

 It brings it safely through* the most critical period of its 



