30 REPORT OF THE SCOTTISH COMMISSION 



fair idea of the Canadian prairie, fiat as a table, the levelness 

 broken only by settlers' houses, scattered haystacks, and a few- 

 trees standing up on the sky-line. But we were not privileged to 

 see much of the province south of Winnipeg, for darkness sets in 

 shortly after sunset and the sun had set as we crossed the boundary 

 line. It was 9.30 when we reached Winnipeg, and the Town 

 Council, the Provincial Parliament, and nine Scotch Societies were 

 represented at the station. Headed by two pipers we marched 

 to the Royal Alexandra Hotel. On reaching the hall of the hotel 

 we were warmly welcomed in no less than eleven speeches from 

 the sons of Canada, to which two of our party replied. It was now 

 nearing midnight but the flower show had been kept open for our 

 special benefit, and those of us who were able to go visited the show. 

 Winnipeg, where we spent our first Sunday on the plains, is. 

 the gateway of the west and destined to become one of the very 

 greatest of Canadian towns. It came into being as if by the touch 

 of a wizard's wand. Only forty years ago, in the place where it 

 now stands, there stood Fort Garry, the little Hudson Bay station. 

 To-day Winnipeg has a population of 125,000 inhabitants, and the 

 boundaries of the city, and its population, and its trade are in- 

 creasing at such a rate that it makes it difficult to measure its size 

 far less to set any limits to the possibility of its development. But 

 our mission was not to investigate the development of the cities of 

 the west, it was to study the progress of Canadian agriculture, and 

 so early on Monday morning we were on the prairie, which runs 

 without a break to the Rocky Mountains. Our first stop was at 

 Portage la Prairie, fifty-seven miles west. Portage is on the bald- 

 headed prairie, and it was one of the first settled places in Manitoba. 

 Seventeen or eighteen years ago there was not a tree round a farm 

 steading. To-day there is scarcely a homestead where the buildings 

 are not protected by belts of maple, elm, or willow. Out from the 

 town we stopped at the farm of Mr Frank O'Connor to see a thresh- 

 ing-machine at work. His engine was a 22-horse-power engine, and 

 he could thresh from 1500 to 1600 bushels of wheat per day. He 

 not only threshed the wheat on his own farm of 500 acres, but he 

 hired out his threshing-machine to other farmers. Our next halt 

 was at the farm of a Mr M' Vicar, who came from Kiltearn in Scotland 

 fifteen years ago He was a school-teacher there and is now well 

 up in years. He has 320 acres, 120 in wheat, 40 in oats, and 50 

 in barley. He has the remainder in pasture and summer fallow. 

 He keeps ten cattle, five cows, and six pigs. What rotation he has, 

 and he has not much, is for the purpose of cleaning his ground. 

 He and his four sons practically do all the work. We had intended 

 visiting a stock farm, but there was no time, and we had to drive 

 back to the station, which we left at 12.45 for Carberry. From 

 Portage westward there is a good deal of scrub, principally poplar, 

 until Magregor is reached. Then the land is well-wooded on both 

 sides of the line. Interspersed with the wood are large grain fields, 

 dotted in harvest-time with huge piles of straw which are burned, 

 as the farmer keeps no stock. We stopped at Carberry and went 

 out into a well-settled country, where the log-cabin has given place 



