Farmed in 1810. 



The Chippewa Indians discovered the agricultural possi- 

 bilities of the region a long time ago. I know from some old 

 records that John Tanner, a Chippewa squaw man, raised forty 

 sacks of corn on garden in Lake of the Woods and sold it to 

 a fur trader about 1810, during a canoe trip on Lake of the 

 Woods I found large Chippewa gardens growing excellent 

 corn, potatoes and vegetables sixty miles north of the Minne- 

 sota line. 



Wild fruit, such a plums, chokecherries, raspberries, high- 

 bush cranberries and hazelnuts grow in great abundance. 

 At the mouth of Rainy river I found one of the curiosities of 

 the trip. Walking about in the pasture of a squaw man I 

 noticed some small trees that looked like wild hazel; but they 

 grew to a height of fourteen feet and the stems were as thick 

 as my wrist. Not until I had picked a handful of hazelnuts 

 was I quite satisfied that the big bushes were actually wild 

 hazel. 



Hazel Switches. 



From my boyhood school days I well remember the master 

 using hazel switches for the purpose of arousing industry and 

 inspiration in lazy boys; but from this hazel bush I cut a club 

 big enough to make a good weapon of defense against a bear. 

 The hazel club may be seen by anyone doubting the story. 



A climate and a soil that will grow wild hazel of that size 

 will some day produce abundant crops, berries and apples. 



As to the Swamp. 



But I must return to the myth of the country being a 

 swam.p. Near the streams the land is high and dry and only 

 needs to be cleared like any other wooded land. The Cana- 

 dian side of Rainy river is closely settled for seventy-five 

 miles from International Falls to Baudette. The farms were 

 all laid out a mile long and with a river frontage of a quarter 

 of a mile. 



Away from the streams, the forest trees, the moss and low 

 growth simply hold the water on the gentle slope. 



26 



