The Great North-West—Manitoba. 397 



advantages the export trade of the Province will naturally reach 

 vast proportions, and the great value of these exports must place 

 the balance of trade in favour of the North-West, so that time alone 

 is required to build up a wealthy community in that portion of 

 Canada. 



The variety of products of the soil of Manitoba is by no means 

 small ; wheat, of course, is the great staple product. Oats, however, 

 grow still more abundantly and with less cultivation. In the 

 autumn of 1882, full returns from many portions of the Province 

 showed the yield of different kinds of grain to be as follows : 

 Returns from eighty-eight points gave an agregate of 182,250 acres 

 sown in wheat, yielding a total of 4,974,200 bushels, or an average 

 of twenty-seven bushels to the acre ; some of the returns placed 

 the average at forty bushels to the acre, others over thirty bushels. 

 These returns further showed from answers, from the same eighty- 

 eight points, that there was an aggregate of 126,750 acres sown in 

 oats, yielding a total amount of 6,614,500 bushels, or an average of 

 fifty-two bushels of oats to the acre. Some of the returns gave an 

 average of as high as eighty bushels, while others made returns of 

 as low as thirty-five and forty bushels ; the yield of this grain, the 

 same as wheat, being dependent on the kind of farming. And fur- 

 ther, with respect to barley, a cultivation of 33,990 acres gave an 

 aggregate return of 1,091,400 bushels of barley, or an average of 

 thirty-two bushels to the acre. Some of the returns gave an aver- 

 age of fifty, others of forty, bushels, while some were down as low 

 as twenty bushels ; the return of this grain, the same as others, 

 being dependent on good farming. 



Potatoes and all kinds of field and garden roots grow to large 

 size and in great abundance. The same remark applies to cabbages 

 and other garden vegetables. Tomatoes and melons ripen in the 

 open air. Hops and flax are at home on the prairie. All the small 

 fruits, such as currants, strawberries, raspberries, etc., are found in 

 abundance. For grazing and cattle raising, the facilities are 

 unbounded. The prairie grasses are nutritious and in illimitable 

 abundance. Hay is cheaply and easily made. Trees are found 

 along the rivers and streams, and they will grow anywhere very 



