• ' ' .Vr. John Robertas Report. 'f 



ba('. also ploughed himself 60 acres of land. He works the farm with 

 tld assistance of one regular man, a lad in spring, and the help of 

 another one at harvr t time. He keeps a few cattle, and feeds a large 

 number of pigs. m this he is unlike the majority of Manitoban 

 farmers, who depend wholly on wheat-growing. Now they are 

 beginning to see their mistakfi. A farmer in Manitoba, as in this 

 country, ought to have sometii*r.^ '....^j^^ ;_: :.- : every day.' 

 In the evening, the Speaker entertained us at his house, which 

 was an elegant structure, full of all the comforts of life. In front it 

 bad well-kept croquet and tennis lawns, where, he said, they enjoyed 

 themselves in the evenings. Mrs. Jackson could not give us much of 

 her company, being so much occupied in providing for the hands on the 

 farm. She, like her husband, was, we discovered, not afraid of work. 

 We stopped this evening at the Stonewall Hotel. ; 



On the 12th we drove out to see the Penitentiary, at 

 ■Che * Stony Mountain. Here were about 100 criminals, one of 



j^enitmtiary. them (whom we saw) being under sentence of death. 



The prisoners work on the farm like ordinary labourers. 

 We saw four -or five of them with the teams ploughing: two of them 

 jyere with four oxen, driving; whilst another handled the plough. 

 A guard is always kept near them, with loaded rifles in their hands. 

 There was also a mounted guard in the field. It is very seldom that a 



f)risoner escapes. The crops on the fann were very good ones. Little 

 8 sold, as most of all that is grown is consumed on the premises. 

 Colonel Irvine, the governor, is of opinion that the establishment 

 should be self-supporting. I cannot help thinking that this system 

 of dealing with criminals is much better than the home system. 

 The prisoners are kept at rational, useful, and varied work, and 

 not compelled to everlasting oakum-picking or crank-turning. They 

 also keep themselves, and are not a burden on the country whose laws 

 they have broken. 



From the Penitentiary we drove in the direction of the 

 The SelJcirh Eed Eiver, and visited the Selkirk settlement. Here 

 Settlement. we saw land that had been in cultivation for 70 years, 



and, although it had never been manured, it would yield 

 this year an average of 30 bushels to the acre. Most of the farmers in 

 this district have gone in for dairying, as they can find a good market 

 lor their butter at Winnipeg. From the Red Eivev v,a drove back to 

 Winnipeg. The horses travel much quicker, and scarcely ever tire 

 here, as compared with the Old Country. The district is flat, and there 

 ftre no roads, simply tracks. The ground, although sufficiently firm, is 

 CPJ>1 and soft for the feet. We have always two horses when driving. 

 r. 7 Our next move was for Killarney, on the 13th. On our 



Killamei/. way here we passed through an excellent wheat-growing 



district. We counted from the train 30 sets of wheat 

 stacks, each set being composed of four stacks. We also passed an 

 occasional field of flax. The Mennonite settlement was on our route. 

 The Mennonites went from Germany to Russia because they would not 

 ponform with the military laws. Russia promised them that they 

 would not be required to render any military service for 100 years. At 

 the end of that period they were required to furnish soldiers to the 



