314 APPENDIX A 



3. But the grand test of the country, the one that is looked 

 to most trustfully by those agriculturally interested, is the prac- 

 tical one: What has been done already f 



In travelling through this region I have made it a point to 

 see for myself, as well as learn from all reliable sources, the 

 results of agricultural experiments. 



At Fort Resolution this year I saw potatoes, rhubarb, radishes, 

 and other garden truck grown in perfection. 



At Providence and Hay River, Bishop Breynat assured me 

 that wheat is a regular and profitable crop. At the same place 

 Elihu Stewart, on July 15th last, saw ripe wheat, potatoes in 

 flower, and peas fit to use, as well as the usual garden truck. 



Fort Providence is probably nearly the limit of wheat, but oats, 

 barley, and potatoes grow ' much farther north. Barley was 

 cut at Vermilion on the 24th of July, 1906. Potatoes are a 

 good crop every year as far north as Good Hope, which is 

 within the Arctic Circle, and everywhere the potato bug is un- 

 known. E. A. Preble, the well-known naturalist and traveller, 

 has given me much corroborative evidence of these statements. 

 The result of the various testimonies I have tabulated in the 

 most conservative manner, and present them in the accompany- 

 ing map (p. 4), which, by the way, no one so far has challenged 

 as too favourable. Messrs. Thomas Anderson and C. T. 

 Christy, of the Hudson's Bay Company, think I have been 

 wise and safely conservative. Bishop Breynat thinks I have 

 been much too cautious, and that my wheat-line should be 

 pushed up as far as the oat-line, with a corresponding advance 

 of the others. 



I do not doubt that wheat will grow in some localities even 

 beyond the line given, as Bishop Breynat and many others say, 

 but also there are localities within the present wheat-line where 

 no wheat will grow. There are, indeed, places in Manitoba, 

 Ontario, New York State, etc., not to say Peace River Valley, 

 where for some local reason, elevation, slope, soil, etc., wheat 

 will not grow, just as there are places in England and Ireland 

 that cannot produce potatoes. 



