152 



RED RIVER EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 



it's a chance if my wheat is taken, and my potatoes I may 

 have to give to the pigs. If we had only a market, you'd 

 have to travel long before you would see the like of these 

 prairies about the Assinniboine." 



The substantial character of the barn, stables, and 

 piggeries, constructed of wood, their neatness and clean- 

 liness, the admirable arrangements of the hammels for 

 cattle, and the sheds for sheep, all showed how far a 

 little energy and determination, instructed by the expe- 

 rience of earlier years, would go in reproducing amidst 

 the boundless prairies of Assinniboia, the comforts and 

 enjoyments which are by no means the rule among the 

 small farmers of Great Britain. I regretted to find that 

 a few days before my visit the grasshoppers had arrived 

 from the south-west, and consumed in a single day every 

 green leaf in the garden which remained exposed to their 

 attacks. 



The " Nor '-Wester," a newspaper published for the first 

 time at the Eed Eiver settlement on the 28th December, 

 1859, mentions Mr. Gowler's success as an agriculturist in 

 the following terms : — 



" At seed-time of the present year (1859), all traces of 

 the pestilence (the grasshoppers) had disappeared, and 

 Mr. Gowler having before his eyes the pretty sure pros- 

 pect of a good market, brought under cultivation a 

 greater breadth of land than any year previously. He 

 sowed 63 bushels of wheat, 36 of barley, 24 of oats, and 

 101 of potatoes, and from these he realised 700 bushels 

 of wheat, 350 of barley, 480 of oats, and 2,100 of pota- 

 toes. The cost of the seed was 50/. ; in preparing and 

 tilling the soil, about 25Z. more were expended; and the 

 cost of gathering in and thrashing the crops is set down 

 at 100/. —making a total expenditure of 175/. Place 

 against that the sums representing the sale of the wheat 



