THE FARM AT THE INDIAN MISSION. 203 



The farm attached to the Indian mission is cultivated 

 with more than ordinary care, not only being intended to 

 serve as a model for the Christian Indians settled in the 

 vicinity, but also to provide them with seed and supplies 

 in the event of their own stock failing, a contingency by 

 no means improbable, since habits of forethought or 

 economy are rarely acquired by these people until the 

 second generation. In part of the garden allotted to 

 vegetables, a small area was devoted to wheat in 1857, 

 for the purpose of raising seed from an early variety, 

 which Mr. Cowley had procured from Scotland the year 

 before. The " Scotch wheat" was sown on the 16th and 

 18th of May. It was ready for the sickle and reaped on 

 the 24th of August, having been 97 days in arriving at 

 maturity. The common wheat of the country was sown 

 May 5th, and harvested August 18th, having required 

 105 days to grow and ripen. Barley was sown May 

 28th, and reaped August 18th. Indian corn is planted 

 about the 23rd May, and ripens every year. Potatoes 

 are planted from the 22nd to the 26th of May. The 

 potato crop is here truly magnificent. I was favoured 

 with an inspection of the produce of a small field, after- 

 wards visited, and certainly no finer or more plentiful 

 returns could be desired. All were perfectly clean and 

 sound, and of very unusual size and weight. With the 

 permission of Mr. Cowley I took four potatoes which lay 

 close at hand, on the top of a large heap, containing very 

 many equalling in size those I had taken without special 

 selection ; when carefully weighed, they were found to 

 average ten ounces each (10*1 ounces) ; a practical ex- 

 periment proved them to be an excellent table variety. 

 I may here mention that in the garden I noticed aspa- 

 ragus growing luxuriantly, beet, cabbages, brocoli, shallots, 

 and indeed most culinary vegetables. In the farmyard 



