22G 



RED RIVER EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 



the horse teeth or even the Mandan corn, which are cul- 

 tivated there. 



2. Wheat. — This is the staple crop of Eed Eiver ; its 

 cultivation is so general, and the good quality of the 

 grain is so well and widely known, that very little need 

 be said respecting it. In favourable years, that is, in 

 years which have not been distinguished by so wet and 

 backward a spring for farming operations as that of 1857, 

 wheat ripens and is ready for the sickle three months 

 from the day of sowing. I think it very probable that 

 new varieties from Canada, or the New England States, 

 would ripen in less than three months, and this is the 

 opinion of several of the best farmers in Eed Eiver. No 

 fact, however, is more satisfactorily determined than the 

 admirable adaptation of the climate and soil of Assinniboia 

 to the culture of wheat. Forty bushels to the acre is a 

 common return on new land ; and I have elsewhere stated 

 that Mr. Gowler has obtained fifty-six bushels to the 

 acre, without the introduction of any artifice beyond 

 deep land furrows to keep the rich vegetable mould of 

 the prairie dry. 



The great drawback to the cultivation of wheat is the 

 want of a market. Asking a native to show me his 

 wheat field, he said that he had grown enough the year 

 before to last for two years, and the chances of his being 

 able to dispose of any surplus were so small, that he 

 determined not to trouble himself this year with growing 

 wheat. As it happened, he would have been well repaid 

 for any surplus, the expected arrival of the troops, and 

 other circumstances, created a temporary market for 

 wheat, which, however, could not have been foreseen by 

 the easy going half-breed. 



None of those diseases, with the exception of smut or 

 rust, or insect enemies, to which the wheat crops in Canada 



