230 RED RIVER EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 



offer unrivalled advantages for rearing stock. The intro- 

 duction of mowing machines would enable the settlers to 

 lay in any required quantity of hay for winter consump- 

 tion. Few of the better class of farmers keep more than 

 thirty or forty head of cattle, in consequence of the want 

 of a market for beef, tallow, hides, &c. The answer I 

 received on all hands to the question, " Why do you not 

 raise more cattle ? " was always the same in substance : 

 " Find us a market for beef, tallow, and hides, and we will 

 soon furnish any quantity of cattle you may require." 

 There does not appear to be any good reason why sheep 

 and cattle should not supply the place of the buffalo ; the 

 experience of many years shows that no physical impedi- 

 ments arising from climate or soil exist to prevent the 

 prairies of Eed Eiver from becoming one of the best graz- 

 ing countries in the world. Two reasons for the neglect of 

 this important branch of industry are soon apparent, even 

 to a stranger at Eed Eiver. Buffalo meat, pemmican made 

 from buffalo meat and fat, together with the robes and 

 sinews, are always a cash article at the Hon. Company's 

 stores ; whereas beef, mutton, hides, tallow, and wool, are 

 a mere drug in the market ; again, the habits of the half- 

 breeds, who have long been trained to the hunt, are op- 

 posed to the quiet monotony of a pastoral life. Intro- 

 duce European or Canadian emigrants into the settlement, 

 with the simple machinery they have been accustomed to 

 employ in the manufacture of homespun, and in a very 

 few years the beautiful prairies of Eed Eiver and the As- 

 sinniboine will be white with flocks and herds, and the 

 cattle trade, already springing into importance between 

 the settlements and St. Paul, will rapidly increase, or 

 without much difficulty be diverted into an easterly chan- 

 nel. Such are the ideas of many with whom I discussed 

 the subject when in the settlements, and my own obser- 



