Canadian Agriculture. 
26» 
perbaps, to become one of the most valuable i ossessions of tbe British 
Crown." 
The meteorological records of the North-West are necessarily 
very scanty, and the only figures I am able to quote are those 
indicating the temperature at Edmonton, in Alberta, on the 
North Saskatchevvan River, during the months of 1882, the 
following table being abridged from the ' Twelfth Annual 
Report of the Meteorological Service of the Dominion of Canada,* 
which was published last year. I have also added in a parallel 
column the monthly mean temperatures in the same year at 
Humboldt, a station in Saskatchewan, considerably to the east 
of Edmonton : — 
Temperature at Edmonton, 1S»2. 
Degrees Fahreohcit. 
At Humbuldt, 1SS2. 
Degrees Fahrenheit. 
Mean 
Maximum. 
Mean 
Minimum. 
1 Mean. 
i 
Mean. 
17-77 
-4-28 
6-74 
-2-58 
Februarv 
2512 
-3-66 
10-73 
6-96 
March 
21-54 
1-08 
12-81 
7-90 
28-93 
Mav 
62-4.5 
37-06 
40-75 
46-84 
69-37 
47-04 
58-20 
56-47 
Julv 
72-00 
49-51 
60-75 
60-61 
August 
73-35 
48-33 
60-84 
63-16 
September 
62-26 
35-70 
48-98 
49-23 
October 
42-15 
27-41 
34-78 
34-47 
November 
30-49 
10-23 
20-36 
16-97 
December 
19-08 
-200 
8 -.54 
5-03 
The highest temperature recorded during the year 1882 at 
Edmonton was on August 8, 9, and 10, on each of which davs 
the thermometer rose to 87". The lowest temperature ( — 52') 
was touched on February IG. The thermometer did not fall 
to freezing-point between May 22 and Septem.ber 16, and onlv 
on one occasion (.June 21, 39") did it sink below 40' between 
May 25 and September 5. Hence there is a short, but rapid 
season of vegetation during the summer months ; and, speaking 
of Edmonton, \ iscount Milton and Dr. Cheadle observe, 
" wheat grows luxuriantly, and potatoes and other roots flourish 
as wonderfully here as everywhere else on the Saskatchewan." 
In describing their journey along the banks of the Xorth 
Saskatchewan towards Fort Pitt during the second week of 
April, 1863, they say — 
" The weather was beautifully bright and fine, and the snow had almost 
gone. Flocks of ducks and geese passed continually, and the whistling of 
their wings, as tbey flew overhead on their way nortliwards, went on inces- 
santly all night, almost preventing sleep. The country we passai through 
