Canadian Agriculture. 
275 
Stock are scarce, "67 cattle and 3 horses," and " 30 horses and 
20 head of cattle," being the largest returns from individual 
farmers. At Moose Jaw cattle do excellently on the prairie hay. 
They are stabled in winter if the weather is very bad, but are 
out most days. At VVolseley cattle fatten well on prairie hay 
alone, which was there cut 66 inches long last summer. The 
general opinion is decidedly favourable to the maintenance of 
sheep, though there is at present a drawback in the want of a 
market for the wool. At Ossowa, sheep realise from 6rf. to Id. 
per lb. in carcass. At Griswold sheep do exceedingly well ; 
they run the prairie in summer, and are under shed in winter. 
Eighty-four farmers expressed themselves as satisfied with the 
country, the climate, and their prospects : but some say more 
railways are necessary. Some want the Hudson Bay Railway 
to be made, and ask for free-trade in lumber and machinery, the 
duty of 33 per cent, on farm implements from the States being 
objectionable. Notwithstanding this tariff, the American ma- 
chinery seems to hold its place against that made in Canada ; 
quite half the implements on the Bell Farm are of American 
manufacture. 
Asked whether they had suffered any serious loss from 
storms during either summer or winter, 154 farmers replied 
briefly in the negative. Of the 60 remaining answers one-third 
were adverse : hail, heavy rains, or frost causing the mischief, 
though the injury from frost is sometimes acknowledged to be 
due to late sowing. The autumn frosts on the prairie appear to 
be somewhat peculiar :* — 
" Frosts are common there in the nights of S^eptember, but the fact has 
been noted by many independent observers that frost which would injure 
grain in many other countries appears to be inaocuous on the Eed River and 
the Saskatchewan. \'avious reasons have been assigned — such as the dryness 
of the atmosphere, the heat-retaining character of the soil, and the sudden 
change of temperature that enables vigorous plants to bear an atmosphere at 
20° better than at 35°, when the latent heat of the earth and the plants 
has been given otf. But whatever be the true cause, the fact appears to be 
well attested. The chief lesson which experience has taught the farmer is to 
sow his wheat early in the spring, so that the ear shall be past the milky 
stage before the frost comes." 
Notwithstanding the long and severe winter the reports as to 
the climate nearly all concur in representing it as not only toler- 
able, but bracing and healthy, and people who have gone to the 
prairie in indifferent health have found the change beneficial. 
An old Scotchwoman wrote home, " It is fine to see the bairns 
play in the snow without getting their feet wet." 
The settlers appear, in the great majority of cases, to have 
* ' Encyc. Brit.,' Nintli Ed., Art. " Canada." 
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