8(52 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [March j, 1882. 
they have commenced seeding about the beginning of 
April. Farther west again than the land I have de- 
scribed, there is flat land and bluffs ; all good for 
farming. I can hardly describe to you what the bluff 
land is like, but will try. Can you imagine as if some 
mammoth moles had been at work, and gone over the 
ground, so that their molehills were all over, and these 
molehills, from ten to thirty feet high, and many of them 
running into one another, and you have about as good 
an idea as I can give you, till you see it for yourself. 
West of that again the land is varied, both blufl and 
flat interspersed. 
Now, as to soil, it is something different from any I 
have seen elsewhere. In colour, it is a nice choco- 
late brown ; in depth from ten or twenty feet near 
the Red Eiver to about a foot lees or more some 
forty miles west. Below that,[the subsoil is mostly clay; 
some places stiffer than others. The ground dries 
wonderfully quickly after a soaking, and, in the spring, 
when the frost is coming out of it, the seed can be 
sown whenever the frost is out deep enough to harrow. 
I found the seed drill often scraping through the 
upper surface of loose soil on the frozen place below. 
The frost usually penetrates four or five feet, and this 
thawing out gradually keeps the land just moist for 
the young grain, and ensures the good start it gets. 
When I was seeding, the dust was blowing on the sur- 
face, and it was frozen land six or seven inches below ; 
it dries off so quickly. 
As to the weather, in summer it is much the same 
as we have it in Ontario, but not quite so variable. 
Usually the autumn is very dry and favourable for 
harvesting work. This was an exceptional season, 
as there was a good deal of rain just after the grain 
was cut and bothered farmers in their threshing. They 
just cart it to the threshing machine from the stook, 
and shift the machine to various parts of the field 
usually twice a day. 
The winter comes on a little earlier than in Ontario : 
usually about the beginning to the middle of November, 
when frost sets in and ploughing ceases. It continues 
till the end of March, or the middle of the month, 
when the snow which lies all winter quickly melts, 
and the seeding begins in a few days after. The 
winter weather is rather colder than we have it in 
Ontario, but is not so variable. Indeed, the whole 
season the thermometer is seldom above freezing point, 
but the atmosphere is so dry that the cold is not 
much felt. Ten degrees of frost in Scotland is more 
felt, owing to the moisture in the air, than fifty de- 
grees is in Dakota. It is even better in that respect 
than we are here, and strange to say, when the cold 
gets so intense as that the air is as still usually as 
in a house. Sometimes they have what they call 
"blizzards" that is (blows bards) when the wind 
sweeps across the prairie in a gale, and generally ac- 
companied with snow, when it is not always eafe to 
go any distance. There being no fences to guide one, 
and the snow falling preventing one from seeing many 
yards around, people have wandered for miles, often 
passing within a hundred yards of a house and not 
knowing it, and sometimes perishing. That is one of 
the drawbacks to the otherwise "paradise"; the other, 
and I think the only one, is the water. All the ground 
is impregnated with alkali which gives the water a 
peculiar flavour, which those who taste it first seldom 
like, but most folk get very fond of it- During the 
month I was there I got to enjoy it. Now the wells 
are usually dug 50 to 80 feet deep, and kept well 
pumped out, and then the peculiar flavour is hardly 
perceptible. It then has just a slightly sweetish flavour. 
At the depth I mention an abundant and never-fail- 
ing supply of water can always be had. Then there 
is this to be said in favour of it, that it, is very whole- 
Home. My fathor always enjoys much better health 
up there and for someiime after his return than at 
any other time, and attributes it to the water. Now, 
that, I think, is all about the place, as a place. 
I will next try and tell you what is done there, and 
how it is done. Well, it is a grain-growing place, almost 
no stock being kept so far, but, as the country gets 
settled, mixed farming, of both stock and grain, will 
be adopted. Wheat is the chief product ; next oats 
and flax seed. There are no fences or very few, so 
that owners of stock are responsible for any damage 
they may commit on any other property. What fences 
there are are made of wire with wooden posts,, and they 
are the most suitable, as the snow does not drift 
behind them, as any other fence. 
Farms are mostly about 320 acres in extent, though 
many are much larger. Four and five thousand acre 
farms are common, and our next neighbour, who is 
the largest wheat grower in this continent, or may 
be in any, had this season about forty thousand 
acres in crop. 
In the spring, whenever it is possible for the frost 
seeding wheat begins, and in about a fortnight it is 
usually all in. Next comes sowing oats, which may 
be done anytime in the next month, but the sooner 
the better. Generally the oatland is plowed after the 
wheat is sown. When these are done, the hurry of the 
spring is over, and other general work on the farm goes 
on till haying, when the winter's supply is made, and 
generally stocked in the place it is cut. This hay is 
cut off the prairie, the natural grass, which is very 
sweet when cut green. To get a good crop of hay, the 
first time on the prairie, it is burnt over in the spring, 
which takes away all the hard wiry grass of the pre- 
vious season. It is no trouble to burn it off, as 
throwing down a lighted match is all that is needed, 
before the new grass has started. In a week after, 
it is as beautiful as a braird of wheat, and grows very 
fast. As the country gets settled, of course, farmers 
will have to sow grasses on their own farms, but, at 
present, there are many sections uncultivated, held 
by speculators in the eastern state?, and anybody who 
likes cuts hay on them. The way they do it is this. 
A man starts and cuts round with the mowing machine 
as much as he thinks will suffice him, and all within 
the cut he makes is considered by others to be his 
hay. This prevents any disputes, and, of course, the 
early bird usually picks out the biggest and f.ttest 
worm. In the fall, to protect the stocks from flies, they 
plough round thetn, about forty or fifty feet from them, 
two or three furrows, and ten or fifteen feet further two 
or three furrows more, and, on a still day, they set fire 
to the grass in the belt between them. This forms an 
impassable barrier to ibe fires, either in fall or spring. 
The same thing is done round houses that are out on 
the prairie. Flux is sown any time before the begin- 
ning of June, but there is not very much grown. If 
the farmer has any more prairie land than he wants 
to crop, it is broken up, that is, plowed for the first 
time before the middle of June, and plowed again in 
August for a crop the following year. The first plow- 
ing is usually about 3 inches deep, cut off and kill 
the sod ; the second is about 5 inches deep. The plows .. 
are quite different, but I will tell of them again. Next I 
comes harvest. The grain is all cut and bound with 
machines that do it in one operation ; the band is 
either of thin wire or twine. Each machine is ablefl 
to do from 150 to 200 acres a season, and is drawn 
by three horses. A gang of men to stook follows the 
machines, and the grain is cut all before threshing 
begins. This is begun as soon as possible, and is done 
by portable machines, driven by a portable steam- 
engine of 6 to 8 horse power. A gang of 24 to 30 
men is needed to run the threshing machine, and a 
day's work is from 800 to 1,400 bushels of wheat, 
more of oats. 
Threshing is done in the fields, and the grain is 
taken off at once to the railway station and put into 
