1871.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
347 
JBOYS 4 (MliLS* CS©JL¥III^ 
Red River Trains. 
BY "CAItLETON." 
I am writing to you this month, my young friends, from 
the Red River country. You say that the Red River is 
in Arkansas, and empties into the Mississippi. So it 
docs, but there is another Red River away up in the 
North, which runs through a wonderful valley, where 
yon can see some things that you can not see anywhere 
else in the world, and which soon will not he seen even 
there — I mean, the Red River trains and enrts. 
I have seen a great many of the rivers of the world, and 
many fertile fields, hut I do not know of another valley 
like this one of the North. You will see by looking on 
the atlas that the river runs north into Lake Winnipeg, 
and from thence Us waters go out. into Hudson's Bay. 
The ground is very level. How would yon like to plow 
n furrow fifty miles long? You can do it here. Yon 
might start your team in the morning on its eastern bor- 
der and drive west all day until sunset, and you would 
have- to whip up the oxen well to get to the center of the 
valley by sunset. Tlieu, crossing the river, you might 
start the next morning and drive all clay, still toward the 
west, and you would be leg-weary and tired out long be- 
fore you readied the western border. And all the while 
you would be turning up rich black loam, and the oxen 
would be trampling through luxuriant grass. This would 
be plowing a furrow across the valley. Now let us turn 
one lengthwise this field. We will travel northward, 
from its southern border. We shall have here and there 
to cross a small stream, but were it not for these, we 
could plow a furrow straight as a Hue the entire length 
of the valley without turning the plow from the sod. It 
would be a long furrow— fully three hundred miles in 
length 1 Think of plowing from New York to Washing- 
ton; or, from Boston to Philadelphia; or, from Chicago 
to St. Louis; or, from Albany to Buffalo ! Fifteen miles 
a day is a good distance for an ox team to make. We 
should be 90 days then in plowing a single furrow, or six 
weeks in making one bout! We should have to carry 
our .camp-kettle and stew-pan with us, and layover two 
or three times to wash our clothes! We should want a 
telegraph constructed so that we could communicate once 
in a while with the folks at home. Three hundred miles ! 
and not a stone, a hillock, or knoll to prevent us from 
turning an unbroken furrow. Wonderful 1 
But the Red River trains are almost as much of a curi- 
osity as the valley itself. They come from Manitoba— 
the Winnipeg country— and are made up of carts, each 
drawn by a horse or a pony, or an ox or a cow. You 
would laugh to sec one of the carts, with its broad wheels, 
Beveu or eight feet high ; its wooden axle, so loose in the 
hub that the wheel wobbles in all directions, and squeaks, 
6qucaksf squeaks at every turn. There are two great 
bungling, heavy shafts, and a little wfc upon them. The 
concern is made wholly of wood and rawhide. There is 
not an ounce of iron about them. The bands to the hubs 
are of rawhide; the tires of the wheels are of hide; 
the rack is tied together with hide. Shake the concern, 
and it almost rattles itself to pieces, and with your jack- 
knife you could cut the thongs and let it fall apart in a 
minute or two. It is the craziest cart you ever saw. The 
people who drive these carts are half Indian and half 
French. They like to hunt buffalo, and race over the 
prairies on their ponies, and they had much rather smoke 
their pipes and tell stories than to hold the plow or hoe 
corn, and so they lead a shiftless life. 
Every summer a long train of these carts — nearly three 
thousand of them in all — come from Winnipeg to Minne- 
sota, bringing buffalo robes aud fox and wolf skius, and 
carrying back goods. 
You would like, I am sure, to sec one of these trains — 
the men and boys on Indian ponies, and the women and 
black-haired girls riding in the carts, whipping up the 
ox 'ii ; or, when they stop at night, cooking supper in a 
Btow-pan ; milking the cows ; then all gathering round the 
camp-fire in the evening, smoking their pipes, telling 
stories, and huddling together under the cart, or in it, 
wrapped in their blankets, and sleeping just as soundly 
and as sweetly as you in your bedrooms. 
They always have a great number of spare horses and 
ponies that keep along with the train, nibbling the grass 
and kicking up their heels. 
It i* great fun to see them cross a river. They do not 
ca.- \,o swim across, although they have no objection to 
wading in a little w-.ys. At first they attempt to get away, 
run up the bank, and dart through the bushes, but the 
men and boys, niuii. ' 1 on the fastest ponies of the herd, 
head them off and In them back into the current. The 
little colts, fearing no: njy, give a leap and are head and 
ears under water, but t.iey quickly come to the surface, 
and snort, and puff", and blow like a donkey-engine. 
Pub; or.'.', then another, and then the whole herd plunge 
in. It is very funny to see a hundred noses and ears, 
nothing else, pushing across the stream. 
But what a shaking of manes when they are all across, 
and then they caper off and have a jolly run, as if they 
felt refreshed after their swim, as I have no doubt they do. 
If you would see a Red River train you will have to be 
quick about it, for the iron horse that cats wood and spits 
fire, that is to run from Lake Superior to Puget Sound, 
will be thundering through the valley in a few days, and 
then the Red River trains will be seen no more. 
Tobacco — A Speech for Hoys. 
by "blue-mountain'" (13 years old). 
I go against tobacco, because it goes against me. I 
eschew it. I will not chew it. I will tell you why. 
1st. I do not like the taste of it; it tastes worse than any 
medicine you can put to my lips, it is such sickening 
stuff. 2d. I don't like the looks of it; when I see the 
tobacco I pity the month that chews it ; and when I see 
the month which chews it I pity the tobacco; it is of 
a dirty dirt-color. 3d. I don't like the effects of its use: 
it makes the teeth yellow and brown when they should 
be white ; it makes the breath offensive when it should 
be sweet ; it injures the voice so that those who chew can 
not sing and speak to advantage. The voice breaks, and 
the chorister croaks like a raven when he should sing 
like a bobolink ; the orator merely barks, and a tobacco 
bark is very disagreeable. 4th. I fear tobacco creates an 
appetite for liquor; it lights a fire in the throat which 
water may not put out.— M. K. B., Jr., Reading, Pa. 
ViiiH Sue's I*nxzle-Ilox* 
We were rather hurried last month, and our announce- 
ment concerning the prizes for the solutions Of the ana- 
grams, and our notices to correspondents, were "too 
late." I was, delighted to think they would ''keep, 1 ' 
notwithstanding the warm weather, and you shall have 
them now. 
THE ANAGRAM PRIZES 
were drawn by O. A. Gage, Pelham, N. II., Blue Bird, 
Bridgewater, Mass., II. E. P., Stratford, Conn., and Josiah, 
Box 7(17, P. O. New York City. 
Now I am going to give you a fish story prepared by 
our friend Tempt. You are to fill all the blanks with the 
name of some fish that shall make sense of the story. In 
sending the solution, don't trouble yourselves to write 
out the whole poem ; I should prefer to have you send 
your answers in this style : 1, Whale. 2. White. 3. 
Smelt. 4. Shiner. 5. Shark. 6. Bass, and so on (of 
course I have not given the right answers) : and all those 
who give a correct version of the whole, shall have hon- 
orable mention. 
Don't forget to direct your answers to Aunt Sue, Box 
111, P. O. Brooklyn, N. Y., and not to the office of the 
AgHculturUt. 
415. lUwlrated Rebus.— Well, Annt Sue is a queer 
woman. Hera sho ha- left seine rebuses, aud has gone 
off into the country, without saying what shall be put un- 
der them. We can't stop to guess them out, but we have 
not the slightest doubt that they are very good, and we 
are sure that they look sufficiently puzzling.— Ed. 
A FISH STORY. 
BY SAXMON C. PIKE, Jtt. 
Once on a time, down East, in days of yore, 
An old ' dwelt (the 2 . was cape 3 shore). 
An * she, who erst sold beer for bread, 
416. Illustrated fiebus.—SeQ remarks under the rebus 
above, and guess away at it. When you have found the 
answer, don't send it to this office, but to Aunt Sue. Her 
Post-office direction is given in another colnmn. 
And happy lived till s enough to wed, 
She might have had a good old a . 
Alas 1 alas ! she chose that scamp 7 . 
Ah 1 me, they lived a & aud " like life, 
Till death in pity freed the poor 10 . 
" wooed her next, oft bight ia , 
A 13 man he, and sailor off and on, 
Who, though a reg'lar M reared and brod, 
Rudder and 15 1 scorned, as soon as w_- !. 
"Pin waxing old," he said, "infirm :n: ' * — =-, 
I find the seas too 1T , the wiud : in — ." 
In sooth, he'd rather 10 him sell 
Or 21 with 23 from off some — ; i.uck, 
Or 24 along the 25 or tavern stay, 
A, 1( i ae u i s 27 am | 26 t ne livelong day, 
Till 20 light 80 'ring, or the 31 's pale " : 
Then 33 at last from oft replenished 34 , 
The 3S feels his homeward way at dawn, 
To 30 there like 37 in his stye, 
Or like an o'erfed 3(i till noon to lie. 
No wonder 39 " " dubbed by village boys, 
Who said old 40 hailed from Illinois. 
One morn, 41 *' up," she cried, " you lazy * 2 I 1 * 
(She punched his 43 and shook the ** « .) 
" Of butter not a 4a or 4T , or crumb 
Of meat or fish big as a * e : 
And here like * 9 snorting lies this sot. 
Sd^-atli ! s ° and hark ye 6l ." 
Her voice was 62 , and when she chose to 53 
Each word a 51 , tongue as 6S sharp ; 
jjo 56 from 67 drawn inspired such dread 
As this she 6e . (To hiimelf he said) 
'■By 5e 1 she makes each tortured ear eo feel 
As if 'twere stuug by an 61 . 
Sweet wife," he plead (for brewing storm he e - , 
And the vexed 63 vainly hoped to melt) 
ti jjy 64 ] dearest woman on the 65 " 
(Here from his bed he leaped into his robe), 
11 I'm off, for lo I last night I had a dream. 
Methought I caught, ah ! such a 6S of 6T , 
Bought by the w Sam upon the hill. 
Did your lean purse with solid B0 rill. 
Bought Bob some 7 °— and you a 7I shawl. 
Me a 72 1 a , u i p L -t a doll." 
Jack went and with him his fish 73 took* 
Willi Clame for 7 * , bob, sinker, line, and hook ; 
