1871.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
34r7 
]B(DYS (SHEH1S 51 (SfDWilSo 
Red River Trains. 
BY “ CARLETON.” 
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 
does, but there is another Red River away up in the 
North, which runs through a wonderful valley, where 
you can see some things that you can not see anywhere 
else in the world, and which soon will not be seen even 
there—I mean, the Red River trains and carts. 
I have seen a great many of the rivers of the world, and 
many fertile fields, but 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 its waters go out into Hudson’s Bay. 
The ground is very level. How would you like to plow 
a furrow fifty miles long? You can do it here. You 
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. Tnen, crossing the river, yon might 
start the next morning and drive all day, still toward the 
west, and you would be leg-weary and tired out long be¬ 
fore you reached the western border. And all the while 
you would he 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, hut were it not for these, we 
could plow a furrow straight as a line the entire length 
of the valley without turning the plow from the sod. It 
would he 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 20 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 lay over 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 ! 
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 see one of the carts, with its broad wheels, 
seven or eight feet high; its wooden axle, so loose in the 
hub that the wheel wobbles in all directions, and squeaks, 
squeaks, squeaks at every turn. There are two great 
bungling, heavy shafts, and a little ra k upon them. The 
concern is made wholly of wood and rawhide. There is 
not an ounce of iron about them. The hands 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 and fox and wolf skins, and 
carrying hack goods. 
You would like, I am sure, to see one of these trains— 
the men and boys on Indian ponies, and the women and 
black-haired girls ridttg in the carts, whipping up the 
oxen ; or, when they stop at night, cooking supper in a 
stew-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 is great fun to see them cross a river. They do not 
car: io swim across, although they have no objection to 
wading in a little ways. At first they attempt to get away, 
run up the hank, and dart through the hushes, hut the 
meu and boys, moua'. d on (lie fastest ponies of the herd, 
head them off and la them hack into the current. The 
little colts, fearing no: ng, give a leap and are head and 
ears under water, but they quickly come to the surface, 
and snort, and puff, and blow like a donkey-engine. 
First one, 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 eats 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 Roys. 
bt “ 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 siskening 
stuff. 2d. I don’t like the looks of it; when I see the 
tobacco I pity the mouth that chews it; and when I see 
the mouth 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 
ho 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. 
Aiamt Sue's Riszzle-Rox. 
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,” 
notwithstanding the warm -weather, and you shall have 
them now. 
THE ANAGRAM PRIZES 
were drawn by 0. A. Gage, Pelham, N. H., Blue Bird, 
Bridgewater, Mass., II. E. P., Stratford, Conn., and Josiah, 
Box 767, 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. G. 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 
Agriculturist. 
415. Illustrated Rebus. —Well. Aunt Sue is a queer 
woman. Here she has left some rebuses, and 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 tlie slightest doubt that they are very good, and we 
are sure that they look sufficiently puzzling. —Ed. 
A FISH STORY. * 
BY SALMON C. PIKE-,’JR. 
Once on a time, down East, in days of yore, 
An old 1 -dwelt (the 2 -was cape 3 -shore). 
An 4 -she, who erst sold beer for bread, 
416. Illustrated Rebus .—See 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 5 -enough to wed, 
She might have had a good old c -. 
Alas 1 alas I she chose that scamp- 7 -. 
Ah 1 me, they lived a 8 -and 9 -like life, 
Till death in pity freed the poor 10 -. 
- 11 -wooed her next, oft bight --- 12 -, 
A 13 -man he, and sailor off and on, 
Who, though a reg’lar 14 -reared and bred. 
Rudder and 15 -scorned, as soon as wed. 
“ I’m waxing old,” he said, “ infirm 1 ; 
I find the seas too 17 ——, the wind t -- 
In sooth, he’d rather 13 -hi msel t -... - ’-. 
Or 21 -with 22 -from oft' some 23 - y ,.ock, 
Or 24 -- along the 25 -- or tavern stay, 
And 26 —- his 27 -and 28 -the livelong day, 
Till 20 -light 30 -’ring, or the 31 -’s pale 32 -: 
Then 33 -at last from oft replenished 34 -, 
The 35 -feels his homeward way at dawn, 
To 38 -there like 37 -in his stye, 
Or like an o’erfed 38 -till noon to lie. 
No wonder 39 “——” dubbed by village boys, 
Who said old- 40 -hailed from Illinois. 
One morn, 4I “-up,” she cried, “ you lazy 42 -1” 
(She punched his 43 -and shook the 44 -- 46 —-.) 
“ Of butter not a 48 -or 47 -, or crumb 
Of meat or fish big as a- 48 -; 
And here like 49 -- snorting lies this sot. 
Sdeath 1- 50 -and hark ye- 51 - 
Her voice was 62 -, and when she chose to 53 -- 
Eacli word a 54 -, tongue as 65 -sharp ; 
Ko 68 -- from 67 -drawn inspired such dread 
As this she 58 -. (To himself he said) 
“ By 59 -! she makes each tortured ear 80 -feel 
As if ’twere stung by an -- 61 -. 
Sweet wife,” he plead (for brewing storm he 62 -, 
And the vexed 83 -vainly hoped to melt) 
“ My 84 -1 dearest woman on the 85 -” 
(Here from his bed lie leaped into his robe), 
I’m off, for lo 1 last night I had a dream. 
Methought I caught, ah ! such a 88 -of 87 -•, 
Bought by the 68 -Sam upon the hill, 
Did your lean purse with solid 69 -fill, 
Bought Bob some 70 -and you a 71 -shawl. 
Me a-- 72 -. and Pet a doll.” 
Jack went and with him his fish 73 -took, 
With clams for ,4 ——, hob, sinker, line, and hook ; 
