MANITOBA.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2693, 24 November 1882, Page 3

MANITOBA.

A correspondent of the “ North British Agriculturist” says—Having recently had occasion to visit the province of Manitoba, I took some trouble while there to' ascertain its capabilities as a field for emigration. I was previously aware that the province, by some, was lauded to the skies, and by others, equally well able to judge, condemned as being a place unfit to live in. I entered Manitoba in the middle of July, and left it again in the beginning of August, and during that time I visited Winnipeg, Portage la Prairie, Morris, Emerson, and West Lynne. Those are all considered to be good districts or townships, and at least an average of the province. What strikes one most on entering Manitoba is its flatness and wetness, and almost total want of cultivation. One sees little or nothing under the plough, unless in the immediate neighborhood of such places as X have named. The soil everywhere is exceedingly fine, being a rich, black loam, generally running at least three feet deep- Nothing could exceed the quality of the soil; but as a rule it is wet —very wet, and so flat that there is little fall in most parts for drainage. The principal rivers, the Bed Kiver and the Assiniboine, run in very shallow channels, frequently overflow, and lay whole districts under water. During the floods of the past spring a steamboat was plying on the flooded country near to Emerson and West Lynne; and the liability to flooding will always be a great drawback to Manitoba; also, the length and severity of the winters, which, of course, entails a short summer, and, consequently little time in which to do the necessary work of ploughing, sowing, and reaping, &c.; also, a great risk in late seasons of the crops ever reaching maturity. I saw some fine-looking fields of wheat, and still better of oats; but to me they looked late, being then, in the middle of July, only just in ear; and some fields not even that length. Oats, at present, I should say, ought to be largely grown, on account of the large number of horses employed in Winnipeg and on the railways now being made. They have for some time past been selling at from 26s to 30s per quarter of eight bushels. I also saw in different parts some very fine patches of potatoes, and that crop would pay the growers handsomely, as they were selling at from 12s to 14s per bushel. Some settlers in Manitoba do largely in market gardening, and at present are coining money. Land in Manitoba has within the last year and a half risen immensely in price, that is, in the more settled parts, where it is almost all in the hands of speculators, and they ask 30, 40, and even 50 dollars per acre for what cost some six or seven dollars less than two years ago. I fear this will tell, apart from other ■ draw backs, against the prosperity of the country, as few will care to purchase at such prices when gopd land can be had in Dakota and Minnesota at something like 10 dollars per acre, and if the soil is not cultivated, Winnipeg and other at present rising places must suffer; for on the cultivation of the soil must their prosperity depend. At present Winnipeg is going ahead. When I was there in July I was informed some six hundred houses were in course of erection, and the army of workmen of all sorts was immense. During the time of the spring floods, when trains could not be run, a serious famine really occurred.

On account of the great expense of building materials and present cost of labor, comfortable farmhouses and farm buildings are not to be thought of. A log house of, possibly, two rooms, with a lightning conductor at each end of it, is what one generally sees ; and the accommodation for live stock consists of a few wooden uprights, with spars laid across, on which a large quantity of straw is placed, and also built round the sides. Such places may answer the purpose to a certain extent, if the animals have plenty of hay and water. Boots can be grown, but could never in any quantity be protected from the frost. Consequently, Manitoba can never be to any extent a stock raising country. Money by farming may be made in Manitoba by those settlers who bought land early from the Canadian Pacific Railway Company, Government, or the Hudson Bay Company, which are the three principal sources from whence land can be acquired. It is also sometimes bought from the half-breeds; but the titles of the latter, I was informed, were not always to be depended upon. And although a little money may be made by those early settlers, they certainly deserve all they make; for they do not eat the bread of idleness, and their comforts are but few, and will be for many years to come. The quality of the water is bad— that is to say, as to taste, for it does not appear to be unwholesome, as the people are healthy, and free of the malarious fevers so prevalent in the valleys of the Mississippi and Missouri. Another drawback 'to living in M anitoba is the fearful insect pest. To new comers especially the attacks of bugs and mosquitoes are the cause of great discomfort. To relieve thecattle to a certain extent from mosquitoes and bull-dog flies, fires are lighted on the prairies, composed of some damp material, to cause a dense smoke. Immediately the fire is lighted the poor animals make for it, and stand in the smoke, which, so long as it lasts, frees them of the pest. That process is called “ smudging.” In. Portage la Prairie I saw fires burning at the doors ofthe houses, in order that the mosquitoes should be driven from the interiors.

I was very much pleased with the pro vince of Ontario; it is quite homelike in the best parts near Toronto. The crops there come early to maturity. The winters

are pretty severe; but the summers,,are fine, and the country is finely wooded and well wate;ed. The States of Minnesota, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, and Illinois are good parts for settlers with a little capital. As a cattle-raising part the territory of Montana is coming to the front, and large sums of money are being made at present by Montana stockmen, and no part of America is better fitted for the raising of cattle than the portion of Montana ad-

joining the Eocky Mountains, where the animals require no shelter during winter.