Notes of Travel.

Patea Mail, 26 May 1882, Page 1 (Supplement)

Notes of Travel.

MANITOBA,

Much, has been written on this little province, which, by the way, will presently be anything but little or unimportant, it seemingly having a future before it which will soon eclipse the older provinces of the Dominion. Approaching it from the South by St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Manitoba road, the appearance of the country is the reverse of prepossessing, being flat, marshy, and bleak in the extreme, apparently possessing to a considerable degree the characteristics of the Eed Eiver Yalley, in the State of Minnesota. Winnipeg, the capital of the province, is reached about 60 miles from the frontier. This city is at present booming, and its town lots are being sold higher than those in Minneapolis and St. Paul, affording a rich harvest for those who hold blocks in the vicinity of the city. Town property is at present much above its real value, the usual result of a booming frontier town. Property will find its real value as soon as things settle into shape. It would be an everlasting benefit if some one would build a hotel and run it in a proper manner in the city of Winnipeg. The hotel accommodation as it exists at present is simply disgraceful. Bad cooking, bad attendance, bad accommodation, everything bad as well as the bill, which is big enough, and the only thing in the hotel which is supplied at a moment’s notice. The ScotchCanadian type of people and their habits, as practised in Winnipeg, certainly do not contrast brightly with the manners of the people I have been travelling amongst on the American side of the line. They are more boorish and disobliging, slower and clumsier in their movements about everything they do, even the very servants in the hotels lack the smart, dapper look of the American. I don’t know why this should be, but there is almost as perceptible a difference between the Manitobans and the Yankees as there is between the style of the Canadians and the Old Country people. My opinion is that the American style is preferable, being smart, civil, and obliging, whilst the Canadian is usually on the other tack, being stiff, boorish, and disobliging. The city of Winnipeg is rapidly extending, and will presently be a place of considerable importance. It contains from 10,000 to 12,000 inhabitants, and has several blocks of good business buildings. I drove out and had a look at the Kildonau settlement, four miles from Winnipeg, and interviewed Mr. M‘Beth, one of the settlers who sailed with Lord Selkirk’s party from Thurso in 1815, and reached York Factory on the Hudson Bay on 5 th September, after undergoing innumerable hardships and difficulties. The history of this Selkirk settlement is so well known as to require no repetition here. From what I could gather from Mr. M‘Beth, this settlement of 70 families had been comparatively healthy in spite of all their hardships. Mr. M'Beth’s father was one of the survivors of the Black Hole of Calcutta, and served his twenty years in the British army previous to coming out here in 1815. He died here at the age of 105 years, and Mr. M‘Beth himself is in his 78th year, and is looking hale and fresh. During all this period grasshoppers have only annoyed them seven times, and their wheat crop was never more than 25 bushels nor less than 12 bushels. The other small grains grew very well, and yielded a fair quality of grain. Horses are not very healthy, and the greater part of the work is done with cattle ; even those who can afford horses are still using cattle on this account. The country is still very new, although this settlement and the Hudson’s Bay Station at Old Fort Garry have been in existence so long. Many more who have had a long experience in the country also agree with Mr. M‘Beth that cattle for ploughing and teaming are more suitable than horses, owing to their being easier kept, with a small death-rate, a light first cost, and seldom a dead loss at the finish. If they get lamed or hurt they are fed and sold off. The farming on this Kildonan settlement is of the most primitive kind, and, unless on the banka of the river, they have very wet soil to contend with. The river valley soil is of the. very best quality, and Government is making some slight endeavour to institute some system of artificial drainage to utilise the wet flats in the neighbourhood of Winnipeg. The province is hampered either with too much or too little legislation in the Dominion Parliament, which at present holds the control of the Manitoba public lands, and is making a profit from them for the general exchequer of the Dominion, and leaving the chrysalis province to govern itself and do its own improvements by a local tax on the people of Manitoba. If the province were handed over its own public lands to sell, or settle and make the best of them she could, then there would be a backbone to fall bock on, and something more tangible than a tax with which to execute public improvements, for which there is great need. I travelled west to Portage la Prairie by the Canadian Pacific. This line of road from Winnipeg to the Portage is of the most primitive description. The whole road, with a few trifling exceptions, has the sleepers,

in having cheaper freights. Manitoba or ties, as they are here termed, laid down on the prairie without any preparation, and the result is that on some parts where the prairie is slightly rolling the train twists up and down like an enormous sea-serpent. Looking from the rear of the train the engine is nearly out of sight over a knoll, with the fore part of the train rising to the roll like a small boat at sea. All the way out on this road, for over 60 miles, to the Portage the country is flat and marshy, with very few settlers, and any dry spot is underlaid by limestone gravel within a few inches of the surface, and is of little or no use for cultivation. Prom what I saw of the country afterwards, this road is run along the worst part of it, that between Portage and Winnipeg, Portage is built on the bottom lands of the Assiniboiue Eiver, about 60 miles west of Winnipeg. North of the river are first a few miles of bottom lands, which are wet; then a dry ridge, which is tolerable soil and pretty well settled ; then comes the long parallel marsh through which this road runs. The Canadian Pacific is grading a direct road right west through this settled country. There is a splendid agricultural district in the neighbourhood of Portage. I saw some magnificent crops of small grains, wheat, oats, and barley —I may honestly say the largest crops of straw I have, seen anywhere in America. The grain was also a splendid sample, more particularly the wheat. Oats and barley would both be very large crops per bushel, but wheat there, as elsewhere, with the exception of Colorado irrigation, was not properly filled up to the top of the head ; had it been so, it would have been an enormous crop, as the straw was strong, hard, and of nice colour. Black oats are grown very successfully here, with some tremendous yields. The sod is mostly dry, although the natural drainage is by no means good. Mr. Norquay says that Lake Manitoba, a few miles north of this point, has risen several feet within the past few years, and that this lake is wetting a large district of country to a considerable extent. This lake drains into Lake Winnipeg, and a very small expenditure would lower its level several feet, and dry a large district. Property in the neighbourhood of Portage la Prairie has risen to a considerable extent lately. Mayor Colling told me that a block of land beside the station was bought for 30,000d015., and sold lately for 150,000 dols. Arable farms in this district are also going up very high, and settlers are pouring in as fast as the railroad goes west. Further west the land gets drier, more rolling, and also lighter and more sandy in texture. There are large areas here and there of excellent wheat soils, but for great distances these are broken up with marshes, and pocket-sleughs, which make cross country locomotion difficult and even dangerous. There are a good number of settlers on the Little Saskatchewan Eiver; but this country is also interspersed with marshes and tracts of excellent soil. Prom what I can learn from respectable persons who have been over it, there are great tracts of useful lands all the way between the Canadian Pacific Eailroad and the American frontier for three hundred miles west of Winnipeg. This district is likely to be opened up by some of the many competing lines coming up through Northern Dakota towards the Morse Eiver and the Turtle district, or else the Canadian Pacific will be compelled to build south to the frontier. Already one of the American railways is buying up a controlling interest'in a Manitoba road, which has a charter to build west through that country. There cannot be the least doubt but that the Canadian Pacific Eailway will have active competition, even if it were not under the thumb of the Canadian Government. There is really very little difference between the Dakota and the Canadian side of the territory from the Eed Eiver for three hundred miles west. If anything, heavier crops of wheat, oats, and barley can be grown on the Canadian side, but as an offset against this, their climate is a little colder or they could not grow the extra weight per bushell. The main question is that of transportation of grain to the market. I will give you the figures as they stand at present—Portage la Prairie, 80 cents per bushel; Winnigeg, 85 cents. ; Emerson, 95 ; Euclid, 105; Glyndon and Fargo, 110. Farther west from Portage it will, of course, be cheaper, but these are the current prices of wheat for the last week of August, If the Canadian Pacific were finished on to the lake the through rate would or ought to be considerably cheaper, as it can be shipped from the top of Lake Superior in barges down through the lakes. That there is a great future in store for this northern territory there cannot be the least doubt, but much yet remains to be done to open her communication before she is placed on as firm basis as the Eed Eiver portions of Northern Minnesota and Dakota. That after a time they will have as good if not a better outlet for their wheat is beyond a doubt. Eailway communication with Hudson Bay, or even barges by river and canal would place them in direct communication with Great Britain. The country is comparatively new, and it will require time to do all this, but as it stands at present it will do for at least years to come. The Eed Eiver Valley on the American side will have the advantage

proper contains a large percentage of excellent soil, but before Her agriculture can be developed to any extent there will have to be a system of artificial drainage, the largest proportion of the country being at present unsuitable for cultivation without this. The Canadian Pacific Railroad own 25,000,000 acres of land, and are at present selling it at 2|dols., with a rebate of half the price if broken within five years; and are also giving favourable rates for settlers and their belongings. The Government have not been over to locate their land yet, so that they have been unable to make any sales ; but up to the end of August they have had at their land office at Winnipeg, applications for over 500,000 acres of land. The price of the railroad lands and the condition of sale is next to nothing, and this alone will influence an immense amount of immigration to the North-West. That good crops can be grown there is not the least doubt, both quality and quantity of grain being good. More than 100 miles west of Winnipeg, the wheat growing land gets gradually thinner and of a more sandy nature. Theoretically speaking, it will not stand the same amount of cropping as the heavier river bottom lands in the east, but is sufficiently heavy to stand continuously for a number of years and for any length of time with prudent management. The question is, will it pay to keep stock here and feed them under cover for six or seven months a year. Both sheep and cattle are kept for home use and consumption, but to a very limited extent as yet. Mr. M’Beth says that both do well in the Kildonan settlements. This old gentleman also showed me soil which had been cropped constantly since 1825 with only an occasional turn of summer fallow, and still grows as good crops as ever. This was, however, Red River soil about four feet deep. That the climate is unhealthy for horses is admitted;; that cattle thrive well enough, and also sheep, is a matter of fact. But whether it will pay to grow them for export is an open question which actual experiment only can prove. At first it will pay to grow cattle to supply the immigrants who are pouring in. The patriotic wish to be under the British flag sends many loyal Britons to the Canadian side of the line. So far as I can see, the laws are somewhat similar on both sides. Any difference there is in this matter is that they are more rigidly enforced on the British side, which makes it the worst side for rogues; for honest men it does not make much difference which side one is on. As the matter stands at present, the American side is best, having the cheapest transportation and the lightest taxes. If the Canadian Government does not wish to curb down what is yet to be the mainstay of the Dominion, it will see that opportunity is given for competition in the one, and that this young province is allowed facilities to reduce the other to a level with neighbouring states, or it will find that the Union Jack will not prove sufficiently attractive to go in opposition to the Yankee dollar on the American side. Were transportation and taxes equal then I would say then Northern Minnesota and Dakota and Manitoba and the North-West were equal too. So far as the matter has gone, the Dominion Government has not treated Manitoba very justly, nor has it allowed her the resources she is justly entitled to. At present the emigrant to either has to pin his faith entirely to raising small grains. So much has been written on the severe climate of this district that most of your readers will know as much about it as I can tell them. There cannot be a doubt about it being healthy, and as little doubt about it being excessively cold all through a long winter. The water is also bad, in many districts very bad, but is always plentiful. The only fuel is wood, which in the neighbourhood of timber is moderate in price, and where at a a distance, is comparatively dear. Sawn timber is very moderate in price for a frontier place. Implements and machinery are St. Paul price, with freight added. To intending emigrants I would say, look well round before locating, and do not regret after you settle. Ror mixed stock and crop farming one can do almost better anywhere than in the North-West. The country is not suitable for anything but small grains in comparison with other districts further south. Ror growing wheat it is, of course, first, with the exception of Oregon and Washington, which may beat it in quantity, but never equal it for quality. In this northern country, comprising the basin of the Red River, the Scotch Rife No. 1 hard wheat stands at the head of the tree for quality, compared with all American wheats, and for quality can only be equalled in Hungary and Southern Russia. — Glasgow Herald.