In the “Mission Field” of January 2, 1882 (a London monthly publication of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel), the Right Reverend Bompas, Bishop of the Church of England in Athabaska and Mackenzie districts (his diocese comprising the centre Arctic watershed of British America), published the following:—“The excellence of the land in Peace river country for farming purposes is well known; the
Soil is Rich and Productive,
and the climate most salubrious. A mission station is established at Fort Vermilion under the charge of the Reverend Arthur Garrioch, and a church is fast approaching completion. Other mission stations have been started at different parts of the river, and in 1878 a mission farm was begun which the bishop hopes will in time obviate the necessity of procuring all the supplies of flour, etc., from Red river, the expense of which, from heavy freights, is so great that every bag of flour by the time it reaches the missionaries north of Athabaska costs upwards of £5.”
It was as superintendent of the mission farms that the head of the Lawrence family, the originators of farming on an extensive scale and by scientific methods in Peace river country, was attracted there.
Besides the satisfactory pioneer attempts at tilling the soil of Peace river country, the raising of live stock was many years ago demonstrated to be successful. As early as 1823 there was an infant ranching industry there, Sir George Simpson’s party having noted a small band of half a dozen horses when approaching Dunvegan.
In the reports of the government explorers a great deal of interesting information will be found as to the soil, climate, and agricultural possibilities of Peace river country.
Professor John Macoun was the first scientific explorer to draw attention to the agricultural possibilities of Peace river country, after making a thorough examination of the natural flora, the soil, climatic conditions, etc. Mr. Macoun had accompanied the first Canadian Pacific Railway survey expedition, and had subsequently been botanist to the geological survey party appointed to investigate this very country. There was much information as to the agricultural possibilities of the country in Professor Macoun’s official reports, and he summarized his conclusions in his book “Manitoba and the Great Northwest,” published in 1882. He defines a tract lying between the upper reaches of Athabaska river and the fifty-seventh parallel of latitude, in Peace river basin, which he considers “may be classed as fertile,” and estimates its area as about thirty-one thousand five hundred and fifty square miles. Speaking of this tract, he states:—“Its average elevation may be stated as little over two thousand feet, and this is maintained with considerable uniformity, for though the general surface slopes slightly from the north and south toward Peace river, the region as a whole may be considered as a plateau through which the great gorge-like valley of the Peace has been excavated.
“The northern banks of Peace river valley are also very generally open grassed, and parts of the valley of the Smoky and other rivers have a similar character. The total area of
Prairie Land, West of Smoky River,
may be about three thousand square miles. The remainder of the surface is generally occupied by second-growth forest, occasionally dense, but more often open and composed of aspen, birch, and cottonwood, with a greater or less proportion of coniferous trees. Some patches of the original forest, however, remain, particularly in the river valleys, and are composed of much larger trees, chiefly coniferous, among which the black spruce is most abundant. Handsome groves of old and large cottonwoods are also to be found in some of the valleys. Where the soil becomes locally sandy and poor, and more particularly in some of the more elevated parts of the ridges before described, a thick growth of scrub pine and black spruce, in which the individual trees are small, is found, and in swampy regions the taramack is not wanting, but grows generally intermixed with the black spruce.