Very Seldom Are There Any Losses,
except by wolves, or when the Indians are starving they may quietly dispose of one or two and report them lost.
“At Dunvegan, the Company has grown wheat, barley, oats, potatoes, and garden stuff generally for many years with astonishing success. When I was there in 1883-84, I saw grain and vegetables fully equal in quality and quantity to any I have ever seen anywhere, the garden vegetables being especially fine. Last year everything was harvested and stored when I got there, but what I saw of the produce was excellent. I saw two sunflowers which measured fourteen inches across the disc. With the corolla attached, these flowers would have been nearly two feet in diameter. The seeds of each weighed fourteen ounces and measured nearly a quart. A head of cabbage was shown from which I stripped off all the loose leaves leaving it fit for cooking and then measured and weighed it. It measured fifty-three and one-half inches in circumference, and weighed twenty-eight and one-half lbs. This was an exceptionally large head, of course, but the general run of both cabbage and cauliflower was large and would be considered so anywhere. Mr. Round, the officer in charge of the post, told me he two years ago made a departure from the old fashioned method of growing these plants, and instead of developing them in hot beds, he simply planted the seed once for all in drills in the garden, and when they arrived at the proper stage, pulled out the superfluous ones. He found this method just as satisfactory and much less troublesome. The other garden vegetables were just as large and good as one would wish to see them. Mr. Round informed me he planted fifteen bushels of potatoes last summer, and after using them freely for the sustenance of his family (five members) and the servants, in all eight or ten, from the time they were fit for use, until they were harvested, he harvested upwards of two hundred bushels. He sowed about four bushels of wheat, and though the dry season much affected the result he would have about sixty bushels. This grain is used in various ways, some of it being ground into flour by the aid of small hand mills. He sowed four bushels of oats, and though part of the crop was destroyed by a hail storm, one hundred bushels were threshed. In 1890 he planted twenty-five bushels of potatoes, and though they were freely used from the time they were fit for use until harvested, seven hundred and twelve bushels were harvested. The Anglican and Roman Catholic missions here also successfully raise both grain and vegetables, the latter depending for much of their subsistence on the results of their agricultural labours.
“This post has been in existence for the greater part of a century, and more or less farming has always been done at it during that time.”
Mr. Ogilvie embodied in his report a number of extracts from the Dunvegan post journal which are interesting as conveying an idea of the
Climate and the Growth of Vegetation.
Some of these extracts are worth requoting here:—
“1829. Ice began to move in the river April 12. Sowed barley April 17; planted potatoes April 30; cut barley August 10; cut wheat August 25; harvested potatoes September 24; first snow October 21; first drift ice October 24.
“1830. Ice broke up April 28; sowed thirty quarts of wheat May 3; sowed garden seeds May 4; planted potatoes May 5; cut wheat September 14; commenced digging potatoes September 27; first drift ice October 29; ice set fast November 25.
“1886. Ice started to break up April 13; sowed barley May 12; planted turnips May 13; planted potatoes May 17; began harvesting operations August 20; cut buckwheat September 2; harvested potatoes September 23; stored nine hundred and eighty-four bushels; slight snow October 12; first ice drifting November 10; ice set fast November 30.