“1887. Ice started April 27; sowed oats April 29; sowed other seed May 2; commenced planting potatoes May 5; sowed garden seeds May 9; sowed peas May 11; finished planting potatoes May 28; planted fifty bushels; severe frost June 7, injuring young vegetables, etc., severe frost again on June 25, cutting down everything to the ground, potatoes and all; July 29 new potatoes for the first time; first snow fell on September 16; commenced taking up potatoes September 20; harvested six hundred and eighteen bushels; took up turnips and carrots September 5; first drift ice in river October 24, but it cleared out again and returned November 12; set fast November 29.
“1888. Ice moved May 1; began sowing barley May 9; began planting potatoes May 10; sowed oats and wheat May 15; sowed garden seeds May 16; sowed turnips May 28; slight frost August 1, injured garden stuff; cut barley September 5; cut oats September 7; started taking up potatoes September 27; finished October 3, five hundred and twenty-nine bushels; took up turnips October 5; first snow October 15; first ice in river October 27; ice set fast November 27.”
Mr. Ogilvie continues, in his report:—
“I would now call particular attention to the mention of frost in June, 1887, and to the fact that it cut down vegetables to the ground. Alone there is nothing very wonderful about the statement, as it is just what we would expect frost to do; but in conjunction with using new potatoes for the first time on July 29, just one month after the frost, and the further fact that
Six Hundred and Eighteen Bushels Were Harvested,
it is most astonishing. Mr. Round, the officer who made the entry, was a witness of the event, and he is a gentleman whose sanity I would as soon doubt as his word. I questioned him about it and he assured me emphatically of its correctness. He can offer no explanations, if it is not that a fog generally settles on the river valley after a frost and shields plants from the direct rays of the sun a good part of the day; but even that does not account for this case, as he assures me the potatoes were cut down, black, to the ground.
“The Reverend J. G. Brick, Anglican missionary, who spent some time at Dunvegan, combining farming with mission work, in 1886 started what might be called a branch farm at Old Wives lake, about thirty-six miles from Dunvegan, on the cart trail, between the latter place and Smoky river crossing, on the plateau above the immediate valley of the river. Reference will be made to this later.
“In 1889, he established himself in the valley of the river on the north side, about five miles above the mouth of Smoky river. Here he has established a mission and a school for the education of the young, on which he bases all his hopes for the improvement of the natives. He keeps this school open during the winter months, and as an inducement to attend, he gives all the children who live at a distance their dinner.
“This gentleman took in with him a large outfit of farm implements and stock. He has a small grist mill and threshing mill, with which he threshes and grinds his grain. By grinding his wheat twice it makes a fair article of flour, but his facilities for bolting it are not quite up to the times, consequently his flour is not quite so white as our high grade flour, but it makes good bread, nevertheless.
“He is well satisfied with his success agriculturally. He furnished me with the following information relative to his doings in 1891:—