In the Dominion Government Pacific Railway report of 1878 it is stated (p. 333):—“Mr. Hardisty, late Chief Factor in charge of Fort Simpson in latitude 61·8°, informed Professor Macoun that barley always ripened there; that wheat was sure four times out of five. Melons if started under glass ripened well, frost seldom doing them much harm.” In the 1880 report Reverend D. M. Gordon is quoted (p. 102) as authority for the statement that “wheat is grown as far north as Fort Simpson.” In the report of 1878 (p. 333) it is also stated:—“Chief trader Macdougall, in 1875, said all kinds of grain and garden stuff always come to maturity at Fort Liard (latitude 60·25°).”
In 1882 Doctor Bompas, the heroic Church of England Bishop of Mackenzie river, in the course of a report to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, wrote:—“The English schoolmaster at Simpson has made successful experiments of farming in that northern region, and through his energetic labours a good crop of barley was raised in the mission fields; also some wheat and potatoes, beans, pease, beet roots and other vegetables.”
The evidence taken before the select committee of the Senate of Canada in 1888 as to agricultural possibilities in Mackenzie valley, excited general interest.
Many Natural Prairies.
The Right Reverend Isidore Clut, O.M.I., missionary Bishop of Arindele, whose diocese included Mackenzie basin, and whose name is still held with reverence throughout this country, examined before the Committee stated that in several places in the basin of the Mackenzie there were a great number of natural prairies, those with round hay and those with flat hay. The round hay, in certain places, grew from three to five feet in height. The flat hay was also very fine but a little shorter. It grew everywhere in the low and wet places.
At the Roman Catholic mission at Providence, the residence of the bishop, one year he had one thousand four hundred and forty barrels of potatoes—(one barrel, ten gallons)—from sixty kegs of seed, but this was a very favourable year. They had been greatly favoured by the heat and by rain at opportune times. On two or three occasions they had had a thousand and twelve hundred barrels of the same roots.
At the Providence mission there was an excellent clay, which was very good for cultivation. Throughout the country in general the bishop found all sorts of land, black soil, loam, clay, sand, marl, etc. Generally they harvested their potatoes at Providence from September 20 to 30. Turnips, carrots, beets, etc., they harvested a little later. Wheat on the banks of Peace river and Liard river was ripe towards the end of August; at Athabaska and at Providence from September 15 to 25. Barley was ripe a little sooner throughout. Rye does not ripen any sooner than wheat, but witness had not made many experiments, for the reason that they like wheat better than rye. Oats they harvested at the same time as wheat, but they had sowed them only once. Potatoes they harvested at Athabaska and at Providence, from September 20 to 30. Turnips, carrots, beets, radishes, etc., they harvest later. Indian corn generally cannot get ripened below Athabaska or on the Mackenzie. Strawberries commenced to ripen towards July 15; gooseberries ripened towards the end of August, and at the commencement of September. Raspberries and currants come after the strawberries. There were also in places many blueberries, cranberries, and other small fruits, such as poires sauvages (Saskatoon), etc. Barley ripened at Fort Norman, at the mouth of Great Bear lake river. Consequently it grew at Fort Wrigley, Fort Simpson, and at Fort Providence. In Liard river and Peace river countries it succeeded also very well. Brother Kearney and the Hudson’s Bay Company had grown potatoes at Fort Good Hope (Arctic circle). At the mission at Providence, and at all the Roman Catholic missions on Mackenzie river, Liard river, Peace river and Slave river, etc., potatoes and other vegetables were
Cultivated Very Successfully.
Wheat grew, according to the Bishop’s evidence, at Providence mission, and at Fort Simpson, but it rarely arrived at perfect maturity. It ripened much better on the borders of Liard river and Peace river. At the mission of the Nativity (Chipewyan at Lake Athabaska) they had often grown fine wheat. At the mission of the Nativity (Athabaska), at Fort Resolution (Great Slave lake), at Fort Smith, at the mission of Fort Providence, they sowed from the time the land began to thaw, that is to say, from May 15 until June 8 or 10. Throughout the length of Liard and Peace rivers, sowing began a little earlier. At the end of August they had already harvested barley and wheat.
Plants which were deep in the ground, such as potatoes, took a good deal of time to spring up because of the ground being frozen below, but those which were near the surface of the ground commenced to grow very soon, and the nearer one approached the north, for example at the Arctic circle, the more rapidly did the vegetation begin, because of the greater length of the days, or the days being without nights. In 1886 the bishop observed the matter at Good Hope. Towards June 7 or 8, vegetation commenced, and in five or six days the leaves of the trees had reached their natural size. It was because it commenced to be warm then, and very warm, and that continued, save when sometimes north winds set in, which would bring back the snow and cold and sometimes injure the crops.