Mr. Ogilvie, in the splendid report of his survey in 1888 (Sessional papers, 4th Ses. 6th Parlt.), made a special and most comprehensive reference to the agricultural capabilities of the Mackenzie country. Mr. Ogilvie’s reputation as an experienced and most accurate observer justifies an extended quotation from this section of the report.—“Everywhere, the Mackenzie basin”, he wrote (p. 82), “is quite as capable, so far as quality of soil is concerned, of supporting an agricultural population, as the greater part of the provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The soil, as seen from the river, is generally good, and the probability is that it continues so at least as far back from the stream as the woods extend. This extent is said to vary from twenty to forty miles on the east side, where no stream flows in, but where there are streams the distance is much greater, as the timber follows the valleys. Beyond the fringe of timber we come to the so-called barren lands, on which nothing but mosses and lichens grow and which, except as the pasturage of the musk-ox and a few other animals, are practically useless, so far as known at present. On the west side of the river the woods extend to the timber line on the mountains.
“Assuming the limits to be as above, the area of the fertile soil can readily be found. Speaking only of that portion of Mackenzie basin extending from Athabaska lake to Arctic ocean, we have a strip of land nine hundred and forty miles long, and something over sixty wide. This gives in round numbers sixty thousand square miles of land, the agricultural capabilities of which we may reasonably discuss. I think the above area is less than that actually wooded, but on the west side much of the surface is probably at such an elevation, being near the mountains, as to be outside the limits of our discussion. Theoretically, the points involved are the prevalent temperatures during the growing months, the period of vegetation and the duration of sunshine.
Temperature and Sunlight.
“I do not know of any regular record of temperature having been kept at Fort McPherson, the most northerly point at which anyone is permanently settled in the district. The only information which I have is my own record for the last ten days of June while I was camped in the valley near the fort. The lowest temperature during that period was 37.3° Fahr. on June 20, and the mean minimum from June 20 to June 30 was 43.3° Fahr. The highest observed temperature during the same period was 74° Fahr. at 1:30 p.m. on June 21, and the mean temperature at that hour for the ten days was 62° Fahr. The lowest of these temperatures would not injure vegetation. The mean minimum for the whole month would be below this, probably two or three degrees, but even that would not arrest vegetable growth. When, in connection with the temperature, we consider the number of hours of sunshine in June and July, it seems evident that Fort McPherson has all the essentials for the successful cultivation of most cereals and vegetables. At this northern point refraction extends the time during which the sun does not set, so that there are about twenty-four hours of sunshine each day from June 1 to July 15. On May 1, the sun is up for about seventeen and one-half hours, and during August the hours of sunlight vary from nineteen on the 1st to fifteen on the 31st. The total hours of sun are seven hundred and six in May; seven hundred and twenty in June; six hundred and eighty-four in July; and five hundred and twenty-seven in August; in all two thousand six hundred and thirty-seven hours of sun out of the total, day and night, of two thousand, nine hundred and fifty-two hours in the four months. As twilight continues while the sun is less than eighteen degrees below the horizon there is actually no darkness during this period. When the temperature is suitable, vegetation under these conditions thrives to an almost incredible degree, as the following shows. When I arrived at Fort McPherson on June 20, the new buds on the trees were just perceptible, and on the evening of June 22, the trees were almost fully in leaf.
“The mean minimum temperature for the month of July was 45.4° Fahr. The mean temperature for 1:30 p.m. was 64.7° Fahr., but on two occasions the thermometer went to 78° in the shade, and ten times to 70°. These temperatures were noted along the river, at different points of course, although during the greater part of the month my latitude did not change very much.
View on Peel river.
“This combination of favorable temperature and long hours of sunlight promises well for vegetable growth, but there are interfering causes. Unfortunately snow storms are apt to occur at any time during the year at Fort McPherson. On July 2, five inches of snow fell and the thermometer went down to 25° (7° below freezing point), yet, strange to say, the frost did not appear to hurt anything. A northeast wind continuing for a day or more, lowers the temperature in a few hours from pleasant, summer heat to what reminds one of the approach of winter.
“As far as I could learn, no attempt at cultivating cereals or roots has been made at Fort McPherson. But at Fort Good Hope some of the people grow potatoes and other garden produce, and, as the difference of latitude is not much over a degree, the same things ought to grow nearly as well at Fort McPherson. The potatoes grown at Fort Good Hope are small, averaging about the size of a large hen’s egg. Those which I tasted were bad, as if they had been frozen, but they were of the previous season’s growth, and it was then the middle of July. Even in Ontario potatoes of that age are not very palatable. This tuber appears to have always vitality enough to increase, as at Fort Good Hope they have had
No Change of Seed for Several Years.