Prairie Land on lower Nelson river.
“It begins to thaw at Albany about April 8 or 10. There is a good soil there for six or eight inches, which may be gained within about a fortnight after the beginning of the thaw; that in two or three weeks more, as the weather happens, it thaws to the depth of two feet, commonly by the beginning of May. The frost sets in again about the beginning of October, and when the witness was there, October 4, it came in very hard. The witness believes there is time enough to grow wheat, for if summer grain were sown early in the southernmost parts, he thinks there would be time for it to ripen and to gather it in, but the frosts break sooner up in the country and come in later. There are vast tracts of land fit for cultivation, and the witness has seen very good lettuce, spinach, dewberries, strawberries and black cherries. The Indians very rarely eat any bread, nor do they live long enough in one place to raise corn, nor have they any yams or potatoes, their provisions being fish and flesh, which they preserve by drying it, not having the art of salting. In case they were interested in the arts of tillage, he does not know whether they would stay in a place long enough to raise corn, for though they love bread dearly they would rather go hunting than cultivate land. The wild oats he mentioned before never came to seed, being little better than a species of grass. Grass grows there sufficient for the support of cattle, and they have made hay at Albany. If the Company were to grow corn, they apprehend the French would come and take it as they did their sheep in the last war, but they might protect their corn from the Indians. Witness does not think it to the benefit of the Company to grow corn, because they must have a house built at a distance from the factories, and men to watch it, to prevent the home Indians from stealing it. They must also have men to cultivate it, which would be very expensive. The witness cannot determine whether it would not be more so than having their corn from Europe, and he thinks the Company would sow it, if it were for their advantage.”
Mr. John Hayter, another witness, said that he had been house carpenter to the Company six years at Moose river, three years at Churchill, and six months at Albany, and knew that no other trade was carried on there but that of furs. He had seen good barley grow at Moose river, and helped the person who grew it to dig his ground and sow it. It produced about the quantity of half a bushel, which he saw rubbed out. The ear was large, and yielded as well, in the opinion of the witness, as the barley sown on common ground in England. Some of the seed was sown the next year, and it grew again but the witness did not see the produce of it. The person who grew this corn told him the reason why he discontinued sowing corn was that the Governor hindered him. Witness further said that he had made hay at Moose river.
Mr. Edward Thompson, who had been three years at Moose river in the Hudson’s Bay Company’s service as surgeon, being required to give an account of the commodities, soil and climate there, before the committee, said that the chief commodities were the furs of the beaver, the marten, the fox and the bear. He testified that he had seen better barley and oats grow at Moose river than ever he saw in the Orkneys, but the quantity sown was but very small. The seed would bear sowing again, but diminished in goodness. There was suitable enough ground for this corn, but never any encouragement given for sowing it, but quite the reverse, the Governor absolutely forbidding it, for no other reason, as the witness apprehended, but that if corn had been sown, a colony would soon have been erected there, and he could not say whether that would be for the advantage of the proprietors. The witness himself sowed about half a dozen corns of wheat, for a trial, in October, which lay in the ground all winter covered with snow and came to perfection in August. It was sown in a piece of good ground near the foot of a tree, which was in some measure a fence to it. The witness thought that beans, peas, barley and oats would grow there. He never tried it anywhere but at Moose river, but apprehended that corn would grow in the inland countries at a hundred miles distance, even as far north as Port Nelson, for he had found the climate warmer the further one goes inland.
Enoch Alsop, who had been armourer to the Hudson’s Bay Company at Moose river, informed the investigating Committee of 1749 that he had sown barley and oats there, the same seed three years successively, and that it grew very well. He sowed a handful or two of barley and oats at first, mixed with dust and ashes, which produced two or three quarts or a gallon of barley, and he thinks in the third year he had above half a bushel. Governor Stanton then
Forbade Him To Sow Any More
but gave no reason for such prohibition.
Robert Griffin, another of the witnesses, stated that he had been informed that the soil one hundred miles up the country would produce corn. He had seen oats grow to perfection at Albany. He had also seen peas, beans, turnips, salading (sic) and cabbage, and some few carrots. The beans were generally blighted, but the turnips, peas and cabbage, were “in great plenty and perfection.” They had fresh seed sent over every year. The land was then cultivated for about a mile round Albany, being dug with spades upon the breaking of the frost, which generally happened from April 20 to 27.
In his evidence, Mr. Joseph Robson, perhaps the principal witness, explained that there was grass in abundance a yard high in the most northern parts of Hudson bay region he had seen. He did not believe corn would grow in the far north but grain would grow over large areas. He had eaten peas and beans which had been grown at York Factory, in latitude 57°, but he never knew any other corn tried there. The quantity of peas and beans he spoke of was as much as six or eight people could eat, but there were a thousand acres of ground in latitude 57°, which, if cultivated, would produce the same, and there was a much larger tract to the southward. The peas and beans grew by common cultivation, without any force, but the produce was not so large as in England.