Green Lake settlement.
As to agriculture, actual and possible, in Green lake district, Mr. Crean reports:—“At and around the Hudson’s Bay Company’s post on the north end of Green lake there is a considerable settlement of half-breeds. A Roman Catholic mission is established here. Revillon Frères have also a post. The priest has a good garden having all kinds of vegetables, and also a small fruit garden growing currants, gooseberries, raspberries and strawberries. These all thrive and mature. Green lake is important as a stopping place for freighters in winter and consequently large quantities of hay are stacked. Some oats and barley are grown but no real effort has been made to farm. Father Teston of the mission says that he has grown oats and barley for fifteen years in succession and so far has not had a failure. I interviewed a native named Morin, who said that he had grown potatoes, oats and barley in small quantities for thirty-five years and could not recall having ever had a failure. He has never kept a record of when he sowed or when he harvested, neither has the Reverend Father. Morin owns thirty-five head of cattle and twelve head of horses. He has sown wheat on six or seven occasions and it always ripened. In his opinion there is no doubt that wheat could be raised anywhere in the locality. The ice in Green lake goes out early and it is generally very late before it freezes. The summers are always warm and there is ample rain. The gardens, which I saw here, were certainly fine although they were not cared for as they should have been. Weeds were allowed to grow in profusion.”
In his report of his explorations in 1909 along the west side of Green lake, Mr. Crean wrote:—“The crops were not very far advanced when I was there, nor indeed did any resident sow grain to any extent. There was a small field of oats, a small field of barley and the usual gardens. The gardens, as is customary in the fur country, are neglected; but yet the vegetables seem to grow in profusion. Lettuce and radishes in fourteen days grow from the seed to a size fit for table use. On Sunday, July 14, I saw some radishes one and one-half inches in diameter, fourteen days’ growth.”
Meadow lake district.
Oat field at Meadow lake.
Mr. Crean reports most favourably on Meadow lake district, west of Green lake. He says:—“This section of the country is practically prairie and contains, in my opinion, some of the very finest farm land in Canada. The soil is exceedingly rich, there being in some portions twenty-four inches black loam, with clay subsoil. The open prairie country is perhaps twelve miles wide, and extends from Meadow lake almost to the fourth meridian. At the Indian Farm Instructor’s house there was a plot of about five acres of the finest of banner oats. I could not obtain any data as to when these oats had been planted, but saw it on August 1, when it looked very well with good promise of ripening in plenty of time before the frosts. A settler named Evans is situated on the northern boundary of the Indian Reserve. In his garden I saw beans, tomatoes, peas, cauliflower, onions, carrots and parsnips, all doing very well. Mr. Evans came into this country last winter, at least just before the spring, broke this land, harrowing it as well as possible, and planted a garden on the sod on June 12. At Meadow lake there are two or three large herds of cattle which are thriving well. The grass at Meadow lake grows perfectly, and is of the very finest quality for feed. The snow may be deep here, but hay is so easily procured that I am of the opinion that it would balance the scarcity of winter range. There was considerable disagreement amongst the people living in this country as to whether the grass really ripened. I satisfied myself later on (in October) that it really does ripen. The few settlers agree that two loads of hay will winter one animal, that is, two loads for each head of stock, whether yearling or full grown. Hay grows in such profusion that two loads to the animal could easily be obtained for even a large herd of cattle. There is little doubt that cattle fed and finished make better beef than range cattle, and the opportunity of procuring finishing food (ensilage) is always present in the northern latitudes. Hay here is by no means slough grass, but it is the
Finest of Northern Upland Hay.”
Professor John Macoun speaks in the highest terms of the nutriment contained in this kind of hay. That there is ample of it is a certainty. An old settler in this country is Cyprian Morin, who is a fine specimen of the old half-breed or native; born at Methye portage in 1834, he is now as active as a man of thirty. Morin’s mother died four years ago at the age of one hundred and nine years. She was at that time quite capable of doing a good deal of work; in fact, I am told, attended to all the baking. Morin who runs a trading post and has raised barley and garden vegetables every year for twenty years, has also eighty head of cattle and some thirty five horses; he has never tried wheat. He says that the grass must ripen in this country (and it does), as the horses remain fat all winter. About eight miles to the west of Morin, a man named Fiddler has located, who has one hundred and fifty head of cattle and sixteen horses. Last winter his losses were extremely heavy. He told me that he lost seventy head of cattle, but said that it was because the cattle had not recovered from their travelling over the trail from Battleford. William LaRonde who also lives in this locality, his place being situated on Meadow lake, has fifty head of cattle, all doing well. Reverend Father Cochin has lately opened a mission here, and has a rather nice little church, which is not yet finished. He has a good garden this year.”