The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1879-08-21
England's Granaries in the Northwest.


/ things viii continue, and that no fruit
ful source of production may not be
/ opened within the British dominions?
i Some facts brought out within the past
/ tWeiVemonth cast much doubt upon this
/ question, and have awakened public at
tention to the rich harvests derivable
from the British possessions in the
! Northwest.
1t is probable that no alluvial soil on
/ this continent is better suited to the
growth of wheat than the meadow lands
adj dining the Red River of the North,
| four-fith of whose tortuoUs course lies
within our own borders. It was not
/ generally understood, however, until
the fact was demonstrated by recent
! survey, that this valley constitutes only
1 the insignificant southern extremity of a
vast fertile belt. This arabic zone,
adapted by its conditions of soil and eli
mate to luxuriant production of the
more hardy cereals, sweeps in north
western direction, and with a
breadth of three hundred miles,
along the course of the two Saskatche-
wan Rivers, and thence to the Rocky
Mountains, embracing an area of at
/ least 200,000,000 acres, nearly the whole
of which is virgin prairie. The large
promise of this region has only recently
tistics of its wheat crops, to which we
will presently refer, have already in
duced strong inflow of immigration;
moreover, the reports of competent en-
gineers affirm that the difficulties of ac-
cess and transport can be easily RENE
died, and that by the construction of a
/ canal, not more than 63 miles in length,
/ the entire tract might be brought with
| In the fiuvial systems of the st. Lawrence
and Mississippi.
Heretofore most of the districts culti-
waited have lain in the immediate vicini-
| tY of Lake Winnipeg, which receives the
drainage of what Lord Dufferin, in his
! speech at Manitoba, ventured to term
the future wheat field of the world. The
/ Importance of its main feeder, the two
armed Saskatchewan, may be inferred
from the fact that last season a steamer
/ belonging to the HudsOn's Bay Com
pany made a trip of over 1000 miles
from the lake along the north branch of
that stream. The present outlet of
/ this Northwest water system is
the broad and deep but head
! long river Nelson, which, issuing
| from the northeast angle of the Winnl-
peg reservoir, discharges the surplus
waters of the latter into Hudson's Bay.
| The slope of the Nelson, it appears, does
not exceed twenty inches to the mile,
which, after all, is not more than is
safely contended with on other rivers in
! Europe and the United States. Its
mouth, on salt water, forms natural,
safe harbor, from which, for the last
two centuries, a number of vessels have
annually sailed for England. Indeed,
Port Nelson, although situated in $50 of
west longitude, is eighty miles nearer to
| Liverpool than is New York. There is
no question about its accessibility for
ocean steamers from June to October,
and it only remains to be proved wheth-
er these same vessels can not force a
passage up the current of the Nelson
waterway, and load their cargOes di-
Tectly at the mouths of the Saskatche-
wan, the Red, or the Winnipeg Rivers
in the heart of the arabic Northwest.
! This is the natural avenue of discharge,
but, as we have said, an artificial chan
Iel might be secured without excessive
outlay which would bring this section
within the circuit of the St. Lawrence
navigation.
a word as to the relative yield of wheat
per acre in the northwest possessions of
| Great Britain and in the United States.
| We may here notice the general conclu-
sion reached by climatolOgists, that the
cultivated plants of temperate zones
yield the greatest products near the
northernmost limits at which they grow.
! 1t seems that in southern latitudes the
warm spring develops the juices too
rapidly, and the plants run into stalk
and leaf, to the detriment of the seed
maize, for example, in the West Indies
often reaching a height of 80 feet. while
it produces only few grains at the bot
tom of a spongy cob, too coarse for hu-
man food. Whatever be the cause, the
registered returns from the Canadian
northwest indicate that its soil is un-
usually prolific. In South Minnesota,
20 bushels is the average crop; in Wis
consin, only IA; in Pennsylvania and
Ohio, 15. North of the Canadian line
they get much larger yield than this.
Thus in q miles along the Assiniboine
River, in 1877, over 100000 bushels
were harvested that averaged above
80 bushels to the acre. Again, the re-
turns from Prince Albert and other new
outposts or the Saskatchewan show a
yield of 40 bushels of spring wheat to
the acre, averaging 63 pounds to the
, bushel. Summing up the reports
from "a different settlements in
: 1877, and disregarding the circumstance
that a series OF heavy rain storms
2 caught the wheat just as it was ripen-
ing, we get a general average per acre
of 324 bushels, while the mean yield OF
barley was 424; of oats, 81; of pota.
toes, 229; and of turnips, 662. 1t ap,
pears that all root crops thrive particu,
larly well, potatoes having returned, in
4 some instances, as. high as 600, and
: turnips 1000 bushels to the acre.
2 Such are the comparative agricultu
e raj capabilities of the Winnipeg system
), Let us now glance at the steps taken tc
: turn it to account through immigration
}. 1t must be remembered that this infiu1
q dates back only for a year or two, that
t it must be delayed each season unit
r after the opening of navigation, anC
S may be expected to acquire much greater
: momentum after the not remote com
S pletion of railroad communication. A.
e it is, the accession of settlers since 1877
; is sufficiently noteworty; in that yea
J, the total sales to S07 colonists footed VI
# 153, 900 acres in 1877 the amount of lanI
o distributed to 2,283 applicants was 400,
# 600 acres; in the last twelve months, Oh
S the other hand it is computed that no
6 less than 100000 acres of wheat lanl
Is were allotted to actual settlers in tn
= vicinity of Lake Winnipeg alone. Yer,
favorable reports come to us, moreover
respecting the character of the emigra
+ ton. 1t is said that many of the nev
'e comers are well-to-do farmers from tn
e wheat-growing districts of Ontario, o
d from Northern Iowa, Wisconsin, an
l. other States of the Union. These at
h men who have sold their homesteads 9
& high prices, and who carry their expe
sr rience of pioneer life and cultivation +
1t the untouched and more fecund prairie
II of Manitoba.
y ATo For- TF7An hot