Imagine A River Flowing
Sluggishly Northward Through A Flat Alluvial Plain, And The West Side
Of It Lined Continuously For
Over thirty miles with cultivated farms,
each presenting those appearances of thrift around them which I
mentioned as surrounding the
First farms seen by us; but each farm
with a narrow frontage on the river of only twenty-four rods in width,
but extending back for one or two miles, and each of these narrow
farms having their dwellings and the farm out-buildings spread only
along the river front, with lawns sloping to the water's edge, and
shrubbery and vines liberally trained around them, and trees
intermingled the whole presenting the appearance of a long suburban
village such as you might see near our eastern sea-board, or such as
you find exhibited in pictures of English country villages, with the
resemblance rendered more striking by the spires of several large
churches peeping above the foliage of the trees in the distance,
whitewashed school-houses glistening here and there amidst sunlight
and green; gentlemen's houses of pretentious dimensions and grassy
lawns and elaborate fencing, the seats of retired officers of the
Hudson's Bay Company occasionally interspersed; here an English
bishop's parsonage, with a boarding or high school near by; and over
there a Catholic bishop's massive cathedral, with a convent of Sisters
of Charity attached; whilst the two large stone forts, at which reside
the officers of the Hudson's Bay Company, or of the colony once called
Upper Fort Garry, and situated at the mouth of the Assinniboin, and
the other termini the Lower Fort Garry, which is twenty miles farther
down the river, helped to give additional picturesqueness to the
scene. I had almost forgotten to mention what is, after all, the most
prominent and peculiar feature of that singular landscape, singular
from its location and that is the numerous wind-mills, nearly twenty
in all, which on every point of land made by the turns and bends in
the river, stretched out their huge sails athwart the horizon, and
seemingly looked defiance at us as invading strangers, that were from
a land where steam or water mills monopolize their avocation of flour
making. One morning as we passed down the principal high road, on our
way to Lower Fort Garry, the wind, after a protracted calm, began to
blow a little; when presto! each mill veered around its sails to catch
the propitious breeze, and as the sails began to revolve, it was
curious to observe the numerous carts that shot out from nearly every
farm-house, and hurried along the road to these mills, to get ground
their grists of spring wheat, with which they were respectively
loaded.
"Another incident during the same trip that struck us oddly, was
seeing two ladies driving by themselves a fine horse hitched to a
buggy of modern fashion, just as much at home apparently as if they
were driving through the streets of St. Paul, or St. Anthony, or
Minneapolis, instead of upon that remote highway towards the North
Pole; but this was not a whit more novel than to hear the pianoforte,
and played, too, with both taste and skill. While another 'lion' of
those parts that met our view was a topsail schooner lying in the
river at the lower fort, which made occasional trips into Great Lake
Winnepeg of the North, a hundred miles below.
"I took occasion during my visit to inquire what success the farmers
met with in securing good crops, and the profits of farmers generally.
As to wheat, I learned that the yield of the spring variety was quite
equal in quantity and quality to the crop of that grain on any more
southern farms; that in raising barley they could almost surpass the
world; and the cereals generally, and all the esculent roots, were
easily raised. Indian corn was not planted as a field crop, though it
was grown in their gardens. In a word, the capacity of their land to
produce almost everything plentifully and well, was established; but
for all this, farming did not afford much profit. for want of a
sufficient market; beyond a small demand by the Hudson's Bay Company,
there was no outlet for their superabundance; and to use an Austrian
phase in regard to Hungarians, the Selkirkers are metaphysically
'smothering in their own fat.' To remedy this state of things they
were beginning, when I was there, to turn their attention towards
raising cattle and horses, for which their country is well calculated;
and the first fruits of this new decision given to their farming
energies, we have already experienced in the droves of both which have
recently been driven from thence and sold in this vicinity."
I think the facts which I have herein hastily set downhill dispel any
apprehension as to the successful cultivation of the soil in the
northern part of the territory. It has a health-giving climate which
before long, I predict, will nourish as patriotic a race of men as
gave immortality to the noble plains of Helvetia. There is one thing I
would mention which seems to auspicate the speedy development of the
valley of the North Red River. Next year Minnesota will probably be
admitted as a state; and a new territory organized out of the broad
region embracing the valley aforesaid and the head waters of the
Mississippi. Or else it will be divided by a line north and south,
including the western valley of that river, and extending as far to
the west as the Missouri River. I understand it will be called
Dacotah, though I at first thought it would be called Pembina. There
is always a rush into new territories, and the proposed new territory
of Dacotah will present sufficient inducements for a large
immigration. When the valley of the North Red River shall be settled,
and splendid harvest fields adorn its banks; when great factories take
the place of wind-mills, and when railroads shall take the place of
Red River carts, then we will have new cause to exclaim,
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