A - - 's Straw Hat Is Also
Very Lovely, It Serves Periodically For A Mark To Shoot At With
The Rifle
On Sunday mornings, or when company come out from town.
We both of us feel much like our old nurse
When we are doing our
mendings, cutting up one set of old rags to patch another; but
thanks to ammonia and hot irons, we flatter ourselves we make them
almost look respectable again.
There is a half-breed called L'Esperance who lives about eight
miles from here, on the banks of the Assiniboine; and one of our
neighbours telling us the other day he had several buffalo robes
to sell, we drove over to inspect them, and saw some real beauties
for ten or twelve dollars; at the Hudson Bay stores, in town, they
ask sixteen for them. L'Esperance himself wasn't at home when we
got there; but his wife, a fine, tall woman, speaking a peculiar
French patois, showed us "around," also the pemmicain, which is
buffalo-meat pounded, dried, and pressed into bags of skins, it
keeping good for years in that way. It looked nasty, but the
children were chewing it apparently with great relish. Whilst in
the shanty we heard a great noise, and, running out, found our
horse, which had either taken right or been stung by some fly,
tearing past us with the buggy through the old lady's potato-field
into the bush. E - - tore after it, and in a few hundred yards
came up to the horse standing trembling, and gazing at the shattered
remains of our poor vehicle. He had tried to turn the corner, when
the whole thing capsized topsy-turvy, and he had almost freed
himself of all the harness; luckily he was considerate enough not
to have given that "one more struggle" which would have indeed
settled the whole question, and obliged us to foot it on our ten
toes home. Curiously enough the shafts were not broken, but the
splinter-bar was. There was quite a procession back to the shanty,
the half-breed woman and one girl dragging the buggy, one child
carrying the cushion, another the whip and wraps, and E - - leading
the horse. We set to work to make good the damage as best we
could, with thin strips of buffalo-hide, and started homewards;
but without buying our robes, not daring to add to our weight. The
man at the ferry-boat gave us an extra binding up, and by going
cautiously we got home, though we feared every moment would be our
last, as regards driving, as the bound-up parts creaked most
ominously all the way, and we fully expected at every rough bit to
go in half. The horse is generally so quiet that we never mind
where we leave him standing. I luckily have just given A - - a new
carriage, which will come in very handy. It is to be a "democrat,"
double seats, and one long enough to be able to carry luggage.
These small buggies are beautifully light, but will carry next to
nothing; and we always have difficulty in accommodating all our
parcels every time we come out of Winnipeg.
* * * * *
June 6th.
A waggon is going into town to-morrow to fetch a sulky and a gang-
plough, and some potatoes for seeding; and we hope a few also of
the latter for eating, as hitherto our only vegetables have been
white beans and rice. You may be wondering what these ploughs are:
a sulky is a single-furrowed sixteen inch plough, to which are
harnessed three horses, a man riding on a small seat and driving
them instead of walking; and a "gang" is a two-furrowed twelve-
inch plough, and drawn by four to six horses, and which will break
over four acres a day; the sulky about three. A - - has had one
for some time, but as yet only the deep ploughing or backsetting
of last year's breaking has been going on, and until the seeding
and harrowing is finished, which ought to have been done before
now, but this year has been delayed by the lateness of the spring,
and the snow being so long in melting, no fresh breaking has been
begun.
There are still about two hundred and eighty acres to break, or, more
properly speaking, two hundred and forty, as forty acres are in marsh,
in which water stands so deep no cultivation would be possible,
though, later on, the marshes yield beautiful crops of hay; rather
coarse-looking stuff, but undeniably nutritious, and not distasteful
to either horses or beast. It has often been speculated as to whether
there was any means of draining the marshes, but, owing to the extreme
level character of the country, you could get no fall, and tiles would
not do on account of the severity of the frosts, which penetrate
deeper into the ground than the drains could be carried. The
Government have cut good-sized ditches at right angles to the river,
and they are found to be the only practical drainage which is
feasible, and, when once cut and the water set running, have no
tendency to fill up, but gradually wear deeper and broader, so that in
time they almost become small rivers. We have one running through our
west marsh, and on a bye-day we sometimes fish in it for pike; not
that any of our party have been successful, but some of our neighbours
catch fish, and very fair-sized ones.
The land is wonderfully rich and good. A black loam (which colour is
no doubt due, partly, to the gradual accumulation of the charred
grasses left by prairie fires), of about two feet in depth, with a
clay and sandy sub-soil, and in which, they say, they will be able to
grow cereals for the next twenty years, without manure or its
deteriorating; though if there was only time to do it before the snow
falls, it seems a pity not to put the manure on to the land instead of
burning it, as they do at the present moment.
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