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. Perhaps when all the
land is broken, which they hope will be by the end of next summer,
they won't be so pushed for work as they are.
The ground here requires a great deal of cultivation. It is first
of all broken with a fourteen or sixteen inch plough, so shaped
that it turns the sod over as flat as possible, generally from the
depth of two to two-and-a-half inches deep, the shallower the
better, and then left to rot with the sun and rain for two months
and a half.
It has often been tried, and with very good results, to put in a
crop of oats on the first breaking, sowing broadcast and turning a
very thin sod over them; and the sod pulverizes and decomposes
under the influence of a growing crop quite as effectually as if
only turned over and left to itself. There are also fewer weeds,
which is of importance, as it often happens that the weeds which
grow soon after the breaking are as difficult to subdue as the
sod. If the soil is nice and soft a man and team of horses will
break an acre and a half a day, and average throughout the season
an acre. The breaking goes on until the middle of July, and the
end of August the "backsetting" begins, which is ploughing the
same ground over again about two inches deeper.
The following spring the harrows (which are "disc" of a peculiar
shape, twelve to eighteen razor-wheels on an axle, and in going
round cut through and break any sods), are run over repeatedly
both before and after the seeding; the ground is also rolled and
then left, and for the two-and-a-half bushels of oats or two
bushels of wheat-seed per acre, hopes for a grand return being
always entertained.
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