Читать книгу The Unexploited West - Ernest J. Chambers - Страница 11

Early Agricultural Experiments and Their Success.—Evidence before the Parliamentary Committee of 1749.—Testimony of Official Explorers and Residents.—Many Areas Fit For Agriculture Described.—Wild Fruits Grow in Profusion.—Successful Gardens.—Much Country Capable of Improvement by Drainage.—Climate Inland Warmer Than Further East.—Natural Hay Meadows.—The Clay Belt.

The region west of James bay and southwest of Hudson bay, being the southern portion of the area known up to the time of the creation of the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan as the district of Keewatin, and comprising the territory recently (1912) annexed to the provinces of Ontario and Manitoba, was the first part of the still unexploited northwest with which white men came into touch.

Some years elapsed between its discovery by Henry Hudson and Sir Thomas Button in 1610 and 1612 and the establishment of the first posts therein by the Hudson’s Bay Company at the mouths of Albany, Severn, Nelson and Churchill rivers. These posts were established and have since been maintained entirely for the purpose of the fur trade, and consequently no settlements have sprung up around them, and there has been no systematic attempt to exploit the agricultural possibilities of the adjacent areas. Nevertheless, it was some of the older servants of the big fur company who first drew attention to the fact that this region had agricultural possibilities, and it was from the posts on the bay that the first explorations of the interior were made. Of recent years, much information as to the agricultural possibilities of this area has been obtained by explorers of the Geological Survey of Canada, and through the explorations attendant upon the surveys for the location of the Hudson Bay Railway, which is projected to run in a northeasterly direction across this region from The Pas to Port Nelson.

The main object of those who secured the appointment of a select committee of the British House of Commons in 1749, to inquire into the condition of the Hudson bay territory and the trade carried on there (See page 8), was to secure the cancellation of the Company’s monopoly and to throw the country open to settlement. With this object in view much evidence was produced to show that the territory offered inducements to colonists, and, as inscribed in the pages of the official report, this gives us the earliest account of pioneer agriculture in this region, and an idea of the possibilities of the country from the old timers’ points of view.

Mr. Richard White, one of the witnesses examined before the committee, said that he went to Albany Fort in the year 1726, as clerk to the Company, and remained there seven years, and that he had been ten years at Churchill, which was the northernmost fort. He testified that “the Governor at Albany had a garden in which peas, beans, turnips and salad grew as well and plentiful as in England, but he never knew of seed raised in that country to have been sown again. He saw a small quantity of barley growing near Moose river in August, which is about two months before the cold weather, which barley was in the ear, but not full, but as he has never been used to tillage, he is a very indifferent judge in those matters.”

Mr. White stated that “he apprehended the countries adjoining to Hudson bay might be settled and improved, and that in the southern parts, oats, barley and peas would grow, but if persons were allowed to settle, he did not apprehend they could at first subsist by the cultivation of lands only he did not know why the Company did not grow their own corn, nor whether any proposal had been made to them for that purpose, for he really thought corn would grow there, which certainly would tend much to the advantage of the Company, as well as to the security of persons residing there. Their common provisions were fish and fowl, and they had no bread but what came from England; that all grain kept there very well, except peas; that in a general way they had two years’ provisions beforehand in their forts, especially of bread.”

Being asked if the Indians could not cultivate corn for one-third of the price it costs in Europe, this witness said—“The Indians are in general a slothful people and cultivate no corn.”

Soil Good and Climate Mild

Another of the witnesses examined before the committee, Mr. Matthew Sergeant, stated that while in the Company’s service he had been twelve miles up the country at York Factory, thirty miles up the river from Albany Fort, and had travelled by land from Moose river to Albany Fort, one hundred miles along the coast. The soil was good and produced good turnips, the climate for four months in the year being mild.

The record of the evidence continues:—“The good soil is not quite two feet deep, when you come to a stratum of loam and sand. In some places the frost is never out of the ground, but you may dig through it. The turnips he has eaten there are as good as ever he ate in England, but he does not know whether seed raised there would produce the same. It is the general opinion at York Factory that the soil is proper for wheat, barley, rye or oats. He has seen very good peas and beans grow there, but he never saw any corn grow there, except some wild oats; and that his mess-mate did sow some corn there, which, though it grew a good height, never came to perfection; but, in the opinion of the witness, oats would ripen at Albany, where he has seen a cherry-tree bearing black cherries. He has seen the Indians bring down currants, which, they said, grew in their country. They also brought down sugar, which was very black, and made from the tree of which their paddles are made; that the Indians informed the witness that there are large lakes behind the factory; that the witness had been in a lake ten miles long, without any fall going to it.