2

To the Canadian Far West.

above twelve-are treated and charged as adults on board ship; from one year up to twelve they pay half-fare; infants under one year are allowed to cross the Atlantic for a guinea. On land the children under twelve travel more cheaply; if they are under five no charge is made; between five and twelve they pay half-fare.

The passenger who has crossed the Atlantic in an Allan liner, or in any other steamer plying between British and Canadian ports, reaches Toronto by rail after landing at Halifax, Rimouski or Quebec. Unless he make up his mind and obtain a through ticket before leaving home, he finds at Toronto that he has the choice of three routes to Manitoba. First, he may proceed to Winnipeg by rail-the journey, if continued without stoppage, occupying three days and a half. Second, he may proceed to Sarnia, on Lake Huron, over the Grand Trunk Railway, embark there in a steamer for Duluth, at the head of Lake Superior, where he enters the train for Winnipeg. Third, he may proceed to Collingwood, on Georgian Bay, over the North of Canada Railway, where a steamer will carry him to Duluth, whence he continues his journey as in the second case. The time occupied in the third of these cases is four days and a half, being one day shorter than by the Sarnia route, and one day longer than the

direct route by rail. In addition to the saving in time, the third route has the advantage over the second that the voyage is made along the north shore of Lake Superior, where the scenery is bolder and more varied than on the south. During five months out of the twelve, Lake Superior is closed to navigation; the open season begins at the end of April and closes at the end of November.

Though the trip to Manitoba by rail through United States territory is generally uninteresting, yet the trip by water is sometimes diversified by incident. The railway attracts all the passengers in winter; but the steamers on the Red River of the North are eagerly patronized during the summer time. Having made the trip all the way by rail and partly by rail and partly by water, I can affirm from experience that, by journeying partly by rail and partly by water, an adequate notion can be formed of the country and its insects, while much more can be learned about the people. Besides, the Red River is a stream of sufficient volume and importance to deserve notice. Compared with the Mississippi, the Red River of the North appears insignificant. Nevertheless, as its length from Elbow Lake, in which it rises, to Lake Winnipeg into which it flows, is 900 miles, it merits a place among the great rivers of the world.

4

Course of the Red River.

Two Red Rivers are numbered among the notable streams of the North American Continent. One of them rises in the Territory of New Mexico, flows through the States of Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana, and, joining the Mississippi,helps to swell the volume of the mighty flood which the Father of Waters pours into the Gulf of Mexico. The other, which is known as the Red River of the North, rises in Elbow Lake, in the State of Minnesota. Its source is not far distant from Lake Itaska, which is the fountain-head of the Mississippi. Though that river's course is southward and the course of the Mississippi is northward when both streams first issue from their parent lakes, yet they soon follow the direction which they keep till their race is run. The Red River, in its northerly progress, divides the Territory of Dakota from the State of Minnesota; it enters the Canadian Province of Manitoba at Fort Pembina; it passes by the city of Winnipeg, the capital of that Province, where it is joined by the Assineboine, flowing from the west; it enters Lake Winnipeg, whence it issues under the name of Nelson River; and, finally, it finds its level and a last resting-place in the icy waters of Hudson's Bay. The valley bearing the same name through which it runs is still more remarkable than the Red River itself. For a space which is 400 miles in length by 70 in breadth, that

valley is the finest wheat-growing tract on the continent of North America, if not on the habitable globe.

In

Farming on a scale unparalleled except in California is prosecuted in the Red River Valley. This dates from the year 1875, when several capitalists bought vast tracts of land there. Mr. B. P. Cheney, of Boston, and Mr. Oliver Dalrymple, of St. Paul, purchased 5000 acres of which 3500 were under cultivation in 1879. 1877 they harvested 42,000 bushels of wheat, 6000 of oats, and 3000 of barley. The machinery on this farm comprises 40 ploughs, 16 seeders, 40 harrows, 16 harvesters, 3 steam thrashing machines, and 3 portable steam-engines. As many as a hundred men are employed at the busiest season. Mr. Cass has a farm of 6000 acres, nearly the whole of which is sown with wheat. Large though these farms are, yet they seem small in comparison with that belonging to Mr. William Dalrymple; it covers 30 square miles. The area sown with wheat in 1878 was 20,900 acres; the yield was 250,000 bushels. Seventy-five reaping and binding machines were used to harvest the crop, the work being done at the rate of 1000 acres a day. This farm is managed on the plan of a factory. It is divided into sections of 2000 acres, over each of which an overseer is placed;

6

Mammoth Farms.

he carries out the orders of Mr. Dalrymple just as a Brigadier-General carries out the orders of the Commander-in-Chief of an army. Comfortable dwellings are provided for the overseers, while there is a boarding-house for the accommodation of the farm-labourers. Each section has its granary, stables, machine-shop, and engine-house. Indeed, the vast estate is really divided into a number of separate farms, each complete in itself, and all subject to a common head. Four hundred and fifty labourers and upwards of three hundred horses and mules are employed on this farm three bookkeepers are required to register the accounts, and two cashiers to receive and disburse the money. Indeed the whole arrangements are designed to assimilate the production of grain to the operations of a manufactory. The idyllic side of farming has no place here. The farmer is a capitalist; the farm-labourer is called a "hand" and treated as one. Advocates of spade-husbandry will see nothing to admire in this wholesale method of cultivating the soil, and they will maintain that if this system should grow in favour, the day must arrive when, in the United States as in certain European countries, there will be a permanent and rigid separation between the tillers of the soil and its owners. However, while land continues as plentiful and as easily acquired in