8 MANITOBA AND THE NORTH-WEST.
and thistles were brought in with seed from the States, others again
maintain these noxious weeds came from Ontario. Two large
farms, which I visited here, were to let or sell. One was the Jellv
farm which at one time belonged to a contractor of that name, who
had speculated, lost money and finally mortgaged the farm to the
Commercial Bank of Winnipeg, whose property it now is. This
farm had 200 acres ploughed; Ioo of which were newly broken. It
was let at the end of April to a Mr. Macdonald, an Ontario farmer,
who sowed i50 acres with wheat and the rest with oats and barley.
Although sown so late as it was (the last of it only being put in
by about tlie middle of June), a good average crop was reaped and
an ample retum for the investment realized. The other farm is
known as the Patterson farm; 312 acres in extent, which is the pro-
perty of Messrs. Allan & Brydges, banlers, of Winnipeg. About
40 acres were under cultivation. I was offered the rental of this
farm for a merely nominal suni, and realizing that it would be a
most practical way of furthering my investigations, I determined
to accept, and made an agreement with Mr. Ronaldson that he
should do the labour and plough I5 acres more,-myself to supply
the seed,-and that we should equally divide the proceeds. We
sowed 25 acres with wheat, 15 with oats, and the remainder with
two-rowed barley. The wheat was sown on the 23rd of April and
reaped on the I7th of August; the oats were sown on the I7th of
May and reaped on the 3oth of August; and the barley was sown on
the I4th of May and reaped on the I6th August.
BRANDON.
I left Winnipeg on the 29th April for Vancouver, on the Pacific
coast, breaking my journiey at Brandon, Moosomin, Indian Head,
Medicine Hat and Calgary, long enough to make me acquainted
with these localities, for it was my intention to.thoroughly inspect
the country on my return trip. While at Brandon I visited the
experimental farm, where by that date they had already got most
of their seeding done. At Mr. Sandison's gigantic grain farm,
3,0oo acres in crop, they were sowing Red Fyfe wheat, of a grade
known as No. 2, regular, with two Gatling gun seeders. The grain
was being sown broadcast on wheat stubble and being ploughed in.
At the Brassey Colonization Company's farms at Indian Head they
were seeding with six press drills on land where the stubble had