PENRITH HERALD, September 12, 1874 SUMMARY OF PASSING EVENTS. (re: Manitoba, Canada) MR. W. G. FINNEY, writing from Ealing, has sent to the ‘Times’ two long letters containing valuable information respecting Manitoba and the Great North-West, which cannot fail to prove serviceable to emigrants. The ideas and general impressions entertained with regard to this region are so erroneous that it may be difficult for some people to give ready credence to statements of an opposite kind. Nevertheless MR. FINNEY’s testimony as to the cultivatible capabilities of that part of the Dominion called the “Fertile Belt” affords internal evidence of truthfulness. The length of the Belt is 960 miles, and its average breadth about 250 miles, thus giving 240,000 square miles, of which one-fourth, at the least calculation, is fit for raising wheat and barley. In general appearance the country is said to resemble an immense pasture-field, dotted with clumps of willows and aspens, salt-lakes and fresh-water ponds, ridges, hills, and wide-spread plains. It is essentially a stock-raising land, and MR. FINNEY endorses the opinion that the time is not far distant when the North-West Provinces will be the great emporium for animal food. Some idea of the fertility of the soil of Manitoba (meaning literally “God’s dwelling place” in the Indian language) may be gathered from the fact that fields on the Red River have been known to produce forty successive crops of wheat without fallow or manure. The average yield is 40 bushels per acre. Oats, again, average 60 bushels, weighing over 40 lb. to the bushel. The root crops are also described as being superb; onions, weighing over a pound each, and turnips, carrots, beets, pumpkins, and so forth, being of magnificent growth. Such vegetables as celery, cauliflowers, and cucumbers thrive with corresponding vigour and luxuriance. The climate is pronounced to be remarkably healthy. Though winter nominally lasts five months, the three months of winter proper are December, January, and February, during which the cold is greatest, though the fall of snow is not more than six inches per month. Winter there is said to be the most enjoyable of all the seasons on account of the dry atmosphere, the cloudless days and starry nights. In the waters, excellent fish abound. Gold, silver, and copper, have been found, and a specimen of coal was picked up on the west shore of Lake Winnipeg. In their proper seasons fruits of excellent quality and large size are produced, and there is likewise abundance of game, including moose deer, prairie chicken, and partridges. Winnipeg, the chief town of these provinces, is situated at the junction of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, and is certain to become the emporium for the rapidly developing trade of Lakes Winnipeg and Manitoba. It will thus be seen that Manitoba, which is not so very difficult of access, promises many advantages for emigration purposes over other parts of the Dominion of Canada. ____________________________________________________________ Barb, Ontario, Canada.