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.
[Illustration: Prairie Land on lower Nelson river.]
“It begins to thaw at Albany about April 8 or 10. There is a good soil there for six or eight inches, which may be gained within about a fortnight after the beginning of the thaw; that in two or three weeks more, as the weather happens, it thaws to the depth of two feet, commonly by the beginning of May. The frost sets in again about the beginning of October, and when the witness was there, October 4, it came in very hard. The witness believes there is time enough to grow wheat, for if summer grain were sown early in the southernmost parts, he thinks there would be time for it to ripen and to gather it in, but the frosts break sooner up in the country and come in later. There are vast tracts of land fit for cultivation, and the witness has seen very good lettuce, spinach, dewberries, strawberries and black cherries. The Indians very rarely eat any bread, nor do they live long enough in one place to raise corn, nor have they any yams or potatoes, their provisions being fish and flesh, which they preserve by drying it, not having the art of salting. In case they were interested in the arts of tillage, he does not know whether they would stay in a place long enough to raise corn, for though they love bread dearly they would rather go hunting than cultivate land. The wild oats he mentioned before never came to seed, being little better than a species of grass. Grass grows there sufficient for the support of cattle, and they have made hay at Albany. If the Company were to grow corn, they apprehend the French would come and take it as they did their sheep in the last war, but they might protect their corn from the Indians. Witness does not think it to the benefit of the Company to grow corn, because they must have a house built at a distance from the factories, and men to watch it, to prevent the home Indians from stealing it. They must also have men to cultivate it, which would be very expensive. The witness cannot determine whether it would not be more so than having their corn from Europe, and he thinks the Company would sow it, if it were for their advantage.”