Vermilion farmers boast sulkies and gang-ploughs and the latest geared McCormick, Massey-Harris, and Deering farm implements,—­self-binders and seeders.  Everything is up-to-date.  We ourselves counted fifteen self-binders at work.  And grain is not the whole story.  The farmers own thoroughbred Ayrshire stock and splendid horses.  I happened to be at the garden of the Church of England Mission when the potato-crop was being harvested, and found that seven bags of seed planted in the middle of May produced one hundred bags by the end of August.  Five potatoes that I gathered haphazard from one heap weighed exactly five and one-half pounds.  I photographed and weighed a collection of vegetables grown by Robert Jones on the Dominion Experimental Farm.

[Illustration:  Articles Made by Indians

A—­Wall-pocket of white deerskin, embroidered in silk-work, and bordered with ermine—­the work of a Cree woman at Vermilion-on-the-Peace.

B—­Gloves of white deerskin embroidered in silk, the work of a Slavi woman on the Liard River (a branch of the Mackenzie).

C, D, E, F, G, H, I—­Moccasins as worn respectively by the Crees, Chipewyans, Slavis, Dog-Ribs, Yellow-Knives, Loucheux—­all the work of the women.

J.—­Flour bag from the mill at Vermilion-on-the-Peace, the most northerly flour-mill in America.

K—­Sinew, from close to the spine of the moose—­used by the women of the North instead of thread.

L—­Very valuable net of willow-bark made by an old squaw at Fort Resolution.  This is almost a lost art, and harks back to the pre-string days.

M—­The “crooked knife” or knife of the country.

N—­Match-box made from a copper kettle by an old Beaver Indian at Fort
Vermilion-on-the-Peace.

O—­Babiche, or rawhide of the moose or caribou—­“the iron of the country.”]

One cauliflower weighed eight pounds, half a dozen turnips weighed nine pounds each, and twenty table beets would easily average six pounds each.  The carrots and onions were sown in the open in mid-May and were as inviting specimens as I have ever seen.  Tomatoes ripened in the open air on this farm on July 13th.  Peas, sown on May 23rd and gathered on August 12th, weighed sixty-four pounds to the bushel.  Experimental plots of turnips gave sixteen tons to the acre, and white carrots twelve tons.  Apple-trees and roses we found flourishing on this farm, with twenty-five varieties of red, black, and white currants.  The wheat story is of compelling interest.  Preston wheat, sown on May 6th and cut on August 22nd, weighed sixty-four pounds to the bushel; Ladoga wheat, sown on the last day of April and cut on September 5th, ran sixty-four pounds to the bushel also, and early Riga weighed sixty-three pounds.  In the garden of the R.C.  Mission we were presented with splendid specimens of ripened corn and with three cucumbers grown in the open air, which weighed over a pound each.