They sought to begin the cultivation of their farms, but they were helpless.

The tough prairie sod had to be broken up and worked over, but the only implement which the Colonist had to use was a simple hoe, the one harrow being incomplete.

The crofters were poor farmers, for they were rather fishermen.

But the fish in Red River were scarce in this year, so that even the fisher's art which they knew was of little avail to them.

The summer of 1813 was thus what the old settlers would call an "Off-Year," for even the small fruits on the plains were far from abundant.