Canada West Part 3

"It is important at a time like the present for every business concern, financial or otherwise, to show by its statement that collections have been good. We may congratulate ourselves upon the showing we have made in this.

Notwithstanding that we have made new loans amounting to millions of dollars since the crop was harvested, our old loans have been paid off so rapidly that our liquid a.s.sets were not reduced.

"This state of affairs is attributable to the fine weather we have experienced in the West, which enabled the farmers to harvest their grain early and quickly and to the unusual rapidity with which the crop was moved by the railway companies."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Corn is not generally grown in Western Canada, but this 320 acres shows a splendid yield, and considerable is now grown for fodder.]

PROVINCIAL PREMIERS ARE OPTIMISTIC

=Manitoba is Stronger.=--Sir Rodmond Roblin has no pessimism regarding the outlook in Manitoba. He says: "The improvements upon farm and field excite the admiration of those interested in agriculture, while our population has been very considerably increased by a healthy, intelligent, and industrious cla.s.s of new-comers. Manitoba, is much stronger financially, numerically, commercially, industrially and educationally than she was in the year 1912. Her progress and development are rapid, healthy, and permanent."

=Hope and Cheer in Saskatchewan.=--Hon. Walter Scott: "The sheet anchor of Saskatchewan is its soil, which (excluding, of course, the far north) comprises a larger proportion of land capable of sustaining a farming population than any area of similar vastness on the globe. Nothing but inconceivable recklessness and waste can prevent its remaining for all time a great agricultural province, and nothing can seriously check its steady forward movement."

=Alberta on Sound Footing.=--Hon. A. L. Sifton: "Alberta was never on a sounder footing than it is to-day. It has reaped the best crop in her history, and stands in line for her share of the millions earned by the farmers of Western Canada for their wheat and other grains. Coa.r.s.e grains for feeding purposes are beginning to predominate with the advent of mixed farming. A gratifying increase in the number of dairy cows and hogs is reported from every district, indicating a new source of wealth, a more constant revenue for the farmer and a new basis of credit for farming operations."

=Splendid Outlook in British Columbia.=--Sir Richard McBride says: "That British Columbia, judged by the healthy growth in population and in general industries during the past year, and the splendid outlook, may confidently be expected to have increased prosperity in 1914. Mining will show a larger output for the current year and the same may be said of agriculture and other occupations. Generous and wise expenditure for adding to the already extensive road system, the building of necessary public works, as well as the enormous amount of railway construction all conduce to the opening up and settlement of immense areas, hitherto almost dormant."

PANAMA Ca.n.a.l AND CANADA

=The London Times=, speaking of the Panama Ca.n.a.l, says: "Although there is considerable speculation in trade and political circles as to the effect of the opening of the Panama Ca.n.a.l, enthusiasts in the West predict that Western Canada generally will increase in population and wealth to an extent beyond conception. The Ca.n.a.l will have the effect of bringing the outposts of Empire inside the commercial arena.

The new water route, combined with improved railway facilities, will certainly improve the position of Western Canada in the battle for the world's markets."

WHAT HAS BEEN SAID ABOUT WESTERN CANADA

=Mr. James J. Hill.=--"Within a few years the United States will not be exporting any wheat, but it will become a market for the wheat of Canada."

=Dr. Wm. Saunders=, Director of the Canadian Government Experimental Farm at Ottawa, Canada: "The Canadian Northwest can supply not only sufficient wheat for a local population of thirty millions, but have left over for export three times as much as the total import of the British Isles. One-fourth of its arable land is devoted to wheat."

=Professor Shaw.=--"The first foot of soil in the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta is worth more than all the mines from Alaska to Mexico, and more than all the forests from the boundary to the Arctic ocean. One acre of the average soil in Western Canada is worth more than ten acres of average land in the United States."

=Professor Tanner.=--"The black earth of Central Russia, the richest soil in the world, has to yield its distinguished position to rich, deep, fertile soil of Western Canada. Here the most fertile soil of the world is to be found. These soils are rich vegetable humus or clay loam with good clay subsoil. To the high percentage of nitrogen is due the high percentage of gluten which gives the 'Canadian No. 1 Hard'

the flouring qualities which have spread its fame abroad to the ends of the earth."

=St. Paul Farmer.=--During a recent trip through Western Canada, the editor of the _St. Paul Farmer_, in referring to Government forces in agriculture, spoke of the interest that the Dominion and the Provincial Governments took in farming and farm education, as "complete and effective."

=The General Manager= of a Canadian bank is reported to have said that, "owing to the speedy manner in which grain came forward in the fall of 1913, our farmer customers in the prairie provinces paid off about three million dollars of liabilities between September 20, and October 10."

=Hon. W. T. White=, speaking at a New York meeting, said: "We used to give you good Canadians but now we are getting back good Americans. Ours came from the east, yours are going into our west. Some of the most practical citizens, the best Canada has to-day, are the Americans. We received last year no less than 140,000. Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, three provinces, have each a larger territory than modern Germany, less than ten per cent under cultivation. This year they had a crop of over 200 million bushels of wheat. You cannot get any country where contracts are more faithfully regarded or obligations more carefully safeguarded by law than in Canada."

=Sir Thomas Shaughnessy.=--"Immigration into Canada cannot cease, for it is due to economic conditions which show no signs of changing."

=David R. Forgan.=--"Nothing can check a country which can raise the amount of wheat which has been raised in Western Canada this year. Any checks which the country may have had as a result of the world-wide money conditions are entirely beneficial to the country. Numbers of young men, the sons of farmers in the States, are now coming to Canada, and are taking up land much cheaper and equally as good as they could get in the States."

=Lord William Percy= of England: "The possibilities and opportunities offered by the West are infinitely greater than those which exist in England."

=Colonel Donald Walter Cameron= of Lochiel, Scotland, Chief of the Cameron Clan: "We cannot blame our people for coming out here, where there are so many opportunities as compared with those afforded in Scotland. I thought possibly a trip through Canada would give us some plan as to how to stop the wholesale emigration from Scotland, but, after seeing this wonderful country and the opportunities on every side, where one man has as good chances as his neighbor, I have come to the conclusion that nothing more can be done."

=Speaker Clark=.--In commenting on Speaker Clark's remarks expressing regret at the number of Americans who had gone to Canada in one week, the _Chicago News_ says: "The appropriate sentiment for the occasion would seem to be a G.o.d-speed to the emigrants. They are acting as the American pioneers did before them, and are taking what appears to them to be the most promising step for improving their fortunes. The bait is wild land, and it is not affected by national boundaries."

=Mayor Deacon,= Winnipeg: "No man who sets foot in Canada is more entirely and heartily welcome than the agriculturist from the South."

An eminent American writer after a recent visit to the Canadian West in speaking of the American immigration to Canada, says:

"Any country that can draw our citizens to it on such a scale must have about it something above the ordinary, and that Canada has in many ways."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figuring out the result of the year's crop. The yield of which he estimates at over forty bushels per acre of wheat.]

=Dean Curtiss= of Ames Agricultural College, Iowa, says:

"We of the United States think we know how to get behind agriculture and push, but the Canadians dare to do even more than we do in some respects. They have wonderful faith in the future: they hesitate at no undertaking that offers prospects of results. More significant still is the wide co-operation for agricultural promotion, including the government, private individuals, and corporations and the railroads.

"Manitoba has in the last two years provided about as much money for the building of an agricultural plant as Iowa has appropriated in half a century. It has given in two years $2,500,000 for buildings and grounds for its agricultural inst.i.tutions. Saskatchewan is building a plant for its university and agricultural college on a broader and more substantial plan than has been applied to any similar inst.i.tution in this country. Yet neither province has more than half a million population.

"For public schools equally generous provision is made. They are being built up to give vocational and technical training as well as cultural. They fit the needs of the country excellently and should turn out fine types of boys and girls.

They do this with a remarkable faith in the value of right education."

Dean Curtiss was much interested in the many ways the Canadian Government aids agriculture, aside from appropriations for education. It is helping to solve marketing problems; encouraging better breeding of livestock by buying sires and reselling them at cost, and doing many other things of like character. He says:

"I found that the Government is advancing from 50 to 85 per cent of the money necessary to build coperative creameries and elevators. Where cattle need breeding up, the Government buys bulls of dairy, Shorthorn, or special dairy breeds, and sends them in at cost and long time payments."

The words "Canadian wheat" are familiar to all, but many have not yet partic.i.p.ated in the benefits derived by those who, within the past few years, have placed their capital in Canadian wheat lands. They, who, through foresight, so invested, they who broke the first furrow, have reaped bountifully.

The development of the fertile plains and valleys of Western Canada is still in its infancy. The accomplishments of the past few years, while truly wonderful, have but proven the great resources and future capabilities of this vast country.

The growth of to-day will be insignificant compared with the achievements of the next few years.

The homestead shack is now giving place to the comfortable residence, large barns are being erected where the improvised log and mud stable sheltered a few head of cattle, fields are fenced, roads built, and great fields of grain and luxuriant pastures are always in evidence.

=The Climate.=--Owing to the alt.i.tude, Western Canada is one of the finest and most healthful sections in the world. Speaking generally it is at least a thousand feet higher above sea level than the Middle Western States, thus giving a dry, bracing air, much like portions of Colorado.

During a large part of the summer the days are hot and sunny, with more than twenty hours of daylight and consequently growing weather, in each day. The nights, however, are always cool and restful and are largely responsible for the splendid vitality of Western men.

The winters are truly splendid. Usually farming operations on the land are stopped by frost from the 12th to the 15th of November although some years they have been continued into December. Usually late in November snow falls, and with the exception of those districts where Chinook winds are frequent, will remain until the following spring, disappearing early in March. During this time there is clear, bright, dry, sunny weather and an intensely invigorating atmosphere. The average winter temperature ranges from zero to twenty-two above zero, according to the district. Occasionally severe cold weather will occur, lasting for two or three days, but this is not unknown in the Middle Western States. One of the greatest advantages is the hard frost, during the winter. This freezes the ground to a depth of several feet. In the spring, thawing naturally commences at the top. As soon as the top soil is sufficiently thawed the land is sown, the cultivation forming a mulch which conserves the moisture in the frozen ground underneath. With the increasing warmth of early summer, the lower frost gradually thaws out and this moisture aids largely in the growth of the young crop.

The heaviest rainfall occurs in June, when it is most needed and does the most good to the growing crops. The rainfall of western Canada varies from 16 to 28 inches. The farmers are usually working upon the land during the first week in April. This gives a long growing season and plenty of time to dispose of the crop and get the land prepared, ready for the next season's operation.

METEOROLOGICAL RECORD FOR JANUARY, 1913

Precipi- Experimental Degrees of Temperature tation Hours of Farm or Highest Lowest Mean in Suns.h.i.+ne Station at Inches Possible Actual

Brandon, Man 36.9 -37.6 24.60 .11 268 73.6 Indian Head, Sask 40.0 -45.0 -6.51 .80 266 57.9 Rosthern, Sask 38.6 -49.5 13.30 .55 252 73.9 Scott, Sask 38.8 -48.8 -9.47 .59 255 83.9 Lacombe, Alta 45.3 -35.6 .67 .93 257 63.3 Lethbridge, Alta 47.0 -30.0 7.49 .80 269 91.9

DECEMBER, 1912

Brandon, Man 39.9 27.2 9.30 1.00 254 61.1 Indian Head, Sask 39.0 19.0 13.19 1.23 248 53.2 Rosthern, Sask 38.8 23.2 8.15 .50 233 62.4 Scott, Sask 44.1 19.8 16.86 .27 238 91.3 Lacombe, Alta 58.6 10.6 21.98 .03 238 7.42 Lethbridge, Alta 50.1 0.9 27.16 .23 254 102.3

[Ill.u.s.tration: A scene showing farming on a large scale in the park districts of Western Canada. Water is good and plentiful in this district.]