Canada is pre-eminently an agricultural country. Of the total population
(estimated in 1907 at 6,440,000) over 50% are directly engaged in
practical agriculture. In addition large numbers are engaged in
industries arising out of agriculture; among these are manufacturers of
agricultural implements, millers of flour and oatmeal, curers and
packers of meat, makers of cheese and butter, and persons occupied in
the transportation and commerce of grain, hay, live stock, meats,
butter, cheese, milk, eggs, fruit and various other products. The
country is splendidly formed for the production of food. Across the
continent there is a zone about 3500 m. long and as wide as or wider
than France, with (over a large part of this area) a climate adapted to
the production of foods of superior quality. Since the opening of the
20th century, great progress has been made in the settlement and
agricultural development of the western territories between the
provinces of Manitoba and British Columbia. The three "North-West
Provinces" (Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta) have a total area of
369,869,898 acres, of which 12,853,120 acres are water. In 1906 their
population was 808,863, nearly double what it was in 1901. The land in
this vast area varies in virginal fertility, but the best soils are very
rich in the constituents of plant food. Chemical analyses made by Mr
F.T. Shutt have proved that soils from the North-West Provinces contain
an average of 18,000 lb of nitrogen, 15,580 lb of potash and 6,700 lb of
phosphoric acid per acre, these important elements of plant food being
therefore present in much greater abundance than they are in ordinary
cultivated European soils of good quality. The prairie lands of Manitoba
and Saskatchewan produce wheat of the finest quality. Horse and cattle
ranching is practised in Alberta, where the milder winters allow of the
outdoor wintering of live stock to a greater degree than is possible in
the colder parts of Canada. The freezing of the soil in winter, which at
first sight seems a drawback, retains the soluble nitrates which might
otherwise be drained out. The copious snowfall protects vegetation,
supplies moisture, and contributes nitrogen to the soil. The
geographical position of Canada, its railway systems and steamship
service for freight across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, are
favourable to the extension of the export trade in farm products to
European and oriental countries. Great progress has been made in the
development of the railway systems of Canada, and the new
transcontinental line from the Atlantic to the Pacific, passing through
Saskatchewan via Saskatoon, and Alberta via Edmonton, renders possible
of settlement large areas of fertile wheat-growing soil. The canal
system of Canada, linking together the great natural waterways, is also
of much present and prospective importance in cheapening the
transportation of agricultural produce.