Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta Have Splendid Crops.
The grain crop of 1913 was harvested and threshed in perfect condition.
Excepting flax, the average yield was excellent; wheat almost
universally graded near the top. Wheat from many fields averaged forty
bushels per acre, weighing sixty-five pounds to the measured bushel.
Oats ran from fifty to one hundred and fifteen bushels to the acre, and
barley kept up the reputation of Western Canada as a producer of that
cereal. In many sections the yield of flax exceeded earlier
expectations, although in places, winds which blew off the boll caused
some loss. Hundreds of farmers of small means who have been in the
country only three or four years, paid up all their indebtedness out of
the crop of 1913 and put aside something for farm and home improvements.
Not only for the farmer with limited means and small acreage has the
year been prosperous; the man able to conduct farming on a large scale
has been equally successful--and for such, Western Canada offers many
opportunities.
A farmer in southern Alberta raised 350,000 bushels of grain last year,
and made a fortune out of it. In Saskatchewan and in Manitoba is heard
the same story of the successful working of large areas.
As was to be expected with its unprecedented development, the financial
stress during 1913 was felt as keenly throughout Western Canada as
anywhere in the country. The fact is that money could not keep pace with
the natural demands of 400,000 new people a year. Towns and cities had
to be built, farming operations were extensive, and capitalists had not
made sufficient preparation. But last year's crop has restored
conditions to a normal state, and natural and reasonable development
will continue.
Owing to a wet fall in 1912 and a heavy snowfall the succeeding winter,
seeding in some districts was later than usual. But with the favourable
weather of May, June, and July, wheat sown in May ripened early in
August. Rains came at the right time, and throughout the season the best
of weather prevailed.
[Illustration: These cattle winter out in Western Canada and do well.
Shelter and water are abundant.]
=The Cities Reflect the Growth of the Country.=--Passing through Western
Canada from Winnipeg, and observing the cities and towns along the
network of railways in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, one feels
there must be "something of a country" behind them all. Gaze in any
direction and the same view is presented: field after field of waving
grain; labourers at work converting the virgin prairie into more fields;
wide pasture lands where cattle are fattening on grasses rich in both
milk- and beef-producing properties. Here is the wealth that builds the
cities.
In thirty years Winnipeg has increased in population from 2,000 to
200,000; and become an important gateway of commerce. The wheat alone
grown in the three prairie provinces in 1913 is sufficient to keep a
steady stream of 1,000 bushels per minute continuously night and day
going to the head of the lakes for three and a half months, and in
addition to that, the oats and barley would supply this stream for
another four months. The value of the grain crop alone would be
sufficient to build any of our great transcontinental railroads and all
their equipment, everything connected with them, from ocean to ocean.
With only 10 per cent of the arable land under cultivation, what will
the possibilities be when 288 million acres of the best land that the
sun shines on is brought under the plough? Do you not see the portent of
a great, vigorous, populous nation living under those sunny skies north
of the 49th parallel?
=New Railway Mileage Grows at Rapid Rate.=--Every year long stretches of
new rails are extended into some hitherto untravelled domain, bringing
into subjugation mountain, plain, and forest. Mighty rivers are being
bridged, massive mountains are being tunnelled, and real zest is being
given this work in the exciting race between the rival companies as they
strive to outstrip each other in surmounting Nature's obstacles. During
1913, more than 4,000 miles of new road have been built in Canada, the
bulk of this in Western Canada.
The latest reports give the total railway mileage in Manitoba,
Saskatchewan, and Alberta as 12,760 miles, the Canadian Pacific Railway
having 5,534; the Canadian Northern, 4,187; the Grand Trunk Pacific,
1,476; the Great Northern Railway, 162. Manitoba has a total mileage of
4,014; Saskatchewan, 5,679; Alberta, 3,073. The gain over 1912 is about
3,400 miles.
=Western Canada's Wheat.=--The quality of Western Canada wheat is
recognized everywhere. Recently a U. S. senator said of the Canadian
grain fields: "The wheat that Canada raises is the Northwestern hard
spring wheat. The cost of raising is less in Canada than in the States,
because the new lands there will produce larger crops than the older
land on this side of the line, and the land is cheaper than in the
United States."
According to official figures the total estimated wheat production of
Western Canada in 1913 was 209,262,000 bushels, an increase of more than
5 million bushels in 1912. Oats show a total yield of more than
242,413,000 bushels, barley more than 30 million bushels, rye more than
2,500,000 bushels, flax more than 14 million bushels, and mixed grains
more than 17 million bushels. Wheat, oats, barley, and rye are above the
average quality of the last two years, and potatoes and root crops show
a good percentage of standard condition during growth. The value of the
harvest is approximately 209 million dollars as compared with about 200
million in 1912.
Winnipeg, the grain centre of Western Canada, has received and handled
more wheat per day than Chicago, Minneapolis, and Duluth combined.
Approximately 191 million bushels of grain were shipped from the
elevators at Fort William and Port Arthur during the season of
navigation; from the first of September, 1913, until December 20, 127
million bushels of grain were shipped to the east--52,000,000 bushels
more than for the same period last year.
=What Farmers Receive.=--The amount of grain marketed, and the estimated
receipts, based on an average price for September, October, and
November, are as follows: