=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 God-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."
[Illustration: 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
institutions. 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
institution 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 cooeperative 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
participated 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 altitude, 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.