=Southern Alberta= is open and rolling, and devoid of timber except along
the streams and the Rocky Mountains' foothills. The soil is a fertile
loam. The climate is ideal, with pleasing summers and mild winters.
Stock pasture in the open air during winter, grazing on the nutritive
sun-dried grasses. The absence of timber in Southern Alberta is
compensated for by the supply of coal.
[Illustration: Typical school in rural district in Western Canada, which
will soon be replaced by consolidated school, picture of which appears
elsewhere.]
Ranching which once was predominant is fast being abandoned and settlers
are dividing the limitless acres into small, productive holdings. As a
grazing country, Southern Alberta has had few equals, for the hills and
valleys, well watered, afford excellent pasturage. Winter wheat sown on
new breaking, or summer-fallowed land, from the middle of July to the
end of September is ready for harvest from the 1st to the 15th of August
in the following year. Climate and soil make this an ideal wheat-growing
district. Considerable spring wheat is grown, as well as oats, barley
and flax. The production of sugar-beets compares favourably with that of
Germany and the world.
The average of winter wheat for the Province in 1913, was 21 bushels an
acre. The greater portion was grown around Lethbridge, Taber, Grassy
Lake, Cardston, Spring Coulee, Pincher Creek, Macleod, Stavely, Leavitt,
Claresholm, Nanton, High River, Okotoks, Carmangay and Calgary.
=Water Supply and Irrigation.=--Water for domestic and farm purposes is
easily obtained at reasonable depth. In certain sections of the Canadian
West, as in the American West, the soil is unexcelled for growing
cereals, but the geographical location and relative position to the rain
avenues is not advantageous, not only the requisite amount of rain but
its conservation is essential to the growing of crops, and that is the
meaning of "dry farming." This is being successfully followed in the
southern portion of Southern Alberta. Some of the district can also be
easily and successfully farmed by means of irrigation. Irrigation
ditches have been constructed by the Canadian Pacific Railway and the
Southern Alberta Land Company.
[Illustration: Typical school, such as many towns are building in
Western Canada, where the education of the children is carefully looked
after.]
A most valuable asset to Southern Alberta is the Lethbridge Experimental
Station, operated by the Dominion Department of Agriculture. Reports
from the farm show that on land broken and backset in 1912, spring wheat
sown April 3, 1913, ripened between July 31 and August 17, and yielded
from 22 to 41 bushels per acre; oats sown April 13, 1913, ripened from
July 31 to August 4, and yielded from 54 to 84 bushels per acre; barley
sown April 15, 1913, ripened from July 28 to Aug. 5, and yielded from 28
to 40 bushels per acre. On irrigated land the yield of spring wheat was
from 30 to 54 bushels, and the period of ripening about the same; oats
yielded from 102 to 132 bushels per acre, same period for ripening;
barley yield on irrigated land was from 65 to 100 bushels per acre,
harvested from July 28 to August 11.