+-------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+
| | 1883. | 1890. | 1894. | 1901. |
+-------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+
| | Bushels. | Bushels. | Bushels. | Bushels. |
| Wheat | 5,686,355 | 14,665,769 | 17,172,883 | 50,502,085 |
| Oats | 9,478,965 | 9,513,443 | 11,907,854 | 27,796,588 |
| Barley | 1,898,430 | 2,069,415 | 2,981,716 | 6,536,155 |
| Flax | No statistics collected | 366,000 | 266,420 |
| Rye | " | " | 59,924 | 62,261 |
| Peas | " | " | 18,434 | 16,349 |
| Potatoes | " | " | 2,035,336 | 4,797,433 |
| Other roots | " | " | 1,841,942 | 2,925,362 |
+-------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+
The enormous development of the wheat-growing industry is shown by
these and the following statistics:--
Wheat inspected in Winnipeg.
1902 51,833,000 bushels
1903 40,396,650 "
1904 39,784,900 "
1905 55,849,840 "
1906 66,636,390 "
These figures do not include the wheat ground into flour and sent by
way of British Columbia to Asia and Australia, nor the wheat retained
by the farmers for seed. The Dominion government maintains an
experimental farm of 670 acres at Brandon. The fisheries are all
fresh-water, principally white-fish, pickerel and pike. Large
quantities of fresh fish caught in lakes Winnipeg and Manitoba are
exported to all parts of the United States.
_Communications._--The region of the Red River and Assiniboine valleys
was opened up by the fur traders, who came by the waterways from Lake
Superior, and afterwards by the water communication with Hudson Bay.
While these early traders used the canoe and the York boat,[1] yet the
steamboat played an important part in the early history of the region
from 1868 till 1885, when access from the United States was gained by
steamers down the Red River. The completion of the St Andrew's Rapids
canal on Red River, and the Grand Rapids canal on the Saskatchewan
river will again give an impetus to inland navigation on the
tributaries of Lake Winnipeg. Lake Manitoba also affords opportunity
for inland shipping.
The broad expanse of prairie-land in the western provinces of Canada
is well suited for the cheap and expeditious building of railways. The
first connexion with the United States was by two railways coming down
the Red River valley. But the desire for Canadian unity led the
Dominion to assist a transcontinental line connecting Manitoba with
eastern Canada. The building of the Canadian Pacific railway through
almost continuous rocks for 800 miles was one of the greatest
engineering feats of modern times. Immediately on the formation of the
Canadian Pacific railway company branch lines were begun at Winnipeg
and there are eight radial lines running from this centre to all parts
of the country. Winnipeg is thus connected with Montreal on the east,
and Vancouver on the west, and is the central point of the Canadian
Pacific system, having railway yards and equipment equalled by few
places in America. In opposition to the Canadian Pacific railway a
southern line was built from Winnipeg to the American boundary. This
fell into the hands of the Northern Pacific railway, but was purchased
by the promoters of the Canadian Northern railway. This railway has
six radiating lines leaving the city of Winnipeg, and its main line
connects Port Arthur on Lake Superior with Edmonton in the west. The
Canadian Northern railway has a remarkable network of railways
connecting Winnipeg with every corner of Manitoba. The Great Northern
railway has also three branch lines in Manitoba and one of these has
Winnipeg as its terminus. The grand Trunk Pacific railway, the great
transcontinental line promoted by the Laurier government, passes
through Manitoba north of the Canadian Pacific, coming from the east
deflects southward to pass through Winnipeg, and then strikes
northward in a direct line of easy gradients to find its way through
the Rocky Mountains to its terminus of Prince Rupert on the north
coast of British Columbia.
_History._--The first white settlement in Manitoba was made by Pierre
Gaultier de Varennes, Sieur de la Verendrye (d. 1749), who, gradually
pushing westward from Lake Superior, reached Lake Winnipeg in 1733, and
in the following year built a fort not far from the present Fort
Alexander. In October 1738 he built another at Fort Rouge, at the
junction of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, where is now the city of
Winnipeg. After the British conquest of 1763 the west became the scene
of a rapidly increasing fur trade, and for many years there was keen
rivalry between the Hudson's Bay Company, with its headquarters in
England, and the North-West Company of Montreal. French and Scottish
farmers and fur-traders gradually settled along the Red River, and by
their frequent marriages with the Indians produced a race of metis or
half-breeds. From 1811 to 1818 Lord Selkirk's attempted colonization
greatly increased the population; from the time of his failure till 1869
the settlers lived quietly under the mild rule of the Hudson's Bay
Company. In that year the newly formed Dominion of Canada bought from
the company its territorial and political rights. A too hasty occupation
by Canadian officials and settlers led to the rebellion of the Metis
under Louis Riel, a native leader. The rebellion was quieted and Sir
Garnet Wolseley (now Lord Wolseley) was sent from Canada by the lake
route, with several regiments of troops--regulars and volunteers. The
Manitoba Act constituting the province was passed by the Canadian
parliament in 1870. (See RED RIVER SETTLEMENT; and RIEL, LOUIS.)
The admixture of races and religions, and its position as the key to the
great West, have ever since made Manitoba the storm centre of Canadian
politics. In the charter granted by the Canadian parliament to the
Canadian Pacific railway a clause giving it for twenty years control
over the railway construction of the province led to a fierce agitation,
till the clause was repealed in 1888. Till 1884 an equally fierce
agitation was carried on against Ontario with regard to the eastern
boundary of Manitoba. (See ONTARIO.) In both these disputes the
provincial leader was the Hon. John Norquay, in whose veins ran a large
admixture of Indian blood. In 1890 changes in the school system
unfavourable to the Roman Catholic Church led to a constitutional
struggle, to which was due the defeat of the Federal ministry in 1896.
Since 1896 its rapid material progress has produced numerous economic
problems and disputes, many of which are still unsolved.
(G. Br.; W. L. G.)