River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1879-12-11
erlaIS OF the IOIIUWIHg
TABLE OF MEAN TEMPERATURES.

April 10 August inclusive, eXnlDltS the
following proportions: Toronto, 81 de-
grees 65 minutes; st. Paul, 65 degrees,
5 minutes; Winnipeg, 58 degrees, 10
minutes; Battlefield, 58 degrees, 90 min
utes. Thus it will be seen that the cli-
mate, in its relation TO agriculture, is
warmer in Manitoba and over territory
seven hundred miles northwest, than in
the most central districts of Ontario;
while St. Paul, in latitude As degrees, is
vicinity of Toronto in latitude Al
degrees.
hope soon to be in possession of
similar statistics at Fort McMurray on
the Athabasca river, and Fort Vermil-
lion, on Peace river, respectively 1000
and 200 miles due northwest of VIM
nepeg, and have full confidence that
the climate at these points will not be
materially different from Battleford.
The altitude of the Athabasca and
Peace river districts is less, and the
trend of the Pacific wind through the
Rocky mountains is more marked than
at Battleford. 1t was on the banks of
Peace river, well up in latitude 60 de-
grees, that Sir Alexander Mckenzie re-
cords on the 10th of May the grass so
we'll grown that Buffalo, attended by
their young, were cropping the uplands.
But find my best illustration is that
the climate is not materially different
west of Lake Athabasca, in latitude 60
degrees, than we experience west of
Lake Superior. in latitude 46 degrees,
in some personal observations of the
northwestern extension of wheat culti-
walton. In 1871, Mr.. Archibald, the
well-known proprietor of the Dundas
mills in southern Minnesota, visited
Manitoba. He remarked that the
spring wheat in his vicinity was deteri-
oating-softening, and he sought a
change of seed to restore their flinty
texture. He timed his visit to Winnie
peg with the harvest, and found the
quality of grain he desired, but the
yield astonished him. "Look," said he,
with head of wheat in his hand, Eve
have had an excellent harvest in Min
nesota, but / never saw more than two
welcomed grains in each group or
cluster, forming row, but here the rule
is three grains in each cluster. That's
the difference between twenty and thir-
ty bushels per acre." More recently,
Prof. Macoun, the botanist of the Cana
dian Pacific railway survey, has shown
me two heads of wheat, one from Prince
Albert, a settlement near the forks of
the Saskatchewan, latitude SO degrees,
longitude JOG degrees, and another
from Fort Vermillion, on Peace river,
latitude so degrees, longitude 116 de-
grees, and from each cluster of the two
/ separated five welcomed grains, with
a corresponding length of the head.
Here was the perfection of the wheat
plant, attained according to the we'll
known physical law, near the most
northern limit of its successful growth.
Permit another illustration on the
testimony of Prof. Macoun. When at q
Hudson Bay post of the region in ques-
tion-either Fort McMurray, in latitude
81 degrees, or Fort Vermillion, in lati-
tude SO degrees, and about the longi-
tude of Great Salt Lake, an employee
of the post invited him to inspect q
strange plant in his garden, grown from
a few seeds never before seen in that
locality. He found cucumber vines
planted in April in the open ground,
and with fruit ripened on the 10Th of
August.
Twill venture to illustrate the climatic
influences which control the problem
under consideration, by some citations
from Minnesota; It's Place among the
States, by ]. A. Wheelock, Commission.
er of statistics" which, though pub
lished in 1860, is all the more an
authority for the confirmation of twenty
years. The general law of limitation to
the profitable cultivation of wheat Is
thus luminously stated:
"The wheat producing district of the
United States is confined to about ten
degrees of latitude and six degrees OF
longitude terminating on the west at
the 98th parallel. But the zone OF
its profitable culture occupies a COM
parative narrow belt along the cool
borders of the district defined for inland
positions by the mean temperature OF
fifty-five degrees on the north and
seventy-one degrees on south, for the
two months of July and August. This
defination excludes all the country ~
ing south of latitude forty degrees, ex-
cept western Virginia, and north of that
it exclude the southern district of Penn
sylvania Ohio, Illinois and Iowa, while
it includes the northern parts of these
states, Canada. New York, western
Virginia, Michigan, Wisconsin. Min
nesota, and the Red river and Sas-
katchewan valleys. In general terms,
it may be stated that the belt of maxi
mum wheat production lies Immediately
north OF the districts where the maxi
mum of Indian corn is attained"
The argument for Northwest British
America, as for the state of Minnesota,
cannot be more accurately epitomlzed
than by the following summary oil
Commissioner Wheelock.
81. That physical and economical
causes restrict the limits of wheat eul-
ture to the seats of maximum product
ion, In less than one-third of the states
of the union, within a climatic belt
having an estimated gross area of only
260, 600 square miles, from which nine
tenths of the American supply of bread,
and large and constantly increasing
amount of foreign food must be drawn.
"2. That, within this zone the same
climatic and other causes tend TO con-
centrate the growth OF wheat IN tue
upper belt of the northwestern states
always preferring the best wheat dis
tricts.
80. That Minnesota and the country
northwest of these wheat districts, hav-
ing the largest areas. yield the most
certain crops and the best and health
lest grains"
1t should not be overlooked, that the
mission of the imperial commissioners,
Resde and Pell, to this continent was to
ascertain the probabilities and incidents
of the food supply, especially bread
stuffs, for the demands of the United
Kingdom: and from this standpoint the
Winnipeg Free Press suggests negative
definition of the wheat zone, and pro-
poses to exclude every province or state
whose aggregate product is less than the
demand OF the resident population.
Such a limitation would exclude the
New England and southern states, New
York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania