The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1902-11-13

sections Of the west have been recently
received by the provincial department OF
agriculture. One farmer wrote that his
yield was As bushels to the acre. Reports
Of yields ranging from % to 35 bushels an
acre were quite common in the most ia
Vored district Of Manitoba.
Hustle All Along the Line.
That the returns of grain production
from the west will surprise many goes
without saying. Canadians themselves,
particularly those residing in the east,
will be as much surprised as their Ameri-
can cousins. They have been slow to ac-
cept the rich possibilities of western Cam
ada. which has in consequence been devel-
oping gradually. They have always ap-
preciated the productiveness Of the soil.
but not until last year, when the official
returns of the increased acreage and of
the bumper crops were made public, did
they realize fully the wealth that is COM
ing from the mighty region that stretches
west from the Red river valley to the
Rocky mountains, north beyond the Sas-
katchewan and northwest into the Peace
river valley.
The people of western Canada, and the
government, railroad and immigration Of
ficials are willing to confess now that the
enormous crops Of last year also made
them involuntary participants in the gem
eral surprise party. All had strenuous
experience in harvesting and housing the
crop. Twenty thousand men from the
east entered the harvest fields and worked
for three months. and machinery and the
necessary material poured into the grain
districts as fast as they could be secured,
but still there was the inevitable grain
blockade.
This year, when it was ascertained that
the crops would be large, every prepare
ton possible was made for handling them.
| But with q harvest that exceeded all ex-
pectations, another strenuous experience
was experienced by all concerned. and
the operations will extend in many dis
tricts away into the winter.
| No Grain Blockade.
! According to c. c. Castle. Dominion
warehouse commissioner, who has just re-
| turned from Fort William, where he in
| spected the arrangements made for the
4 handling of the wheat output there is
no danger Of a grain blockade this year.
Notwithstanding the record crop. In an
| interview he said:
II DO not see why there should be any
grain blockade. In fact. the conditions
could not be better than at present BY
the time navigation closes the elevator
pacity at Fort William will be sufficient to
take care of an enormous amount of
wheat, and the capacity at country points
Is far in excess of last year.
Wheat Not All.
| One of the first questions asked by the
average American who comes to western
| Canada is. do you grow anything here
! besides wheat?'' The question is an
| Swered by referring the new settler to the
| government returns of last year. These
| show that Manitoba alone devoted $40, GOO
acres to coarse grains in 1901. and $4,000
| acres to roots and potatoes. In the terri
oh no
| seeded to these products According to
the official crop bulletin of the territories
just issued, the acreage for oats alone was
| increased by 50,374 acres. The avera ge an
acre is given a a little over forty bushels,
and the quality is the best. The increase
in area under oats in Manitoba this year
is 35 100 acres. and the average an acre
will be about forty-five bushels. Western
Canada has for eighteen years had an
| average yield of oats of thirty-four bush
els to the acre. Perhaps in no country
In the world has there been such surpris-
| ing yields of oats as in certain sections
of the Canadian West in recent years. In
1899 it is recorded that at Brandon the
yield reached an average of 100 bushels to
| the acre.
Awakening Of Western Canada.
The following figures for 1902 were OBJ
tanned from the most experienced and
the west: Wheat, Manitoba, 2,039, $40
acres, az eraging twenty-seven bushels per
acre, 81, 070, $50 bushels. Territories (gov
ernp' znt estimate), 5s5,576 acres, yielding
Ia ,o49 500 bushels; total, SO, 765, $50 bushels.
Oats, Manitoba. 725, 060 acres, averaging
forty bushels per acre, 2S,002. 400 bushels.
| Territories, government estimate). eI6,-
942 acres, yielding 1O,725.500 bushels; to-
tai, 3S.727, 900 bushels. Barley Manitoba,
329, 100 acres. averaging forty bushels per
acre. 1881 800 bushels. Territories. (gov
eminent estimate), 30,022 acres. yielding
$4,000 bushels; total. 14,055, 600 bushels.
/ Two bumper crops have completed the
awakening of western Canada. Land val
ues are increasing all over the west, but
the figures on the crops of last year and
the present are told loudly to the pros
pective settler, and it will be only mat
ter of a few years before the west country
lying between the Red River valley and
the Rockies and away to the north, will
be peopled with thousands where now
there are hundreds.