The Minneapolis journal., 1904-07-16

|author, Isaac Cowie, broadly divides
1.-The prairies Of western Canada into
three parts.
The Cattle Country.
/ The ranching zone, where: cattle
| Craze out-of-doors all the year round,
| lies in the angle between the Amer
| lean boundary and the Rocky Noun
tains Nominally, it is known as
southern Alberta and southwestern
| Assiniboia Clinatically, it receives
! the fullest and most frequent Dement'S
of the drying chinook to such an ex-
/ tent as to render irrigation necessary
in some localities to procure reliable
crops of grain. Except in the noun
tains it is treeless, the whole country
| being covered with rich grasses; ana,
as snow never lies long, cattle can
Craze all the year round, requiring no
hay, except a small reserve as acci-
!. dent insurance against. a few days
. iof exceptional cold in exceptional
IWinters; neither, on account OF the
climate being much warmer than to
the east, do they require any shelter.
These cattle are sold off the grass
for the British market every IAN
and bring from $40 to $45 for 3-year-
iolds and from S45 to $54 for 4-year-
olds at the shipping point. As these
animals rear themselves, the profits
jof the ranchers are very large.
Along the foothills Of the Rockies
the country is much broken, but tc
1.-THE east it is rolling and level prairie
sufficiently watered for ranchlns
, purposes by running streams .anc
ponds which seldom freeze. The
streams are Of enough volume to sup
ply irrigation wherever enee essary.
Tho generally bare Of timber fo
fuel, inexhaustible supplies of fint
coal underlie the country, cropping
out on the banks Of streams, con
I venient to settlers, and being extern
sively mined for export at Lethbridge
and other places.
The country is equally favorable
for horses and sheep as for cattle
Cattlemen are naturally interested ir
encouraging the illusion that, while
most favorable to the ranching in
dustry, southern Alberta is not wei
fitted for close settlement. The sue
cess of the Mormon settlers, who pre-
fer to irrigate, as we'll as that o
others who have adopted a suitabl
and intelligent method of farmin
without irrigation, indicate that mike
farming may eventually spread owe
the district.
The Wheat Zone. ~
The next zone is a country less ele
waited, where snow lies in the winter
and where there is everywhere suff
cient rainfall in summer to gro'
wheat. It is a rich grass-clad bel
almost devoid Of timber, except alon
the sides of hills and rivers. There
abundance of coal. Its long, level {
# gently undulating expanses len
l. themselves readily to wheat-growin
on a large scale, and it is the primo
pal crop, tho sowing flax frequent
on breaking) is also, a faVorite pra'
tice of the newcomers from tt
- United States But wheat is kin
- and here it is raised in the create
possible perfection by combinatic
" of soil and climate in it's favor; ar
= the tendency has been to neglect tt
more laborious branches of husbandl
for which the country is also we
fitted.
Y, Speaking roughly, this belt occ1
pies middle Alberta, a diagonal str
:. running thru northwestern and soutl
le eastern Assiniboia also the soutl
10 west corner Of Manitoba. The po
ld tions of the bonanza wheat belt a
81 all we'll supplied with present al
a. prospective railways in Manitoba az
n eastern Assiniboia, but the gre
Vn space lying between the settlemen
If. along the branches of the Canadis
ad Pacific, which leave the main line
lie Regina and Calgary, respectively, al
I'D cross this belt on their way to II
mixed farming country surroundil