The Saint Paul globe., 1904-08-14


that he has been accustomed to, he
finds that laws are enforced and order
maintained. The district school is at
hand for his children, and there is a
complete system of education from the
kindergarten to the university. The
American finds the cities and towns to
be about the same as corresponding
communities in the United States The
architecture is the same and the meth
ods of doing business are not dissimi-
lar. In the stores he finds about the
same class of goods as he would find in
like stores in the United States. If he
looks to his social relations, he finds
that the composition of the community
in which he has settled is nowise dis
similar from that of thousands of COM
munities in the United States. He
finds a stable banking system, whose
solidity is the admirauoa of American
fnaneiers, and he finds currency that
is as reliable as any in the world. The
cost of living is about the same as in
the United States, possibly little
higher, though there are certain kinds
of goods that are much cheaper in
Canada than in the United States, on
account of the higher American tariff.
The Land of Wheat
The staple product of Western Can
ada is wheat, and wheat will doubtless
be king for many years to come The
changing conditions Of agriculture in
the United States are forcing Western
Canada to become a great wheat coun-
try. AS population increases in the
United States and the extent Of cheap
or free land in the West decreases
there is a marked tendency for the
wheat acreage to decline. Ever
since the conquest of the American will
derness began there has been steady
turning over of land from wheat to
other crops, but until recently the
increase in the acreage on account Of
the occupation of new farming coun-
try more than offset the loss by reason
of change. Now, however, there is
practically no more virgin country in
the United States suitable for wheat
growing. The farmers find, as has
ever been found before them, that
there are more profitable ways Of
handling high-priced land adjacent to
large markets than raising wheat. In
Western Canada, however, the, land lis
cheap and has been occupied only in a
small part. The conditions are favor
able to large farms, and for large
farms there IS no better crop than
wheat, because it can be handled with
minimum of labor and expense and
always finds ready market. The
gradual withdrawal of a large portion
Of the present United States acreage
from wheat raising will make it nee
essary for some other country to make
up the large quantities of wheat the
United States formerly exported to the
markets of the world. No country is
better suited than Canada to succeed
the United States in this work of pre-
Viding white bread for the overpopu-
lated countries.
Extensive Railway Building
The railway building now going on
in Western Canada makes it certain
that the country will be well provided
with means of transport. The Cana
dian Northern Is building on to Ed
monton, 500 miles northwest Of Win
nipeg, besides branch lines. The Ca
madam Pacific is at work on several
branch lines with an aggregate mileage
of several hundred miles. The Grand
Trunk Pacific keeping pace with the
expansion of the Dominion is about to
begin work on a transcontinental rail-
way that will begin at Moncton, N.
B., and end at Port Simpson, B. C..
This line viii pass through Winnipeg,
and between that city and Edmonton
will take a course north Of the main
line Of the Canadian Pacific and south
of the main line of the Canadian
Northern. Freight rates on the Cana
dian railways are well known to be
very reasonable, so that a great dis
tance from the market is not a serious
drawback to farming operations
1t now seems probable that within
a few years railway will be built
from the Western Canadian wheat belt
to some point on Hudson's bay When
that is done the larger part of the
wheat produced in Western Canada
viii be within few hundred miles
haul of salt water, and the distance to
the British markets viii be reduced by
thousand miles. Western Canada
will then be much nearer to the worlds
markets than the western part of the
United States.