Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-01-13

Charles N. Bell, who is considered one of
the best authorities on wheat raising In
the Canadian northwest. He is the secre-
tary of the Winnipeg board of trade and
has held this position for years He came
to Manitoba when it was a wilderness and
has travelled all over this region again and
again. Said he:
According TO the threshers' returns our
| wheat crop of last year averaged about
twenty-four bushels per acre, this average
coming from more than four million acres.
Some of the crops were far more and some
much less. We have all kinds of farmers
and many Of our European immigrants do
not get the best out of the SOIL
rs there much difference In the wheat
| land?' / asked
Yes. although they are generally good
| throughout. The settlers have taken up
of territory and nearly every farm is yield
ing from twenty-five to thirty bushels of
wheat per acre. The wheat territory has
thus been pretty well prospected and we
know that most of the country is good"
Canada VS.. the United States. :
what is your possible wheat acreage,
Mr.. Bell I asked. .
1T is greater than that of the United
States. We have here something like $780,
600 square miles of wheat lands in sight.
Divide this by half, setting the balance
aside for bad land and mixed farming
propositions, and there is left 100000 square
million acres, and the probability is that
we can raise twenty-five bushels of wheat
to the acre This gives crop of twenty,
five hundred million bushels, which is con-
siderably more than three times much
as the United States has ever produced. L
do not say that Canada will reach that crop
soon, but her wheat yield will steadily In
crease, and 1t will not be long before it will
equal that of the United States"
Canada's First Wheat.
when was wheat first raised in the
northwest Mr.. Bell?' asked.
I'VE were producing grain near Winnipeg
long before your western states had any
existence" was the reply. LAS far back
as 1912 Lord SelkirlS brought a colony 10
Manitoba, and that colony raised wheat.
The settlers came in by Hudson bay and
worked their way down here. They were
8s,en so far from the markets that there was
no demand outside their own wants and It
was only when the United States had de-!
Veloped it's west that we began to farm IN
earnest. Even then had to wait for the
railroads which were first built along IN
tie eighties. Today the lower part of Mani
toba is one of the worlds wheat granaries.
II produced 1900, 900 bushels in 1856, IA O00,-
CU0 bushels ten years later, and in 1901 the
crop was 50,000000 A large part of last
years product came from this same region,
but much of 1t was from the new fields
which are being opened up farther west"
The Peace River Country.
what do you know of the wheat lands
north of where the settlements now are?"
"They are undoubtedly extensive. Take
the Peace river country, which lies north
west of Edmonton, extending to the Rocky
mountains. That river is big enough for
steamboats,. My son travelled eleven days
upon it last winter, and found wheat grow
ing at the very headwaters. The crops
there are raised by the Indian missionaries
and by the Indians themselves. My boy
saw one Indian farm which yielded 1890
bushels last year. That northern wheat is
better than any other wheat known. The
farther north you go the better the quality
of grain, vegetables or fruit. East of the
Peace river is a region of which we know
comparatively nothing. Thousands of miles
of it have never been trodden by white
men, and one can tell what 1t will or
will not produce. Indeed, Canada is as yet
an unprospected agricultural region. We
know that We have a large part of the
earth and the fullness thereof; but just
how much remains to be seem
FRANK G. CARPENTER.