The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-09-10
GAN WHEAT GROWERS
 LIVE THERE SAFELY? A Singular Suggestion About Canada's
 Prairies.
ARE THEY roo SUNNY?
The Effects of Much Light and Heat on White
 Men.

A ANh gCCllo el5O iAlNAO WdO AllOWI of the Canadian provinces to the west of Manitoba, and indeed of Manitoba itself, and all this vast re- zion was thought of as a frigid waste from which came the cold waves which periodically sweep across the United States, carrying frost into Tex as and even to the orange groves of Florida. But lately it has been found that country is one of exceed ing fertility the richness of soil and the brightness of sunshine combining to make 1t admirably adapted to the growing of wheat, despite the pitiful brevity of it's summer A migration of large proportions has been setting from the United States and Europe, and this region now promises to be- come one of the great granaries of the world. The cold of winter is long continued and intense, but the heat of summer is ample in intensity and dur alton for the ripening Of grain, the soil is rich, and the unoccupled land is of almost limltless extent and cap able of supporting @ very large popu- lation, so that the prosperity of this new territory would seem to be as- sured. There is but one cloud over- shadowing this hoped-for prosperity, and this is, to abandon the language of metaphor for that of fact, the ab- sence of cloud. The country is one of almost continuous sunshine, the brillianey of the light equaling that of the tropics, and if it is really the light rather than the heat which bars tropical lands to the white man, as Woodruff contends, the prosperity of the Canadian Northwest promises to be shortlived.
 As those who have read Major | Woodruff's interesting book know, he holds that the failure of the white races to colonize the tropics is due, not to the heat of these regions, but to the excess of light which there prevails, The Europeans who have been most successful in colonizing tropical regions that is, who have themselves peopled the colonies and not merely ruled them by constant ly changing staff of officials, are the natives of the Iberian Peninsular, darll-sltinned race; and to blondes, | Woodruff asserts, tropical lands are fatal If 1t is the heat rather than the light that is injurious, the white man should prosper more than the black man, and the blond more than the brunette, since the presence of pigment in the skin distinctly favors the penetration of the heat rays. But the white man, especially the blond, suffers in the tropics; after period of eXhilaration and sense of we'll being, he becomes disinclined to la 1 bor, grows neurasthenic and finally breaks down physically and mental | ly, This Woodruff attributes to the action of the actinlc rays of light, which penetrate the more readily tho less of pigment there is in the skin and hair, and he therefore concludes that it is the light rather than the heat which bars the white man from the tropics,
 In the Western Canada Medical Journal for February, 1907, the Rev. F. c. Heustis asserts that the inhab- itants of Manitoba and the adjacent territories are unduly neurasthenic. and adopting Woodruff's theory at l tributes this condition to the excess of sunshine with which that country is blessed-or cursed according to the point of view In the issue of the same journal for May of this year. Dr, A. G. Welsford controverts Mir. Heusts contention, and asserts that sunlight Is a blessing, He comedies that sunlight is destructive to pro- toplasm, but says that the actinic rays | do not penetrate the skin to any ex- tent, the deeper tissues being protect ed by the epidermis and especially by the dermis, which is suffused with red blood offering a barrier as effec- tive as the black pigment of the negro's skin. The reason why Europ- cans do not thrive in the tropics is he maintains that they are attuned l to colder climates and when trans planted to warm regions live under abnormal conditions of heat rather than of light. He does not deny that the denizens of the sunlight regions of Northern Canada suffer from neu- rasthenic states, but he asserts that these depend fin no way upon the sunshine" except at this may have an Indirect effect by reason of its tonic properties which lead to the undue expenditure of energy. In another part of his article he admits, indeed, that intense and long continued sum- shine may prove exhausting, but he rejects Woodruffs theory of it's action attributing it's possible evil effests to l eye-strain resulting from the glare. | We fear Dr. Welsford has not proved
 his case, for he comedies that intense sunlight may be injurious, differing from Woodruff and Heustis only in his explanation of it's action. The farm CTS who are now peopling western Canada are not gonig to wear colored glasses to prevent eyestrain and they are not going to take life easy for they must work hard to reap their har- vest before the winter frost and they will not work the less hard because the light stimulates them to greater endeavor.
 An interesting experiment is being worked out in Manitoba and it is one
 which should in it's results confirm or refute Woodruff's theory. If he is correct, the movement of wheat grow ers' most of whom are Scandinavians
 or men of other blond races to north
 west Canada is doomed to failure | Those who are now building up the
 country will fail by the way and their | Fo l.