Free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1888-1908, 1907-07-27
CROP CONDITIONS IN
WESTERN CANADA
Lateness of Spring Overcome by Ex-
ceIIent Growing Summer Season.

Once more the farmers of Western
while they slumber Their season of
anxiety is over. For time it looked
as though a backward season was for
once going to prevent the western
country from maintaining its preemi-
nent position as leader of the grain
growing countries of the world. The
unusual lateness of the spring coupled
with the rapid advance in the price OF
food-stuffs gave the pessimists some
reason for their gloomy forebodings,
and among even the optimistic West
erners imbued as they usually are
with e spirit of buoyancy and hope,
there commenced to glimmer a fear
that perhaps this year their sanguine
expectations were not to be realized.
On May day when a large proportion
of wheat had usually been sown there
was this year very little seeding done.
Finally, however, winter which had
tarried so late in the lap Of spring in
all parts of the Continent vanished
before the vertical rays of the sun,
and the hurry and hustle of spring
work commenced on the western prai-
ries.
By the goth of May $50 of the
spring wheat was sown and the fall
wheat in the districts devoted to its
cultivation was covering the fields
with a mantle of green. Wheat SOW
ing finished on May so and by June
10 the coarser grains were also in
the ground. The heavy snowfall dur
ing the winter left the ground in excel
lent shape when once seeding opera
tons commenced and from the time
weather conditions permitted the COM
mencement of work until planting was
completed, the farmers were a busy
class. The area in wheat is not
much larger than last year, but oats,
| barley and fax are much in excess of
past records, the farmers deeming it
wiser on account of the 1ateness of
the season to put IN a heavier proper
ton of the coaPser grains. From the
most reliable reports to hand it ap-
| pears that the acreage as compared
with 1906 will show an increase of 1870
in oats, 1870 in barley and 1870 in
fax.
Around Akotoks, High River, Nan
ton, Claresholm and other winter
wheat centers, if the present weather
conditions continue, the winter wheat
| will be in head by the middle of July.
The backward weather in the early
| part of May allowed the newly sown
| grain to get a firm root in the ground,
and now with an abundance of moist
ure and warm weather the growth is
remarkable. All danger of injury
| from jc OH10T. &c
the green crop covers the ground re-
tanning the moisture required for it's
| growth and preventing the too rapid
| evaporation which might otherwise
take place.
Crops in Western Canada mature in
one hundred days of good weather,
and as the weather conditions have
i been ideal since seeding, and with
spring wheat now from Ia to Is inches
above the ground, a full average crop
is confidently expected.
i In addition to the cheering pros
poets of this years yield the farmers
are to be congratulated on the fact
that they still have in their possession
five million bushels of wheat from last
| years crop which they are now dis
i posing of at high prices
i The splendid yield of 10000, 00O
bushels of wheat raised in 1906 in
the three provinces of Manitoba, Sas-
katchewan and Alberta, together with
the almost certain assurance that this
year will see a considerable increase
is, as in the past, calling the atten.
ton of the world of the Last Best
West" and thousands from the United
|
Of Europe are each month securing
free grant lands or purchasing farms
in the land which has proved itself
peerless among the grain growing
countries of the world.