Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1908-09-03


best of all are the proofs of il in act
ual results. This year, for instance.
as high as one hundred bushels OF
oats TO the acre will be gathered in
Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta,
and some wheat will go AS HIGH AS
FIFTY BUSHELS TO THE ACRE,
though OF course this is an unusual
yield
Last spring II was widely advertised
In American papers that Alberta's win
ter wheat crop was a failure. In fact.
this is Albertas banner year in grais
production, as it is Saskatchewan
and Manitoba's, and from figures al
ready in II is estimated that Alberta's
wheat will yield on an average of THIR-
TY-FIVE BUSHELS TO THE ACRE.
In many parts of the province returns
will show a yield of as high as FIFTY
bushels TO the acre and II is freely
predicted by many that when the Of
fetal figures are in yield of at least
forty-five instead Of thirty-five bushels
to the acre will be shown.
At the time of my last journey
through the Canadian West, when my
purpose was largely to secure statis-
tical matter for book use, l solicited
letters from American settlers in all
parts of the three provinces, and most
of these make most interesting read
ing. The letter was written by A. Kali
tenbrunner, whose postoffice address
is Regina Saskatchewan
Co. L
up a homestead for myself and also
one for my son. The half section
which we own is between Rouleau and
Drinkwater, adjoining the Moosejaw
creek, and is low, level and heavy
land. Last year we put in 100 acres of
wheat which went % bushels to the
acre. Every bushel of ii was No. l.
That means the best wheat that can
be raised on earth-worth 80 cents
bushel at the nearest elevators. We
also threshed 5000 bushels of first
class oats out of 100 acres. Eighty
acres was fall blowing AND YIELDED
NINETY BUSHELS TO THE ACRE.
We got SO cents a bushel clear. All
our grain was cut in the last week Of
the month of August. We will make
more money out of our crops this year
than last. For myself, l feel COM
PEELED to say that Western Canada
crops cannot be checked, even by I'M
usual conditions"
An itemized account shows a single
years earnings of this settler and his
son to be as follows:
- IN oh .ls. hfn ut
a bushel. .................. $2,25O
5000 bushels of oats at SO cents
bushel. ............. 4,77O
Total .................. - ,OzV
1t will be seen by the above that
this mans oat crop was worth twice
as much as his wheat crop. While
the provinces of western Canada will
for all time to come be the worlds
greatest wheat growing regions, oats
are running the former grain a close
race for supremacy. The soil and eli
matte conditions in Manitoba, Sas.
katchewan and Alberta are particular
ly favorable TO the production of oats,
and this grain, like the wheat, runs a
I
even the best grain producing states
of the union. Ninety bushels to the
acre is not an unusual yield, whole
homesteads frequently running this
average. And this is not the only ad-
vantage Western Canada oats have
over those of the United States, for in
weight they run between forty and
| fifty pounds to the bushel, while No.
/ wheat goes to sixty-two pounds to
the bnshel In fact, so heavy is
Canadian grain of all kinds, and espe-
cially the wheat, that throughout the
west one will see cars with great
placards upon them, which read:
This car is not to be filled to ca
pacity with Alberta wheat"
When l made my first trip through
/ the Canadian West a few years ago |
| found thousands of settlers living in
rude shacks, tent shelters and homes
of logs and clay. Today one will find
these old homes" scattered from
Manitoba to the Rockies, but they are
no longer used by human tenants.
Modern homes have taken their place
for il has come to be a common say
ing in these great grain regions that,
THE first year a settler is in the land
he earns living; the second he has
money enough to build himself mod.
ern home and barns; the third he is
independent" And as extreme as this
statement may seem to those hun
dreds of thousands Of American farm
ers who strive for a meager existence,
It is absolutely true | am an Ameri-
can. as patriotic, believe, as most OF
our people-but even at that | cannot
but wish that these people, whose
lives are such an endless and unhappy
grind might know of the new life that
is awaiting them in this last great
west-this land of greater hope,
where the farmer is king, and where
the wealth all rests in his hands. AS
one American farmer said to me, III
is hard to pull up stakes and move a
couple of thousand miles" And so II
is-or at least 1t appears to be. But
in a month it can be done. And
the first wear when the new settler