Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1908-09-09
THE LAND OF GRAIN
JAMES OLIVER cURWooD
BY

JAME0 VA1VEN NUNWVOU
Author of american Farmers Build
ing New Nation in the NORTH
"Canada-The Land of Greater
Hope"-"The Invasion of Canada by
American Farmers"-"A Thousand
Miles on Horseback Across the Do
minIon Provinces" ETC., Etc.
Not so very many years ago the major
lily Of people in the United States
laughed at the prediction that the day
was coming when Western Canada
would far outstrip this country in
the raising of grain-when, in other
words, it would become the great
bread-basket of the world. During the
past three or four years the enormous
production Of grain in the Dominion
West has thinned the ranks Of those
vast grain growing regions; the crops
Of this year will dispel the doubts of the
remaining few. From Winnipeg
westward to the foothills of Alberta,
over country nearly a thousand
miles in width, the grain production
this year will be something to almost
stagger the belief of those hundreds
of thousands of American farmers
whose average yield is not more than
from ten to fifteen bushels of wheat
to the acre, and who are finding that
their product is also outclassed in
quality by that Of their northern
neighbors.
The enormous grain crop of this
year in the Canadian West may truth
fully be said to be the production of
"a few pioneers" Only a small per-
centage of the unnumbered millions
of acres of grain land are under cult
walton, notwithstanding the fact that
tens of thousands of homesteads were
taken up last year. And yet, when
all the figures are in, it will be found
that the settlers of the western prai-
ries have raised this year more than
125,00O,000 bushels Of wheat, 100000
600 bushels of oats and 25,000,000
bushels of barley. 1t has been "for-
tune making year" for thousands of
American farmers who two or three
years ago owned hardly more than the
clothes upon their backs, and whose
bumper crops from their homesteads
| will yield them this season anywhere
from $1,000 to $4,000 each, more money
| than many of them have seen at one
time in all their lives.
Very recently I passed through the
western provinces from Winnipeg to
| Calgary, and in the words Of a fellow
passenger, who was astonished by
what he saw from the car windows in
Manitoba, we were, metaphorically
speaking, in a land of milk and
honey" The country was one great
sweep Of ripening grain. In fact, SO
enormous was the crop, that at the
time there were grave doubts as to
the possibility OF GETTING ENOUGH
BINDER TWINE TO SUPPLY THE
DEMAND. A situation like this has
never before been known in the agri-
cultural history of any country.
Before I made my first trip through
the Dominion west 1 doubted very
much the stories that l had heard OF
this so-called grain wonderland
across the border. I believed. as I'M
numbered thousands of others be
lieved, that the stories were circulated
mostly to induce immigration. I quick
ly found that 1 was wrong. AS one
Alberta farmer said to me a few
weeks ago, IF the whole truth wer,
told about this country I don't sup
pose you could find one American il
ten who would believe it,
| h0 - h.
wheat crop of Saskatchewan, Mani
toba and Alberta are an average O
over TWENTY-FIVE BUSHELS TC
THE ACRE, and that this grain i
far superior to that raised in tn,
states is proved by our own govern
ment statistics, which show tina
American millers are importing mil
lions of bushels of B Canadian hard
to mix with the home product in orde
that THIS HOME PRODUCT MAY
BE RAISED TO THE REQUIRED
STANDARD. 1t is peculiar fact tina
while the Dominion Government i
anxious for its western provinces t
fill up with the very best Of immi
| grants, there has been no blatant o
sensational advertising of those lands
, For this reason it is probable that no
one American farmer out of fit
, knows that Canada wheat now hold
the worlds record of value-that, il
: other words, it is the best wheat o.
! earth, and that more Of it is grow
to the acre than anywhere else in tn
world
A brief study of climatic condition:
and those things which go to max
7 a climate, will show that the farthe
I one travels northward from the MOI
tana border the milder the climate b.
comes-up to certain point. /
other words, the climate at Edmonton
Alberta, is far better than that {
n Denver, 1900 miles south; and Will
t thousands of cattle and sheep are d.
!, ing because OF the severity of tn
4 winters in Wyoming, Montana an
other western states, the cattle, shee
o and horses of Alberta CRAZE o.
y | THE RANGES ALI, WINTER WITT