Daily Kennebec journal., 1911-04-24

VIZ -hiliCi II dll farmer poor and her
Iown farmer poor, too. The destruc-
ton of the equilibrium of our market
Twill not in the end benefit her. When
the western United States farmer was
flooding the cereal and dairy market
of the eastern United States. he did
not prosper. Kansas appeared to
bleed in those days as she had never
bled before. And the potato farmers
| of both Maine and New Brunswick.
who now have to pay millions of dol
lars annually for fertilizers, may look
with alarm to that rich virgin soil of
' Manitoba, Saskatchewan. and Alberta
where the few struggling pioneer
farmers in that vast domain produced
in 1909 10,000,000 bushels of potatoes.
Canada's Four Eastern Provinces.
| Canada has all the conditions for a
great agricultural development in
| eVitable to destroy the equilibrium of
our market. Except in the Province
| OF Ontario, she has no home market to
speak of to absorb the surplus of her
| farmers. In the four Provinces of
| Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia.
| New Brunswick, and Quebec, out of
2.1DO,600 people at the last census
about 10000 We're wage earners in in
dustrial establishments, and their an
nual wages amounted to a little over
$50.00o.000. The little state of Rhode
Island alone had that year two-thirds
as many industrial wage earners and
disburSed to them over $43,000.000 i'm
wages But those four Provinces of
Canada have am area far greater than
all New England, with New York, New
Jersey. Pennsylvania, Ohio. Indiana,
and Illinois added. The four Prov
inces live to themselves. When we
speak of growing Canada We mean
Ontario and the west. In the %
years comprised by the two last
Canadian censuses. the four vast east
ern Provinces added to their popula-
ton 100000. In one decade of that 20
years the state of Massachusetts in
creased nearly twice 300. 600, and Mr.
Archibald Blue, commissioner Of the
coming Canadian census. is quoted in
the papers as predicting scarcely any
increase in the eastern Provinces, but a
large growth in western Canada. There
is little prospect for advance in those
eastern Provinces unless we divert to
them purchases We now make from
our own f3rners. The farmers of
eastern Canada. having no markets ex-
cept the distant English market, live
To themselves. But if stirred into life
by access to our home market, they
Will show great capacity for exporta-
tions. because they have no home
market to absorb their surplus
Boundless Resources of Western Can
ada.
When we turn to western Canada We
have repetition of the conditions
which once prevailed in the United
States. Ontario. Manitoba. Sas-
katchewan, Alberta, and British CO.
lumbia are an empire of a million
square miles. The Canadian repre-
sentative at the International Institute
at Rome told the Delegates last year
the Prairie provinces of Manitoba
Sa katGheWan. and Alberta were as
larg- as England, France, Germany,
aud Italy The five great western
PROVINCES. rirh IN a fertile soil have a
t9Hain as great as that Of the com
hn"d states of Illinois. Missouri, Iowa,
Wisconsin. Minnesota. the two Da-
kotas, Kansas. Nebraska. Oklahoma,
and Texas. When YOU remember the
vast flood Of agricultural produce that
those states have poured into the
markets of the world We can form
some Idea of what western Canada will
do To the equilibrium of markets for
the next two generations of Ameri-
cans. The Loadon Economist, Eng
lands great journal of finance and |
trade. has recently sent corresponds
ent into Canada west. After noting |
that the United States produced 600,-
100000 bushels Of wheat in 1910. this |
correspondent records that in the |
Canadian west there are 100000. 400 |
acres of wheat land not yet touched by |
the plow that can produce 5000, ,00O, 900 |
bushels of wheat annually. and there |
are furthermore 250. .000, 900 acres suit |
able for cattle raising. But wheat |
and cattle are not the only products.
In 1909 Manitoba. Saskatchewan. and |
Alberta produced 10000, 900 bushels of !
potatoes. and in the last year the dairy |
commissioner of Canada has noted |
that the dairying industry is growing |
rapidly in northern Saskatchewan and |
northern Alberta. Northern Ontario, |
hitherto almost unknown, but now
opened up for mining, has been found |
to have splendid potato land. equaling
the best in New Brunswick and Nova |
Scotia. The Canadian Pacific and
Grand Trunk are opening up this |
region to settlers and promise to make |
it as populous as older Ontario.
We have supposed that western
Canada was a cold country, but last |
year in Manitoba, Saskatchewan. and |
Alberta half the seeding was done by |
the end of March: in Saskatchewan
young stock began to run on the
prairies early in March: and in Octo-
Der last the superintendent of the gov
ernment farm at Indian Head, Mani
toba, wrote that the cattle We're still in
pasture, while fall plowing continued
in Alberta until November 25. 1t has
been assumed that corn can not be
raised there, but in August, 1910, the
superintendent of the experimental
farm at Brandon, Manitoba, wrote.
Corn is splendid CROP Such, then,
Is Canada. west and east, in what are
known as the nine Provinces They
have an area of agricultural lands
nearly equal to half the entire area of