Canada To-day and To-morrowCopping, Arthur E. (Arthur Edward)
History
Canada To-day and To-morrow
Copping, Arthur E. (Arthur Edward)
Canada
As for Saskatchewan, it was not so very long ago when people shrugged
their shoulders over that “frozen and barren wilderness.” It was opened
up by railways, and behold Saskatchewan to-day as a smiling country that
is excelled for grain production nowhere in the Empire. I learn that the
agricultural produce of the province has already reached an annual value
of £30,000,000, the total cereal crop for a year—according to
Government figures—exceeding 200,000,000 bushels. When one understands
that this is the yield from only twelve per cent. of the available
arable land of Saskatchewan, one begins to see grounds for the prophecy,
which has been uttered by Sir Wilfrid Laurier, that the day is not far
distant when Saskatchewan will produce annually a billion bushels of
grain. And the curious fact has to be noted that the Saskatchewan of all
those figures and references is not Saskatchewan at all, but only the
southern half of Saskatchewan—the half that has been opened up by
railways.
What particularly struck me in travelling through the province was that,
when on the most northerly margin of the settled country, I kept coming
upon farmers whose wheat and oats had won important prizes. The farmers
were disposed to think the fact was sufficiently explained by their
agricultural aptitude. But I could not help suspecting that their
terrestrial latitude had a good deal to do with it. A six months’
Canadian summer is longer—from a plant’s point of view—than a seven
months’ Canadian summer. For wheat and oats do not make much progress in
the dark; and the lengthening of the winters as one goes north is,
within a limit only to be fixed by experience, a disadvantage of no
account beside the advantage of longer summer days.
Settlement has probably not yet reached the ideal latitude for wheat
growing. At any rate, having regard to the rapidity with which railways
are extending, the time has come when, to Canada and her prospective
immigrants, the possibilities held out by Northern Saskatchewan have
become a matter of eager interest. I will therefore focus such meagre
evidence as is available on the subject.
The first witness we will call is the Venerable Archdeacon J. McKay, who
for forty-five years has been in charge of Church of England missions in
the West. For a decade he lived on the Churchill River, a little to the
north of Lac la Rouge. Therefore he is in a position to give us tidings
of territory situated about two hundred miles north of the limit of the
surveyed lands—territory, however, which is still within the area of
Central Saskatchewan.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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