Agriculture -- Prairie Provinces; Northwest, Canadian -- Economic conditions
=Water Supply and Irrigation.=--Water for domestic and farm purposes is
easily obtained at reasonable depth. In certain sections of the Canadian
West, as in the American West, the soil is unexcelled for growing
cereals, but the geographical location and relative position to the rain
avenues is not advantageous, not only the requisite amount of rain but
its conservation is essential to the growing of crops, and that is the
meaning of "dry farming." This is being successfully followed in the
southern portion of Southern Alberta. Some of the district can also be
easily and successfully farmed by means of irrigation. Irrigation
ditches have been constructed by the Canadian Pacific Railway and the
Southern Alberta Land Company.
[Illustration: Typical school, such as many towns are building in
Western Canada, where the education of the children is carefully looked
after.]
A most valuable asset to Southern Alberta is the Lethbridge Experimental
Station, operated by the Dominion Department of Agriculture. Reports
from the farm show that on land broken and backset in 1912, spring wheat
sown April 3, 1913, ripened between July 31 and August 17, and yielded
from 22 to 41 bushels per acre; oats sown April 13, 1913, ripened from
July 31 to August 4, and yielded from 54 to 84 bushels per acre; barley
sown April 15, 1913, ripened from July 28 to Aug. 5, and yielded from 28
to 40 bushels per acre. On irrigated land the yield of spring wheat was
from 30 to 54 bushels, and the period of ripening about the same; oats
yielded from 102 to 132 bushels per acre, same period for ripening;
barley yield on irrigated land was from 65 to 100 bushels per acre,
harvested from July 28 to August 11.
CENTRAL ALBERTA
=Central Alberta= extends from the Red Deer River northward to the height
of land between the Saskatchewan and the Athabaska. Its great wealth is
its deep black humus varying in depth from ten inches to three feet,
overlying a warm subsoil.
=Mixed Farming.=--None of the three central provinces afford greater
advantages for mixed farming than Alberta. In the south the great ranges
of vacant area affords excellent pasturage. The central portion
furnishes pasturage of equal quality, and the groves and park lands
provide shelter, making it possible to raise cereals, as well as feed
for cattle and hogs. Dairying and poultry raising meet with undoubted
success.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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