Agriculture -- Prairie Provinces; Northwest, Canadian -- Economic conditions
In thirty years Winnipeg has increased in population from 2,000 to
200,000; and become an important gateway of commerce. The wheat alone
grown in the three prairie provinces in 1913 is sufficient to keep a
steady stream of 1,000 bushels per minute continuously night and day
going to the head of the lakes for three and a half months, and in
addition to that, the oats and barley would supply this stream for
another four months. The value of the grain crop alone would be
sufficient to build any of our great transcontinental railroads and all
their equipment, everything connected with them, from ocean to ocean.
With only 10 per cent of the arable land under cultivation, what will
the possibilities be when 288 million acres of the best land that the
sun shines on is brought under the plough? Do you not see the portent of
a great, vigorous, populous nation living under those sunny skies north
of the 49th parallel?
=New Railway Mileage Grows at Rapid Rate.=--Every year long stretches of
new rails are extended into some hitherto untravelled domain, bringing
into subjugation mountain, plain, and forest. Mighty rivers are being
bridged, massive mountains are being tunnelled, and real zest is being
given this work in the exciting race between the rival companies as they
strive to outstrip each other in surmounting Nature's obstacles. During
1913, more than 4,000 miles of new road have been built in Canada, the
bulk of this in Western Canada.
The latest reports give the total railway mileage in Manitoba,
Saskatchewan, and Alberta as 12,760 miles, the Canadian Pacific Railway
having 5,534; the Canadian Northern, 4,187; the Grand Trunk Pacific,
1,476; the Great Northern Railway, 162. Manitoba has a total mileage of
4,014; Saskatchewan, 5,679; Alberta, 3,073. The gain over 1912 is about
3,400 miles.
=Western Canada's Wheat.=--The quality of Western Canada wheat is
recognized everywhere. Recently a U. S. senator said of the Canadian
grain fields: "The wheat that Canada raises is the Northwestern hard
spring wheat. The cost of raising is less in Canada than in the States,
because the new lands there will produce larger crops than the older
land on this side of the line, and the land is cheaper than in the
United States."
According to official figures the total estimated wheat production of
Western Canada in 1913 was 209,262,000 bushels, an increase of more than
5 million bushels in 1912. Oats show a total yield of more than
242,413,000 bushels, barley more than 30 million bushels, rye more than
2,500,000 bushels, flax more than 14 million bushels, and mixed grains
more than 17 million bushels. Wheat, oats, barley, and rye are above the
average quality of the last two years, and potatoes and root crops show
a good percentage of standard condition during growth. The value of the
harvest is approximately 209 million dollars as compared with about 200
million in 1912.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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