Canada West Part 5

"The output of the creameries last year was close to 4,000,000 pounds.

They cannot, however, begin to meet the demand. It is the same with eggs, poultry, beef, pork, mutton, vegetables, and all foodstuffs. The opportunity for the man who will go in for mixed farming in this Province is consequently obvious."

=Dairying= yielded about 3-1/2 million dollars in 1913 for b.u.t.ter, and then failed to supply local demand, a quant.i.ty of milk, cream, and b.u.t.ter being imported. Winnipeg alone used over three-quarters of a million dollars' worth of milk and cream in 1913. The demand is increasing with the growth of the cities throughout the west, and splendid opportunities exist in this field. Cheese sold in 1913 at 12-1/2 cents per pound, dairy b.u.t.ter at 23.4 cents, and creamery b.u.t.ter at 27.5 cents.

Dairy schools, under control of the Agricultural College are well equipped and under the guidance of professors of high standing.

=Businesslike Farming.=--Nowhere on the continent more than in Manitoba has farming advanced to the dignity of a thoroughly businesslike occupation. Here the farmer works, not merely for a living, but for a handsome profit. Instances are frequent where large areas under wheat have given a clear profit of over $12 an acre. All the labour of ploughing, seeding, harvesting, and marketing is included at $7.50 per acre with hired help. Even allowing $8, it is a poor year that will not yield a handsome margin.

The greatest monopoly of the future will be land.

Wheat is the greatest food cereal. Lands suitable to the growth of No. 1 hard wheat are extremely limited. While the demand for wheat is increasing, the wheat belt of the United States is decreasing yearly in acreage and yield, with the result that within a few years the United States will have to import and scramble for a lion's share of the wheat crops of the world.

The following tables give the acreage, average and total yield of wheat oats, barley, and flax for the last seven years. Provincial government returns,

WHEAT OATS Year Acreage Average Total Acreage Average Total Yield Yield Yield Yield 1907 2,789,553 14.22 39,688,266.6 1,213,596 34.8 42,140,744 1908 2,850,640 17.23 49,252,539 1,216,632 36.8 44,686,043 1909 2,642,111 17.33 45,774,707.7 1,373,683 37.1 50,983,056 1910 2,962,187 13.475 39,916,391.7 1,486,436 28.7 42,647,766 1911 3,350,000 18.29 61,058,786 1,625,000 45.3 73,786,683 1912 2,823,362 20.07 58,433,579 1,939,982 46.0 87,190,677 1913 3,141,218 19.30 62,755,455 1,939,723 42.0 81,410,174

BARLEY FLAX Year Acreage Average Total Acreage Average Total Yield Yield Yield Yield 1907 649,570 25.7 16,752,724.3 25,915 12.25 317,347 1908 658,441 27.54 18,135,757 50,187 11.18 502,206 1909 601,008 27.31 16,416,634 20,635 12.26 253,636 1910 624,644 20.75 12,960,038.7 41,002 9.97 410,928 1911 760,000 31.5 21,000,000 86,000 14.00 1,205,727 1912 962,928 35.0 33,795,191 191,315 13.06 2,671,729 1913 1,153,834 28.0 33,014,693 -- -- --

=Education.=--Manitobans expend a greater percentage of public funds for schools than for any other purpose. Private schools, business colleges and public libraries, as numerous and as well equipped as those in similar communities anywhere, are established in all important cities and towns and these with the excellent public schools afford educational facilities equal to those of any country. There are also a number of Catholic parochial schools.

The Dominion Experimental Farm at Brandon is doing much to educate the farming population of the Province. Accurate records of all practical experiments are kept and the information is given to settlers free.

Dairy schools, farmers' inst.i.tutes, livestock, fruit growers, agricultural, and horticultural a.s.sociations also furnish free instruction as to the most successful methods practised in their callings.

=Railways= have antic.i.p.ated the future, so that few farmers are more than eight or ten miles from a railway. Manitoba now has 3,895 miles of railway as compared with 1,470 miles in 1893. The Canadian Pacific has 1,620 miles, Canadian Northern 1,809, and the Grand Trunk 366, and extensions will be made by all lines this year. Railway lines being built to Hudson Bay will make large mineral deposits available. When this territory is surveyed there will be opened up a wonderfully rich area, capable of maintaining an immense population. This added territory gives a port on Hudson Bay, from which vessels can carry the farm produce of the West to old country markets.

=Climate.=--Unlike some other provinces, Manitoba's climatic conditions are uniform throughout. There is much sunshine the year round. The summer is pleasant, warm, and conducive to rapid and successful growth.

The long autumns are usually agreeable, ploughing weather sometimes extending to the end of November.

The winters rarely last more than three or four months, and because of the dry atmosphere, the low temperature is not as much felt as in countries with more moisture. The snow is never deep, and travel in winter by team or rail is rarely impeded by drifts. The annual precipitation is 21.4 inches.

The crop season in Manitoba extends from April to October, inclusive.

Seeding frequently starts early in April, and threshing usually lasts through October. The mean temperature for the period, April 1 to September 30, in 1913 was 55 degrees Fahrenheit. The mean temperature in October was only 34.40 Fahrenheit, but threshing can be done in cold weather as readily as in warm, with no injurious effects. The total precipitation in the Province was smaller than usual--for the growing season 9.67 inches, but rain was well distributed: May 1.04 inches; June 2.34 inches; July 1.70 inches; August 3.56 inches, and September .68 inches. The average sunshine was 7.3 hours daily. The mean temperature of the country is 32.7; January 5.2; July 66.1.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Here is a usual scene in Western Canada during the harvesting season.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: The raising of hogs is a highly profitable industry in Western Canada. They are easily fattened on barley, oats and alfalfa.]

=Picnicing on December 11, 1913.=--The mild weather of the past few months has been general throughout the Province of Manitoba. At Melita, on December 11th, the citizens suspended business and had a picnic at River Park on the outskirts of the town, and there was no discomfort from heat or cold.

=Fruit.=--Small fruits did well in 1913. Apples are not grown extensively, but several orchards in the Province were well laden. The orchard of Mr.

Stephenson, near Morden, was the most notable, and produced a crop of several hundred barrels of apples, as well as an abundance of crabs, cherries, and other fruits. At the recent Land and Apple Show in Winnipeg, native apples compared very favourably with those from Provinces which pride themselves on their horticultural possibilities.

=Sugar Beets.=--In growing sugar beet, Manitoba has had success. Syrup produced from sugar beets grown at Morden was of good consistency and the colour indicated that good sugar could be manufactured from it.

=Game and Fish.=--Manitoba's fishery output represents an annual value of over one million dollars. There is plenty of good fishing. Wild ducks, geese, and swans haunt the lakes and rivers, while on the prairies are flocks of prairie chicken.

=Manitoba Farm Lands Year.=--In addition to circ.u.mstances which point to next year as an important one to farming interests, there is one great factor which will undoubtedly have much to do with the sale and development of farms. This is the fact that the people of Manitoba realize the necessity for mixed farming. This means the breaking up of large tracts of land into smaller farms and therefore a largely increased population. Even while the present year has been one of some financial stringency the demand for farm lands has steadily increased.

WHAT SOME MANITOBA FARMERS HAVE DONE

=Gladstone, Man.=, reports that the wheat crop of 1913 exceeded all expectations; 30 bushels per acre was the general yield. The grade was never better. One farmer had 400 acres in wheat, which weighed 66 pounds to the bushel.

=Portage Plains, Man.=, showed some remarkable yields. Noah Elgert had 61 bushels of wheat per acre; the government farm, 61 bushels; Geo. E.

Stacey, 54; T. J. Hall, John Ross and D. W. McCuaig, 50; W. Richardson, 51; M. Owens, 61-1/2; Anderson and Turnbull, 60; J. Lloyd, 48-1/2; Jas.

Bell and Robt. Brown, 48; R. S. Tully, 52; J. Wishart, 49-1/4; Philip Page, 47; J. Stewart, 45; J. W. Brown, 30; Chester Johnson, 44; E. H.

Muir, 42; L. A. Bradley, 43; W. Boddy, 40; Albert Davis, 43; E.

McLenaghen, 37. After farming the same land for forty years, J. Wishart secured a crop of 49-1/2 bushels to the acre, the best he ever had. Mr.

Bradley's yield was on land plowed this spring.

=Marquette, Man.=, September 21. Splendid weather has enabled the farmers of this section to make good progress with the cutting and harvesting of this season's crop. Wheat is averaging 20 bushels to the acre, with barley 45 and oats going 70. There has been no damage of any description.

=Binscarth, Man.=, says good reports are coming from the machines of high yields and good sample. The elevators are busy shipping cars every day.

=Dauphin, Man.=, September 13. Threshing is general. The grain is in good shape and the weather is ideal. The samples are best ever grown here, grading No. 1 Northern. The returns are larger than expected in nearly every case. E. B. Armstrong's wheat went 34 bushels to the acre; others, 25 to 27.

=Balmoral.=--John Simpson says: "Very prosperous has been our first year's farming in Canada. Shipped two carloads of wheat that graded No. 1 Northern and sold for eighty-five cents. Weather for the last two weeks was perfect--no snow and just enough frost to keep the roads from getting muddy."

=Brandon.=--Hard wheats have long been the choice product of Manitoba soil, but nothing more significant is required to announce a new industry in the Province than that Glencarnock Victor, a Manitoba-finished steer, owned by Mr. J. D. McGregor, was last year grand champion of America, and his half-brother from the same stables, won like honours this year. Neither had ever been fed any corn, but fattened on prairie hay, alfalfa, and barley.

CITIES AND TOWNS

=Winnipeg=, with a population of about 200,000, is a natural distributing point for Western Canada, as well as the shipping point for the wonderful crops from the tributary prairie lands. The prosperity of Western Canada is here reflected in substantial buildings, wide boulevards, quarries, water works, street lighting systems, asphalt plants, and a park system of 29 parks, covering 500 acres. There are 40 modern school buildings with 378 teachers and 21,210 pupils.

Winnipeg has four live daily papers and forty weekly and monthly publications. Twenty-four railway tracks radiate from the city, making Winnipeg the leading grain centre of the world. A photograph taken at any point in the financial centre of the city shows magnificent new buildings under construction, representing immense investment and indicating the confidence felt in the city's future. Munic.i.p.al improvements are constantly being made. The city now has 466 miles of sidewalk, 112 miles of boulevard and 162 miles of street pavement. There are 115 churches.

St. Boniface, the seat of the Roman Catholic archdiocese of St.

Boniface, adjoins and is partly surrounded by the business district: 17,000 population.

=Brandon=--With 18,000 population is the second city in the Province and is located on the main line of the Canadian Pacific Railway, with its seven branch railway lines. The Canadian Northern runs through the town and has erected a fine new modern hotel. The Great Northern entering from the south and the Grand Trunk Pacific completed, there is afforded excellent shipping facilities, necessary to the factories, flour mills, machine shops, and wholesale houses established here. There are fourteen branch banks here with clearings totalling $33,000,000. As an educational centre Brandon might be ranked with cities several times larger. The high school would be a credit to any city of first rank. A Dominion Experimental Farm is located here.

=Portage la Prairie=--Enjoys splendid railway facilities at the junction of four lines of railway. This fortunate situation has brought a number of industries. The city owns its park and has a fine educational system, including a Collegiate Inst.i.tute. Many churches and fraternal organizations are supported by this city of 7,000 population. Munic.i.p.al improvements are constantly being made.

=Selkirk= is a distributing point of supplies for points on Lake Winnipeg.

=Carberry and Morden= are flourishing railway towns in the heart of fine wheat-growing sections, as are Minnedosa, Neepawa, Dauphin, Carman, Virden, and Souris.

Scores of towns now developing afford openings for those desiring business opportunities; each has its mills and warehouses for wheat.

Among these centres may be named Manitou, Birtle, Emerson, Gretna, Wawanesa, Rivers, Somerset, Baldur, Deloraine, Melita, Rapid City, Hamiota, Gladstone, Killarney, Hartney, Stonewall, Boissevain, Elkhorn, Gilbert Plains, Pilot Mound, Winkler and Plum Coulee.

Provincial Government returns.

POPULATION AND LIVESTOCK

1891 1908 1909 1911 1912 1913 Population 152,506 455,614 Horses 86,735 230,926 237,161 232,725 273,395 304,100 Milch cows 82,710 173,546 167,442 146,841 154,400 Other horned cattle 147,984 357,988 333,752 397,261 428,274 460,200 Sheep 35,838 29,265 29,074 32,223 42,087 112,500 Hogs 54,177 192,489 172,374 176,212 216,640 176,000 Cultivated farms 45,380 49,755 50,000