Canada West Part 9

Mileage 593.

The Grand Trunk Pacific serves the territory lying between the Canadian Northern and the Canadian Pacific, operating trains through productive territory and for some distance into British Columbia. This Company has completed its line south from Tofield to Calgary, a part of the transcontinental line of that system. Through trains now run from Edmonton to Toronto, Provincial mileage, 545.

Another road is now under construction northward from the international boundary through Pincher Creek, with Calgary as a northern terminus.

The Provincial government has outlined a policy of railway development throughout the Province, particularly in the north, opening vast agricultural lands which will attract settlers desirous of taking up free homestead.

=Lakes and Rivers.=--The Saskatchewan and the Mackenzie rivers rise in the Province. The former is divided into two great arteries, one of which with its tributaries, the Bow, Belly, St. Mary's, Old Man and Red Deer, waters the south, while the north branch, with the Brazeau, Clearwater, Sturgeon, Battle, Blindman and Vermilion as tributaries, waters the great central plains. The Peace and the Athabaska drain the north. Lake Athabaska, 120 miles long, Lesser Slave, 60 miles long, and many smaller bodies of water are chiefly in the northern part.

=Mineral Resources.=--Alberta has enormous coal and lignite areas. The production of coal in 1913 was over 3-1/2 million tons, valued at over 7-1/2 million dollars. The coal supply is practically inexhaustible, and underlies much of the whole Province in seams from four to twelve feet thick. It is found in all grades, lignite, bituminous and anthracite, on the banks of every stream, and in the shafts from 20 to 150 feet deep.

The total formation contains 12,800 square miles; contents 71 billion tons.

Natural gas has been found at Medicine Hat, Tofield, Dunmore Junction, and Bow Island on the South Saskatchewan, and at Pelican Rapids on the Athabaska. Recently considerable interest has been taken in the oil fields south of Calgary and north of Edmonton. Important commercial oil fields will soon be located. There is also petroleum, gypsum, salt and tar sands. Excellent brick and fireclay.

=Fish and Furs.=--The Great Lakes of the North furnish yearly half a million pounds of incomparable whitefish, while the fur wealth of the north is important.

[Ill.u.s.tration: This shows that it is not all work in Western Canada.

There are many spots as beautiful as this, the resort of the sportsman and pleasure seeker.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Coal mining at Tofield, Alberta, where an excellent quality is obtained, and where natural gas is abundant.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: SOUTHERN ALBERTA

Lands within irregular line along railway in British Columbia are administered by the Dominion Government.

Surveyed lands shown in colour.

For Map of Central Alberta see pages 30 and 31.]

=Education.=--The organization of free district schools is optional with settlers, the Government liberally supporting them. An expenditure of about $700,000 a year brings educational advantages within the reach of the most scattered community. One new school a day has been opened in Alberta during the last three or four years, an indication of the settlement that is going on. School population at end of 1912, over 70,000; number of schools 2,029. Two hundred and forty-five school buildings were erected in 1912.

The dissemination of exact scientific knowledge is carried on by farmers' inst.i.tutes, stock-judging schools, seed fairs and travelling dairies. The raising of pure-bred stock is a.s.sisted by Government grants. Experimental and demonstration farms have been established throughout the Province. Agricultural high schools will soon be started, and agriculture form part of the public school curriculum.

=A Healthy Product.=--The air of Alberta insures the best of health. The whole of Alberta lies above mountain alt.i.tude, and the air is extraordinarily clear and bracing. Consequently there is comparatively little cloudy weather on normal days, either in summer or winter. Bright sunshine prevails. Striking testimony as to freedom from consumption is provided by Dr. T. H. Whitelaw of Edmonton, according to whose official report not one case of this disease has originated in Edmonton since the beginning of 1911.

=Stock.=--Alberta's dry and invigorating atmosphere, short, mild winters, nutritious gra.s.ses, and abundant water supply, make it pre-eminently adapted to horse breeding. The Alberta animal is noted for its endurance, lung power, and freedom from hereditary and other diseases.

It winters out at a nominal expense and without even hay or grain feeding.

Four-year old steers, which have never been under a roof nor fed a pound of grain and have been given less than a ton of hay, weigh about 1,500 pounds by August 1 and will then gain until October from 2 to 3 pounds a day. Experiments made at the Demonstration Farm at Olds show that 100 steers weighed in November 1, at 127,540 pounds, weighed out May 20, less than 7 months later at 143,412 pounds, showing a net gain of $10.12 per head.

At the Lacombe Experimental Station the gain per day in feeding cattle ranged from 1.8 to 1.72 lbs., showing a net profit when sold of $14.35 to $28.90.

=Good Roads in the Province.=--One of the most important considerations in a new country is that of roads. The Alberta government has taken up this problem in an intelligent manner, that will eventually greatly enlarge the resources of the Province.

The money expended on ferry service, maintenance of bridges, road construction, construction of bridges, and the construction of trunk roads, was essential to the opening up of vast tracts of fertile land.

As a result, $100,000,000, or more than $200 per capita of the total population of the Province, is the estimated farm value of the 1913 crop in Alberta.

=Sugar Beets and Alfalfa.=--Operations are now extending north as well as south of Lethbridge, where a large factory has been conducted for some years. An expert from Colorado has taken up irrigated land in the Ba.s.sano district to carry on the industry on a large scale. He says: "This is going to be a great beet-raising country. My crop averaged between 16 and 18 per cent sugar, which is a very high grade." He says his new farm produces as much alfalfa per acre as his former more expensive land in Colorado.

=Fruit.=--It has not yet been demonstrated that the larger fruits, such as apples, can be made commercially attractive in Alberta. All the smaller fruits can be grown with little trouble, at a cost that makes their culture profitable.

WHAT SOME ALBERTA FARMERS ARE DOING

=Macleod.=--Weather conditions were excellent throughout the season.

Ninety per cent of the wheat up to October 1 graded No. 1, the only No.

2 being fall wheat. The yield ranged from 20 to 40 bushels per acre, with an average of 28. Oats yielded well, and barley about 60 bushels.

=Inverary= is a new district. Wheat graded No. 2 and some of it went 50 bushels to the acre, oats going about 75 bushels.

=Monarch.=--The yield of wheat on summer-fallow averaged 35 bushels, a large percentage No. 1 Northern.

=Milk River.=--All spring grains yielded better than expected. A 300-acre field of Marquis wheat gave 41-1/2 bushels.

Experimental farm results on grain sown on irrigated land place "Red Fife" wheat in the banner position, with a yield of 59.40 bushels per acre. Oats yielded 13 bushels to the acre.

=Calgary.=--The yield of grain was everywhere abnormal, with an increased acreage of about 23 per cent.

=Ba.s.sano.=--September 25. Individual record crops grown in Alberta include a 1,300-acre field of spring wheat, near here, which went 35 bushels to the acre and weighed 66 pounds to the bushel.

=n.o.ble.=--Mr. C. S. n.o.ble had 350,000 bushels of grain. The cost of production per acre was $9.10 on summer-fallow and the returns were $24.93 per acre. Oats averaged 90 bushels on 2,880 acres, wheat 38 on 300 acres, and barley 61 on 450 acres, all grading top.

Mr. Harris Oium, came from South Dakota twelve years ago and homesteaded the first 160 acres in his township, dividing his land between grain and pasture. He earned sufficient money to buy a quarter section of railway land at $11 an acre. The half section netted proportionate profits and he gradually increased his holdings to 1,920 acres, which are devoted to mixed farming this year. He values his land at $50 an acre. He has 200 hogs, mostly pure bred Poland China, 25 head draft horses and 35 head of pure bred Hereford cattle. Feeding barley to hogs nets him 80 cents a bushel, twice the average market price when delivered to the warehouse.

His barley averages 40 bushels to the acre; oats average 80 bushels.

=Red Deer.=--John Lamont says that a man on a quarter-section, with a few cows, brood sows, and 100 hens, can be as sure of a good living for his family as if he were pensioned by the government. His 20 acres of Alberta red winter wheat yielded 985 bushels. Last year his wheat went a little over 40 bushels per acre, machine measure. He grows alfalfa.

S. D. McConnell has carried on mixed farming for twelve years keeping a few cattle and some hogs; makes a dollar a bushel out of his barley by feeding it. His fall wheat has gone from 30 to 65 bushels to the acre; oats from 40 to 100 bushels, never weighing less than 42 lbs. to the bushel.

H. S. Corrigan has averaged at least 30 bushels of spring wheat per acre, 40 bushels of barley, and 60 bushels of oats. Twenty-one acres of oats ran 90 bushels per acre, and weighed 48 pounds per bushel. Last winter he bought nine head of cattle for $420, fed them six weeks on hay, green feed, and chop and sold them for $579.60. Two steers, 26 months old weighed 2,440 lbs. One sow raised 58 pigs in 2-1/2 years, and when sold, weighed 550 pounds. Two of her pigs, now a year old, are raising 23 pigs. Timothy has yielded a ton and a half on an average, at $15 a ton.

=Red Deer.=--J. Northrup has not missed a crop in nine years, and says: "This is the best country in the world for small grain, better than Iowa and that is good--I love old Iowa. Winter wheat yields as high as 45 bushels per acre. Potatoes yield 400 bushels per acre at times. Alfalfa is a good crop when the soil is inoculated."

C. A. Sharman has the world's champion Jersey cow. He says: "A quarter section of land and 100 head of stock mean the maximum of growth from every square yard. Any man, woman, or child that uses Alberta rightly will be used rightly by Alberta. Farming in Alberta is no gold brick proposition, but an industry, which is the basis of all wealth."

[Ill.u.s.tration: One of the comfortable homes in Western Canada, showing splendid surrounding of trees.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Alfalfa has become a recognized fodder crop in Western Canada. Large areas are already planted, and it produces abundant yields.]

A. P. Olsen formerly of Minnesota has raised cattle, horses, hogs and also milked a few cows. His oats yield 45 bushels to the acre, spring wheat, 36 bushels, winter wheat and barley 40 bushels. He won first prize at the Calgary Exhibition for a collection of 32 varieties of gra.s.ses found on his own land.

=Macleod.=--R. McNab has returns which show a yield of 45 bushels of No. 1 Northern wheat to the acre.

=Gleichen.=--Forty-five bushels of No. 1 Northern wheat per acre was the yield on the Blackfoot Indian reserve in 1913.

=Pincher Creek.=--Alfred Pelletier had 130 bushels oats per acre.

=Cities and Towns.=--On the banks of the Saskatchewan and forming the portal alike to the Last West and the New North, the capital city of =Edmonton= has attractions for the capitalist, the tourist, the manufacturer, and the health seeker. At the centre of two great transcontinental highways, Edmonton will soon be rated among the world's great cities. Traffic from the Pacific to Hudson Bay will go through her portals, the south, north and west will contribute. Possessed of munic.i.p.ally-owned waterworks, electric-lighting and power systems, street railways and telephones, the city is modern, attractive and alive. The number of banks is evidence of prosperity. The coal output of the district is about 3,000 tons daily. Population, about 60,000. In 1901, it was 2,626. In 1911, the a.s.sessment was a trifle under 47 million dollars; in 1912, 123-1/2 million dollars. School attendance, 5,114.