Part 2

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.

Winnipeg, the grain centre of Western Canada, has received and handled more wheat per day than Chicago, Minneapolis, and Duluth combined.

Approximately 191 million bushels of grain were shipped from the elevators at Fort William and Port Arthur during the season of navigation; from the first of September, 1913, until December 20, 127 million bushels of grain were shipped to the east--52,000,000 bushels more than for the same period last year.

=What Farmers Receive.=--The amount of grain marketed, and the estimated receipts, based on an average price for September, October, and November, are as follows:

Bushels Price per bushel

Wheat 97,000,000 .73 $70,000,000

Oats 30,000,000 .30 9,000,000

Barley 9,500,000 .40 3,800,000

Flax 6,500,000 $1.10 7,150,000

Total $89,950,000

=A Splendid Fall.=--The fall of 1913 was exceedingly favourable to the farmer of Western Canada. The weather made it possible to harvest and thresh in the minimum of time, and in some cases permitted a start on fall ploughing early in September, in many parts continuing until December 1st. Owners of traction engines took advantage of clear nights to plough, the powerful headlights throwing a brilliant light across the fields. The men worked in relays, and it was frequently midnight before the big outfits quit.

=Mixed Farming.=--Mixed farming is yielding large profits to those who work intelligently along the lines of intensive farming. In addition to wheat, oats, barley, and flax--alfalfa and other fodder crops are grown, and in some places corn.

Every variety of vegetable grows abundantly and sugar beets are a moneymaker. Stock-raising is an important branch of mixed farming, and hogs and sheep are commanding high prices, the demand greatly exceeding the supply.

=Sheep.=--The sheep industry in Western Canada pays exceedingly well. In the early days--but a few short years ago--a district south of the Canadian Pacific Railway from Swift Current to Maple Creek was stocked with sheep, and several large ranches made money, but with the onrush of settlement these ranches have been vacated and are now given up to successful grain growing. However, the farmers who now cross the boundary to purchase the best Montana breeds and take them to their farms, in every case report a success as great as that in grain growing. Although no country could be better fitted for sheep raising, and numerous successes have been made, Western Canada imports much of its mutton.

=Profits in Horse Raising.=--The raising of horses is receiving increasing attention. Here also a rare opportunity for profit exists, for the market is woefully unsupplied.

=Dairying= offers splendid opportunities for profit. In the rapidly growing cities and towns there is a demand for milk, cream, and butter. Creameries and cheese factories are established at accessible points. The feeding of cattle is nominal.

=Poultry Products= can be readily marketed, and poultry raisers have done remarkably well. No one knows better than the farmer's wife the saving effected by having a flock of hens, some turkeys, geese and ducks, and the cost of feed is not noticed.

=Hog Raising.=--Hog-raising has equal advantages with grain growing. A large quantity of pork that should be supplied at home is now shipped in. Barley, the best staple for hog raising, is easily grown and yields heavily. Alfalfa can be grown with little trouble, and with two crops in a season, and three tons to the acre to a crop, it will play an important part in the hog industry of the future. The Canadian field pea and the rape, also are good feed and produce the very best of pork.

Chas. Reid, of Swift Current, who sold a thousand dollars' worth of pork last summer, and then had considerable on hand, has demonstrated that hogs pay better than straight grain raising. He has an income from his farm the whole year round.

A farmer near Moose Jaw sold some hogs for $130.00. To the question, "What did they cost?" he answered: "Really nothing. I bought one sow; I have kept two, and I have three to kill for my own use. Of course we had skim milk and buttermilk, and I fed some chop, but what is left is worth all I paid out. I call the $130.00 clear profit."

It is the same story in all parts of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. A little attention, plenty of such grain as would go to waste, some shelter, and that's all. Last year many farmers went into hog-raising extensively, and it saved many of them from financial embarrassment; for when money was not obtainable at the banks, farmers having marketable hogs sold them with handsome profit. Several made from $1.00 to $1.20 per bushel for wheat by feeding it to hogs.

=Butter and Eggs.=--Large sums are spent regularly in United States markets for butter and eggs to supply the cities and towns of Western Canada, and large quantities of butter are imported from New Zealand. Not only is the demand in the towns, but many wheat-raisers purchase these commodities when they might produce them on their own farms at trifling cost.

William Elliott, near Moose Jaw, has eight cows and eighty hens. In less than eight months, his butter and eggs sold for more than $500. All the groceries and the children's clothing and boots, are paid for with butter and egg money.

W. H. Johnston, five miles south of Moose Jaw, has thirty cows and milks an average of twenty-five. His gross receipts last summer were from $600 to $700 per month, of which $300 was profit. He grows his own feed, principally oats and hay, and has no worries over harvesting or grain prices.

=Truck Gardening.=--Long days of abundant sunshine from May to September, and adequate moisture in the spring and early summer permit of a wide variety of products. The soil is rich and warm, and easily worked. Close attention to cultivation has resulted in record yields of vegetables and small fruits, which bring good prices in the cities.

A farmer within five miles of Moose Jaw, who sold vegetables at the city market last year realized more than $300 between August 1, and October 30. He had half an acre in carrots, cabbage, cauliflower, radishes, beans, lettuce and onions, and half an acre in potatoes and turnips. His own table was supplied all summer and enough vegetables were put in the cellar to supply him during the winter and seed potatoes in the spring.

=Corn Can Be Grown on Canadian Prairies.=--Manitoba is producing corn, chiefly for feed. On September 28, corn nine feet high had developed to the dough stage, and the crop would easily exceed twenty tons to the acre. There are also scattered fields of corn in Saskatchewan and Alberta.

Corn is successfully grown in the northern part of Minnesota in similar soil and under the same climatic condition, and there is no apparent reason why like results should not be secured in Western Canada. Many American farmers of experience believe the corn belt is extending northward.

=Alfalfa= is an assured crop in many parts of Western Canada and is destined to be the leading forage crop. In a recent competition forty-three entries were made, and every field was one of which farmers of the older alfalfa countries might be proud. In southern Alberta alfalfa is a success; at Edmonton it grows abundantly. Battleford, Prince Albert, Regina, Indian Head, Lacombe, Brandon, and in many other districts alfalfa is grown.

=Post Offices.=--Throughout the settled portions of Western Canada are found post offices at which mails are delivered regularly, thus bringing Eastern friends within a few days' reach of those who have gone forward to make homes under new but favourable conditions on the fertile lands of the West. Last year hundreds of new post offices were established, many of them at points remote from the railway, but all demanded by new settlements made during the year.

=Roads and Bridges.=--It is said to be the policy of the Canadian Government to do everything possible for the welfare of the settler, whether in accessible new town or remote hamlet. This solicitude is shown in every branch dealing with the organizing of new districts. Bridges have been built, roads constructed, the district policed, and a dozen other conveniences provided. Is it any wonder that with the splendid, high-yielding land, free to the homesteader or open to purchase at reasonable prices from railway and land companies, the Canadian immigration records for 1913 were so high?

=Land Laws=.--Canada's land laws were formed after the United States had applied its methods to the free lands of the West, and embody the best United States provisions. They are so framed as not to bear heavily on the settler, whose interests are carefully watched, and are liberally administered. After several years' trial they have proved satisfactory.

Titles, or patents, come from the Crown, and on being registered in a Land Titles Office these patents secure a transfer.

Taxes outside of cities, towns, and the larger municipalities, are merely nominal and are devoted entirely to the improvement of roads, to educational purposes, to the payment of salaries, and to the erection of public buildings. At least 50 per cent of these costs, and in small struggling communities, 60 per cent or more, is paid by the Government out of the fund produced by the sale of school lands, one-eighth of the country having been reserved for that purpose.

=The Banks of Canada.=--The close of 1913 has brought the usual bank statements accompanied by the addresses of the presidents and general managers of these institutions. They deal with economic matters first hand, and show in striking manner the prosperity of the country. Those who know anything of Canadian banking methods know the stability of these institutions, and the high character of the men in charge of them.

Mr. Coulson, of the Canadian Bank of Commerce says:

"We have had a good harvest. The yield has been generally good, and the quality on the average has never been surpassed. This has been especially so in the Western Provinces, and the unusually favourable weather and abundant transportation facilities afforded by the railroads enabled the movement of grain to be made rapidly."

=Canada's New Bank Act.=--During 1913 the decennial revision of the Bank Act took place. Among important changes were:

The establishment of the Central Gold Reserves. Authority to lend to farmers on their threshed grain.

The provision which enables a bank to lend to a farmer on the security of his threshed grain is extensively utilized. This class of loan is regarded as a moral risk, and banks still depend more upon the character of the borrower than upon the security.

=What Bank Managers Have to Say.=--Mr. Balfour, manager of the Union Bank of Canada:

"The railway companies have carried out the grain from the Western Provinces this year in a very satisfactory manner."

Mr. John Galt, president of the Union Bank of Canada:

"Speaking generally, the crop results have been satisfactory. In the three great wheat growing provinces this has been a banner year. Not only has the yield been large, but the average quality has never been equalled, and the cost of harvesting has been unusually low, owing to the magnificent weather. This has, to some extent, offset the low prices which prevailed. The railways have done splendid work in handling the crop.

"There is a marked increase in the number of livestock. Farmers are becoming more fully alive to the advantages they derive from this source and are realizing that their borrowing credit is greatly enhanced if they can show a good proportion of cattle in their assets, and banks should look with favour on loans for the purchase and handling of livestock."

Robert Campbell, general manager of the Northern Crown Bank, gives strong testimony of the wealth of Western Canada:

"It is important at a time like the present for every business concern, financial or otherwise, to show by its statement that collections have been good. We may congratulate ourselves upon the showing we have made in this. Notwithstanding that we have made new loans amounting to millions of dollars since the crop was harvested, our old loans have been paid off so rapidly that our liquid assets were not reduced.

"This state of affairs is attributable to the fine weather we have experienced in the West, which enabled the farmers to harvest their grain early and quickly and to the unusual rapidity with which the crop was moved by the railway companies."

PROVINCIAL PREMIERS ARE OPTIMISTIC

=Manitoba is Stronger.=--Sir Rodmond Roblin has no pessimism regarding the outlook in Manitoba. He says: "The improvements upon farm and field excite the admiration of those interested in agriculture, while our population has been very considerably increased by a healthy, intelligent, and industrious class of new-comers. Manitoba, is much stronger financially, numerically, commercially, industrially and educationally than she was in the year 1912. Her progress and development are rapid, healthy, and permanent."

=Hope and Cheer in Saskatchewan.=--Hon. Walter Scott: "The sheet anchor of Saskatchewan is its soil, which (excluding, of course, the far north) comprises a larger proportion of land capable of sustaining a farming population than any area of similar vastness on the globe. Nothing but inconceivable recklessness and waste can prevent its remaining for all time a great agricultural province, and nothing can seriously check its steady forward movement."

=Alberta on Sound Footing.=--Hon. A. L. Sifton: "Alberta was never on a sounder footing than it is to-day. It has reaped the best crop in her history, and stands in line for her share of the millions earned by the farmers of Western Canada for their wheat and other grains. Coarse grains for feeding purposes are beginning to predominate with the advent of mixed farming. A gratifying increase in the number of dairy cows and hogs is reported from every district, indicating a new source of wealth, a more constant revenue for the farmer and a new basis of credit for farming operations."

=Splendid Outlook in British Columbia.=--Sir Richard McBride says: "That British Columbia, judged by the healthy growth in population and in general industries during the past year, and the splendid outlook, may confidently be expected to have increased prosperity in 1914. Mining will show a larger output for the current year and the same may be said of agriculture and other occupations. Generous and wise expenditure for adding to the already extensive road system, the building of necessary public works, as well as the enormous amount of railway construction all conduce to the opening up and settlement of immense areas, hitherto almost dormant."

PANAMA CANAL AND CANADA

=The London Times=, speaking of the Panama Canal, says: "Although there is considerable speculation in trade and political circles as to the effect of the opening of the Panama Canal, enthusiasts in the West predict that Western Canada generally will increase in population and wealth to an extent beyond conception. The Canal will have the effect of bringing the outposts of Empire inside the commercial arena. The new water route, combined with improved railway facilities, will certainly improve the position of Western Canada in the battle for the world's markets."

WHAT HAS BEEN SAID ABOUT WESTERN CANADA

=Mr. James J. Hill.=--"Within a few years the United States will not be exporting any wheat, but it will become a market for the wheat of Canada."

=Dr. Wm. Saunders=, Director of the Canadian Government Experimental Farm at Ottawa, Canada: "The Canadian Northwest can supply not only sufficient wheat for a local population of thirty millions, but have left over for export three times as much as the total import of the British Isles. One-fourth of its arable land is devoted to wheat."

=Professor Shaw.=--"The first foot of soil in the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta is worth more than all the mines from Alaska to Mexico, and more than all the forests from the boundary to the Arctic ocean. One acre of the average soil in Western Canada is worth more than ten acres of average land in the United States."

=Professor Tanner.=--"The black earth of Central Russia, the richest soil in the world, has to yield its distinguished position to rich, deep, fertile soil of Western Canada. Here the most fertile soil of the world is to be found. These soils are rich vegetable humus or clay loam with good clay subsoil. To the high percentage of nitrogen is due the high percentage of gluten which gives the 'Canadian No. 1 Hard' the flouring qualities which have spread its fame abroad to the ends of the earth."

=St. Paul Farmer.=--During a recent trip through Western Canada, the editor of the _St. Paul Farmer_, in referring to Government forces in agriculture, spoke of the interest that the Dominion and the Provincial Governments took in farming and farm education, as "complete and effective."

=The General Manager= of a Canadian bank is reported to have said that, "owing to the speedy manner in which grain came forward in the fall of 1913, our farmer customers in the prairie provinces paid off about three million dollars of liabilities between September 20, and October 10."

=Hon. W. T. White=, speaking at a New York meeting, said: "We used to give you good Canadians but now we are getting back good Americans. Ours came from the east, yours are going into our west. Some of the most practical citizens, the best Canada has to-day, are the Americans. We received last year no less than 140,000. Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, three provinces, have each a larger territory than modern Germany, less than ten per cent under cultivation. This year they had a crop of over 200 million bushels of wheat. You cannot get any country where contracts are more faithfully regarded or obligations more carefully safeguarded by law than in Canada."

=Sir Thomas Shaughnessy.=--"Immigration into Canada cannot cease, for it is due to economic conditions which show no signs of changing."

=David R. Forgan.=--"Nothing can check a country which can raise the amount of wheat which has been raised in Western Canada this year. Any checks which the country may have had as a result of the world-wide money conditions are entirely beneficial to the country. Numbers of young men, the sons of farmers in the States, are now coming to Canada, and are taking up land much cheaper and equally as good as they could get in the States."

=Lord William Percy= of England: "The possibilities and opportunities offered by the West are infinitely greater than those which exist in England."

=Colonel Donald Walter Cameron= of Lochiel, Scotland, Chief of the Cameron Clan: "We cannot blame our people for coming out here, where there are so many opportunities as compared with those afforded in Scotland. I thought possibly a trip through Canada would give us some plan as to how to stop the wholesale emigration from Scotland, but, after seeing this wonderful country and the opportunities on every side, where one man has as good chances as his neighbor, I have come to the conclusion that nothing more can be done."

=Speaker Clark=.--In commenting on Speaker Clark's remarks expressing regret at the number of Americans who had gone to Canada in one week, the _Chicago News_ says: "The appropriate sentiment for the occasion would seem to be a God-speed to the emigrants. They are acting as the American pioneers did before them, and are taking what appears to them to be the most promising step for improving their fortunes. The bait is wild land, and it is not affected by national boundaries."

=Mayor Deacon,= Winnipeg: "No man who sets foot in Canada is more entirely and heartily welcome than the agriculturist from the South."

An eminent American writer after a recent visit to the Canadian West in speaking of the American immigration to Canada, says:

"Any country that can draw our citizens to it on such a scale must have about it something above the ordinary, and that Canada has in many ways."

=Dean Curtiss= of Ames Agricultural College, Iowa, says:

"We of the United States think we know how to get behind agriculture and push, but the Canadians dare to do even more than we do in some respects. They have wonderful faith in the future: they hesitate at no undertaking that offers prospects of results. More significant still is the wide co-operation for agricultural promotion, including the government, private individuals, and corporations and the railroads.

"Manitoba has in the last two years provided about as much money for the building of an agricultural plant as Iowa has appropriated in half a century. It has given in two years $2,500,000 for buildings and grounds for its agricultural institutions. Saskatchewan is building a plant for its university and agricultural college on a broader and more substantial plan than has been applied to any similar institution in this country. Yet neither province has more than half a million population.

"For public schools equally generous provision is made. They are being built up to give vocational and technical training as well as cultural. They fit the needs of the country excellently and should turn out fine types of boys and girls. They do this with a remarkable faith in the value of right education."