THE REAL CANADA OF 1907.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 12975, 30 November 1907, Page 6

THE REAL CANADA OF 1907.

a - ITS ACTUAL PRESENT AND PROBABLE FUTURE. (By Hugh H. Lcsk.) No. V.-MANITOBA. The province of Manitoba is in a good many respects the most interesting to the observer of any part of the Canadian Dominion. It was the first part of the Canadian Middle West to attraot population, and to tho notable success which has in many ways marked its development, the great movement of population westward in the last six years is undoubtedly owing. It is to be noted that in several ways the inferences so freely drawn from this success, in favour of a great future for tho more westerly provinces on the eastern 6ide of the Rocky Mountains, are exaggerated and unfair. Manitoba—originally known as "the Red River Settlement"—is much smaller in area than either Saskatchewan or Alberta, measuring as nearly as possible 05,000 square miles, or somewhere between 41 and 42 million acres of land and water. The expression "land and water" is used hero because Manitoba is the great lake country of Canada—a fact which not only reduces its land area by a good many millions of acres, but has an influence on its climate, which must be considerable, though as yet it does not appear to havo been taken into consideration by thoso who have freely used the experiences of Manitoba as necessarily applicable to the more western provinces. The provinco lies between tho 49th and 53rd parallels of latitude—stretching, that is to say, to a point about 200 miles north of the boundary line of North Dakota. Deducting from its available surface the area of its lakes. as well as some districts of broken land unfit for tillage, it may safely be said that the provinco contains from 25 to 26 million acres of good agricultural land. To-day between four and five million acres of this land may be said to be under cultivation.

The population of Manitoba, may be fairly estimated this year ot about 380.000 persons. Tboro is one city— that of Winnipeg, tflie centre of tUie vhcai fcnado and capital of the province—and a nimibor of email on the lines of raihray, which, in the southern port, of tihe provinco at any rate, are numorous. Wirmipegj-whidh is o large amd finely laid-oirt city of atoout 112.000 iahebitents, is the natural centre not only of nil tho raihvny lines of the province, uhidi radiate fan-hke in all west ami nortii-irw.t directions from it, but of the ttiTul sottlement of the country du'stnicsts. TJio towns— mg from 2000 to 5000 inliflk : tuits. aro httile more than receiving dc-jKv < for the gram and produce on tho «- ay to Wuimpeg, end probafelv do not 'contain on the whole a popdaftdon much mom them r,t«iff j S minioiwis m tie oapitel, Mihiah is beyond doubt at present the most pirogres«V« city an the Poroiiuoo. TJio agricultural population of Maautdba roey be catdma-t<>d thieyear ftt a littjo more than 200.000 perrons, end thore can to Ittitio doubt t,hnt it ren-resente at preeetn*'tlie high-wter mark of CJanaduam presperity ns f« r . mt any r3.te. a» Bettlem«<n l t on the lor.d is concerned.

\\ hat has bowi done fn Rfanitofe ,bw ell been done in very li«He moro than thirty yeare, and tibo irewrdriis n remarboWe one. Thirty yeatrs ngo nohody outeido ite own lfmft© believed in a. possible future for Ofawifaba as a country for extensive or profitable settlement. It wae a sort of "nevernever fcund" to *he people of Eastern Oanade, wfhere cattle might feed, perhaps, and the remnants of Indian tribes mnght be aJlowed to roam unmolested ju a loud which nobody cared to tab© from them. The first approach of railway enterprise to the border of tlho provinc© -woke it to a new energy, and p<avo it quite c new importance vi tho eyee of ite costera nwchbours. People began to come in, and the hope of finding c market to which eooess might be obtained induced new experiments to be underfcaken-tlie new era of grain production began. It would bo difficult to s<i>eak too highly of tlho enterprise shown by the hnvdy pioneers of the grain industry of Western Canada. It is not. merely booause they undertook hard work and endured many privations—tihafc lies been tfoe lot of the pioneers of most new countries, and even those of New Zealand wore not without their share, —it was chiefly ibwau.se they 3md so ereat a faith in the lflnd of tJieir attention tilitat they defied rM public opinion, and ventured their all on tiho cfnanoe that the new country would prove better t'bmi almost anybody ventured to expect. Their faith was justrified. The new country did what even they h«id hardly ventured to hope for aa a, n,rodu.cer *>& grain, <vnd in,-tho end as a producer of other thangti also that in tlie long run prove nearly, if not quite, as vailuabTo to the country.

The begin nin.Dp of wheat-growing on anything like « considerable scale wore made in Manitoba about thio year 1878, and from that timo the industry has Pte>Msi!y increaeed.. Within five rears the whieub belt ihatl extended sr> till at it covered an erea of fully 300.000 acres, and tlics ia five years more hod increaeed to irawards cf 000,000 ncr<«. In the first, instance farming in Manitoba was understood to moan little more than w:h<eint-growing. Indeed, the questfen on which the settlement of the country end tttvo eate of its lands turned tos, Will tihoy grow wheat? If the soil and climate would ad mat of this, it wra fett that the question wns anewered. WJieal oould bo easily cultivated on the plains, and it wee felt that, more than most agricultural produoe, it vrne likely always to bo cooneasily transported to a morket, and always to command a price when it got there. TJie obtained by the pioneer wheat-growers was conclusive: the {sroiind would grow excellent wheat, and, except in rare enses, the cMmate—at least in tlio eoartihem part of the rurovinoe—would ripen and allow of Hβ being well harrest«J. The crojKj too, were gontraJly frood, though by no means enormovß. The aveTage for the fiTSt ten yean for which anytliing like official statistics aro arailable w«s about 18J per acre, and for tho tact 14 ycnTS it has been as ne-arly «is possible 18 bushels. In the meantdnvo tho area under this orcrp ims increased year hj year, till the 300.000 acres of wh«*a* crop in 1885 had increased in 1905 nearly ninefold, and fo«*d reached in that year a total of 2.644,000 aoree.

The eucceae of "Manitoba in- growing wheat led firs* to experiments in the growth of other grain*, and it hns ein.ce led to wider experiments tritih root crops, pasturage, and cattloraising, both for beef and pjij- ,- poses. The euccess vrliicih has 'usiiiUy irbtwulwl these, experiments, wheii made in suitable Icoa-litice and with due precaution*. Jiae been very ooneidora'ble, and hes led <to the rapid development of tihese industries in the southern districts of *he province. It has Heo led, honrever, to some other things, wbtch iney prove much tews satisfactory. The ntilway and otljer great kind epeouJatore bare used the experience of the Manitoba farrnws is if it et»pii«d to the whole of WeAtcro Oanads. Thej- hare not cuily dcr.o this, bnt have repr*«cnted the re«uits oUtAmed on experimental fiirms «u;d others of the sauro chm as the general treaulte to he looked for in &H parts of both Albert*, and Sa*dce.t<*eto wWch tibej ore ia no eenso, and h&rdly in way decree, eppiioiiile. Once more the real question becomes

one of dinwte rather then of land. bo nw-Je ivailnblo for the P«*P*™» settlement of «<m-h a people f «"L*J looked upon as durable to form part of the Empire? There «re, it v uaad, alreadr 40,000 fawners m tthe Province of Manitoba, mainly dependent on the wheat crop of the country. Nearly dl thow fc-rmors aro set-tied m the southernmost port of the province—that is, in o. belt of country between the 49t0i and 51st parallels of latitude, or within 130 mdlee of tho international bounderv. At present they consider that they can make o surplus over expenses in growing grain of about five dollars, or one pound sterling, per aero in a good average year; and perhaps nearly as much by ffreat personal exertions per acre by using their land for raising and foerfin-s dairy end other cattle. Thus c. fanner who can cultivate 200 acres may hope in good years to nuake £200, over and above expenses, out of which ho has to allow tJie interest on tho capital invested, which in such a C3se would certainly not be represented by less than half the profits. Thousands of homes have been made, and are bediig niodo to-<!ay, in Southern Manitoba on ternie t'fosit are oortaiidly not better than thei?e, and the holders are not dissatisfied. Perhaps they are right; but it may be asked wlietJier in New Zealand or Australia tho prospect would bo Looked on as good.

As I have pointed out, the settlement of tlio last twenty yea-re in Manitoba has in this eenee been a success. Settlement there -has occupied—though it has not as yet cultivated—the land to the extent of perhaps nearly onethird of the available airea of good soil, and that almost entirely in tho southern and most promising districts. Compared with the moro noa'thero districts of the province—end these extend north little lr.ore than half ac far as the so-called central districts of Alberta and Saskatchewan —tho clin'flto is irederate, in the eenso in whidh tiho term is understood in Canada, though intensely cold as tlio expression , would signify in Xow Zealand or Australia. Sealers w*ho come there from Northern L'uropo, or even from tli© coMer parts of tho British FslandSj coon gjrow accustomed .to its severity, and feel that they fare done well in coming to a land where they can havo a Jioire tflwt is their own, and can hope, 'by hard and constant work, to earn a sufficient living for themselves and families. And in tin's respect *h«ro can ho no doubt whatever that in tiho meantime tho Manitoba; farmer has in many ways the advantage over his more western neighbours. For the mast part, their sou thorn diet riots aro far Ices suited for farming settlement tihan Jus, owin,i» eutuer to the fond or the rainfall. So far ac on donee gees at present, the northern haM of what they call tJiof.r central districts can never, at tho tpit best, bo more than a pilaoe in ivJuch aid tho cdvantagce are groat jy reduced, and all tho drawbacks tfhet go w.it!h eettfemon't on tiho land of Manitoba Rre:\tiiy h«igjhifened. In tho matter of access to markets it is also tnie tlwit tho Manitoba farmers havo a great edirontogo ovct those who are fartlbar west. The grain industry, vMoh is admittedly th© one apeciutty of the western plain country, is one which cam novor look for a iliom© market. Jif it ia to be con* ductal on tho grand scale wthicli i 3 mwvtod as its igrea* feature, it must always go far afield for its market. Already .Southern Manitoba is seamed and KCTcd by Knee of r«ihv<-fy, -tttxo main traffic on wlridh is the transportation of grain; and the rates for grain iaulago uje light. The entrance to the world's markets for grain, however, is through the gateway' of the great lakes, and every mile to tho west firora "Winnipeg rorvresentis a milo more of transportation. Thus the- 50 cents » buehel for wheat, which loaves, «a we have seen, same profit to tthe farmer of''tho near wc«t—though by no meane, as we liave also seen,' too much -r-must be reducod by eyery milo to the westward .in the eitufltd'on of the place of production; <uid from this, now and hereafter, it would seem there could be no escape. A hundred million hushels , of grain were grown last year hi Manitoba, and about half as uiiuoh in t(he provinces of Alberta and Saakaitchowun un<itod. The transporitc.trion of 75.CC0 tor.c cf {#l.ii.n. must, it <r>'n readily bo imagined, materially, nepist in ecciirimg dividends on the railway trtodk; probably, jusi; in propoitioai, it will materially reduce tUie small margin of profit that wall fall to tfhci Western producer.