THE SPLENDID MANITOBA HARVEST

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4467, 21 September 1901, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE SPLENDID MANITOBA HARVEST

The- mammoth Manitoba wheat farms are divided into sections, with -an overseer and the requisite number of bands to each.. In harvesting scores of ; reaping and binding machines; are used. The grain 4s- threshed 'on the prairie, - and sent of to market. _ Manitoba' has'illimitable possibilities in cultivation,and will be the future granary of the world, capable- of maintaining - a population of 30 millions of people. About 20 bushels of wheat per acre are grown, and there are five weil-formed grains found in each group or cluster.-They have no droughts m Manitoba, like Australia, for- -the moisture from the frosen ground s- be--neatb ascends and keeps the - seed-bed 'in good condition. If the grain gets a fair start in tbo! spring, no matter bow rainless the summer, dry weather has no effect, save on the length of straw. The frost never • entirely leaves the ground, and' the moisture arising from its thawing is' supplied to the roots of the groin. A farmer there starting with less than £4O can soon earn a competency. Taking up ground the farmere, first lies in their waggons, called “prairie schooners.” Then . they build a' ona.roomed home with poplar logs. The ; poplar is the charmctqnstic tree of Manitoba; you will see hardly any other for hundreds of miles. The houses are built clear - of ; the ground, with either round-or - hewed poplar logs. The cor. ners of the logs are set sin each other in the notch' and saddle style, the spaces s-between the logs being chunked up with mortar. The poplar -logs; ;if properly plastered, make substantial-and; warm buildings. The roofs are thatched with grass, fixed on with withes; there is generally not more - than one large room with a loft above. l'h* bouses have not even the Scotch “but and ben." Manitoba wheat is rich, in gluten, about double that, of. Australian or any other flour. French wheat has 10.96 (out of 100) per cent.; gluten, English wheat hat 10.7 per cent, gluten, Russian (Odessa) 14.55 per cent, gluten, and American over 22.0 ner cent, gluten.