CANADIAN WINTERS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20782, 17 July 1937, Page 15 (Supplement)

CANADIAN WINTERS

SNOW-BOUND MANITOBA A greater contrast than the winters of Canada and those of New Zealand it would be difficult to imagine. Ours is really a mild winter, though we feel it ill enough. Canada’s is severe, but with compensations. The description of Manitoba’s seasons, here given, is from the pen of Mr A. G. Street, wellknown agricultural writer in Britain. He farmed in Canada for several years before the Great War. He ■writes:

I suppose the Manitoban climate has one compensation—from October until April there is no uncertainty about it at all. On the contrary, there is the absolute certainty of snow and frost for the whole of that period.

Even so, when February comes, most farmers have had more than enough of it. From October until Christmas they are busy hauling grain; Christmas makes a welcome break; in January those who have It cut a little wood, and those who have no trees to cut haul coal home from the nearest railhead, and say to every neighbour they meet, “Gee, but it’s cold. Yes, sir. In January Manitoba, she’s cold all right, all right. You betcha.” But when February comes everybody is tired of that everlasting white scene, and longs for spring and thaw out. During February and March the sun gains a little power, and the snow sparkles. The whole countryside is a white glare; one’s eyes smart and ache; and, if anyone persists at looking at the glittering white canopy for too long, snow blindness comes to close the eyes for a while. The March Awakening. At last, somewhere about the end of March, when everybody is fed up and tempers are snappy, the wind turns warm, and the snow begins to melt. Black patches appear in the white blanket, and soon comes a short period—about three or four days—when it is impossible to get to town either by sleigh or wheels. There is not enough continuous snow to run a sleigh, and deep drifts of unmelted snow still remain to block a waggon. This period is used by a horse-plough farmer as an opportune time to clip his teams. For three months they will have been running wild over the prairie and the snow-covered stubbles, during which play-time they will have grown jackets on them like bears. But in early March the working horses will have been stabled, and well-fed in readiness for the work of spring seeding. Poor devils! When they begin their work their collars will set halfway up their necks. A fortnight later those same collars will be blocked out with a thick sweat pad to make them small enough to fit their shoulders; for their winter holiday fat will have melted away like the snow. Soil Like Porridge A few days later the stubble fields, for six inches deep, are of the consistency of porridge, while underneath lies hard frozen soil. The moment the melted soil on top is dry enough to carry horses and tractors out they come hauling ploughs over the fields. And from that moment everybody is busy from before dawn until after dark.

The land is ploughed and dressed the seed is sown, and the crop comes i green long before tire frozen earth underneath this miracle has thawed out. This work is done while blackbirds — black, red, yellow and green blackbirds —flit in dozens among the willow bushes, while the frogs in the sloughs formed by the melted snow croak incesantly, and while everybody—man, beast, and even tractor —is dead tired. But always it gets done. Wheat goes in in April, oats in May, barley in early June, and green feed or very late oats to be used as fodder, until July’s advent calls a halt. Then comet Manitoba’s short but tropical summer which enables harvest to start in August. September and early October are given over to threshing and fall ploughing, and then once again comes the intense cold and the white blanket of winter. Amazing Growth of Crops The rapidity of the growth of Manitoba’s spring-sown com is amazing. No sooner is "seeding” finished than harvest is but a few weeks away. I have seen barley, a six-rowed variety, sown in June and a good crop of 40 bushels per acre harvested in early September; and April-sown marquis wheat cut in August which yielded 50 bushels of

strong grain. I have also seen the whole crop on dozens of neighbouring farms cut down a fortnight before harvest by a hail storm as clean as though a scythe had been over every inch of it. When that happens the farmer who has insured against hail collects his money, and the farmer who has borne his own risk grins and bears it. But both get out their ploughs and set about preparing for next year. That is the mainspring of all farming—there is always a next year.