CANADIAN WHEAT 5*3 



CANADIAN WHEAT 



By Professor JOHN WADDELL 



SCHOOL OF MINING, KINGSTON, CANADA 



FOR twenty years the Canadian government has been carrying on 

 experiments in wheat growing under the supervision of the 

 director of the Experimental Farm at Ottawa, Dr. William Saunder3. 



The United States leads the world in the production of wheat; 

 Canada's growth is only one ninth as large, her export to Great Britain 

 during the years 1901-3 was slightly less than one fifth, though in 

 1905 it was somewhat more than one half. The year 1905 was very 

 abnormal, however. The United States export to Britain was exceed- 

 ingly low and was surpassed by those of Eussia, Argentina and India. 

 But Canada's growth of wheat, though much less, is greater in propor- 

 tion to her population, and in view of the many millions to be fed in 

 the United States, it seems natural that before long Canada will 

 export a greater quantity than she. Considering the circumstances, 

 this is as natural as that America's output of coal and trade in iron 

 should be the greatest in the world. 



But the greater part of the Canadian wheat area is north of the 

 forty-ninth parallel of latitude and so Dr. Saunders has experimented 

 in growing wheat as far north as possible. The climate in America is 

 colder than at the corresponding latitude in Europe, and so far, at least, 

 we have no records of wheat being grown in Canada as far north as in 

 Russia, but a near approach has been made. Winnipeg's latitude is 

 50°, and wheat has been grown at Dunvegan on the Peace River, on a 

 parallel of latitude 414 miles north of Winnipeg; at Fort Vermillion, 

 farther down the Peace River, 591 miles by latitude north of Winnipeg, 

 and at Fort Simpson on the Mackenzie, 818 miles north. The latitude 

 of Fort Simpson is approximately sixty-two degrees or within five 

 degrees of the Arctic circle. The length of the summer days com- 

 pensates for a lower temperature, and the time of ripening of some of 

 the earlier grains is practically the same as in Ottawa. At Fort 

 Simpson 107 days were required as compared with 106 days in Ottawa, 

 some sixteen degrees farther south. Sixteen degrees south of Ottawa 

 is New Orleans. Among the first experiments were comparisons of 

 different varieties of wheat and these experiments are still carried on 

 continually. Some varieties, probably by far the greater number, are 

 cultivated for a season or two only, because they prove to be worthless, 



