40 EXPERIMENTAL FARMS 



7-8 EDWARD VII., A. 1908 



Saskatoon to WaiTuan, 12 miles. Saskatoon lias grown to be a large place and 

 is extending its boundaries rapidly. For some miles out, many large fields of grain 

 vrcre seen, but towards Warmau there is not much land broken. Warman is a young 

 and growing town. Opportunity was afforded there of examining the land at several 

 points; most of it was a light sandy loam not very deep with a subsoil varying in 

 different parts from stiff clay to sandy clay and in some places a light coloured sand. 

 There were a few stones on the surface and a good many in the subsoil. 



Warman to Osier, 6 miles. About Osier the land is much lighter and seme of it 

 gravelly. From Osier to Hague, 10 miles, much of the soil is light and there was not 

 much grain seen from the railway. 



Hague to Eosthern, 12 miles. As Eosthern is approached most of the land becomes 

 good, large quantities of wheat are in sight and the crops are fairly heavy. At Eos- 

 thern a large quantity of wheat is marketed. 



Eosthern to Duck Lake, 11 miles. Beyond and about Eosthern on every side 

 there were large quantities of wheat, most of it in stook and threshing progressing 

 rapidly, country fairly level and well settled. Most of the land south of Duck Lake 

 seems very good and grows excellent wheat. Nearer the lake the grass is good and 

 affords excellent crops of hay. 



Duck Lake to Eoddick, 9 miles. From Duck Lake north, the country begins to 

 be wooded and grain fields become much less plentiful. From Eoddick to Macdowall, 

 9 miles, spruce is very abundant, associated in wet spots with tamarack, ihe higher 

 points being covered with poplar. 



Macdowall to Prince Albert, 20 miles. The grain crops all through this district 

 are quite limited. Such wheat as is grown in this locality is used chiefly in a local 

 mill belonging to the Hudson Bay Co. at Prince Albert. In some places the country 

 is more open with a good deal of hay land and a considerable number of sloughs and 

 small lakes with good farm land intervening. The soil all through the Prince Albert 

 district up to the Saskatchewan seems to be rich and fertile and will bear good crops 

 wherever the soil is high enough above the sloughs and ponds with which the country 

 abounds, to admit of early cultivation. On the opposite side of the North Saskatche- 

 wan there is a margin of good land for a mile or two, then a swampy district thickly 

 covered with tamarack and north of this there are many miles of sandhills cohered 

 with Jack Pine. Most of the larger trees have been cut for lumber, the smaller trees 

 covering the ground quite thickly. In some places the pine was more or less replaced 

 by poplar (P. tremuloides) . North of this belt of Jack Pine there are hay-lands with 

 sloughs which are said to extend for about 20 miles to Sturgeon Lake. Beyond this 

 the country is said to be again fit for settlement. 



There is a large lumber industry at Prince Albert, The Shell river and the Eed 

 Eiver of the North both empty into the Saskatchewan above Prince Albert, and logs 

 are brought down these streams to the lumber mills for 100 miles or more. 



PRINCE ALBERT TO MELFORT. 



A trip was taken of 56 miles over this northern section of the Canadian Northern 

 Eailway beginning August 6. 1906. 



Prince Albert to Davis, 10 miles. In this district there is very little land under 

 cultivation. There are considerable quantities of wood and a large number of small 

 ponds and lakes. Thp land looks good but is much broken. 



Davis to Birch Hills, 16 miles. There is not much settlement yet along this line, 

 the country is thickly covered with bhiffs of willow and poplar and there are many 

 ponds, some of the shallower of which had dried up leaving a white alkaline deposit. 

 Small trees cover a large part of the land, too large a part to make it attractive to the 

 settler who is looking for wheat land, but for m i xed farming and the raising of 

 stock, this district offers many advantages. 



