[kbf.fkk] presidential ADDRESS 17 



rail-wa3-s are pourino; the produce of the vast ^vhoat fields between it and 

 the Eock}^ Monntains, and thus pLacing this grain within a thousand 

 miles of Montreal, which is the nearest seaport by hundreds of miles, and 

 the onl}' one which can be reached b}' vessels capable of navigating the 

 lakes. 



Wheat grown in the foot hills of the Canadian Eockies has already 

 reached Lake Superior by an all rail haul of fifteon hundred miles, a 

 distance considered prohibitory in the early days of railways, as one 

 which would absorb the whole value in the cost of carriagfe. 



The all-rail rate for wheat from Edmonton, on the Xorth Saskatche- 

 wan at the foot of the liocky ^Mountains, to the xVtlantic at St. John, 

 X.B., 2,937 miles on the Canadian Pacific Railway, is 33 1-3 cents per 

 bushel, equal to 0-38 of a cent per ton per mile. The lake and rail route 

 between the same points is 93 miles shorter, with at least two transfers 

 of the grain, and the rate three cents per bushel less, or -35 of a cent 

 per ton per mile. 



Tlie rate from Edmonton to Lake Superior, 1,458 miles all rail, is 

 31^ cents per 100 pounds, and to Montreal, 2,456 miles all rail, 56^ 

 cents. The lake and rail route to Montreal, 2,363 miles is 46^ cents 

 per 100 pounds, 5 cents per 100 pounds or 3 cents per bushel less in 

 favour of lake and rail, against all rail whether to Montreal or to St. 

 John, N.B. 



The lateness of harvest in our Northwest, and the early closino- of 

 navigation in the St. Lawrence, will soon over-tax all our means of trans- 

 port, both water and rail, during the interval between September and 

 December. The Welland and St. Lawrence canals and the portage rail- 

 ways between Montreal and Lake Huron constitute the Canadian routes 

 and much, which cannot reach Montreal in time for export, Avill be 

 stored up at nearest lake ports for winter railway carriage to tide water 

 warehouses on the St. Lawrence, for export at Atlantic ports, — or for 

 conversion into flour at Ontario and Quebec water powers. 



What is looming up before us in the Canadian Xorthwest may be 

 seen from the growth of the grain trade in Manitoba and our territories, 

 where, already, storage capacity for twenty million of bushels has been 

 provided in over five hundred elevators and warehouses between Lake 

 Superior and the Eocky Mountains : and where there are over sixty 

 mills with a grinding capacity exceeding ten thousand barrels daily. 

 I'rom these the estimated export of wheat, including flour, in 1898, was 

 given at thirty millions of bushels by the Winnipeg Grain and Produce 

 Exchange. The crop of 1899 is estimated from forty 1o fifty millions 

 of bushels. 



