its consistent annual increase in the amount of 

 land brought under cultivation and the increase 

 in grain production which is a natural con- 

 sequence. Whilst other countries are battling 

 with the problem of a declining rural population 

 and the flooding of the urban centres, Canada's 

 stretches of fertile agricultural land are slowly 

 being brought under the plough and the country's 

 farming population added to each year by the 

 tide of immigration. Canada, through her splen- 

 did wheat crop this year, has risen to second place 

 among the wheat producing countries of the 

 globe, and this is wholly attributable to the in- 

 crease of settlement and cultivation in the 

 Western Provinces, the development of which 

 is fast extending northward. 



The figures for the grain yields of the Prairie 

 Provinces for the season 1921 have been made 

 public, and the expectation of the increase the 

 country looks for annually has been again real- 

 ized. Substantial increments in the year's pro- 

 duction of all cereals maintains for the Canadian 

 West the title of " Granary of the Empire, " and 

 indeeed, as the provider of wider portions of the 

 globe, warrants aspirations to a yet more am- 

 bitious title. 



The wheat yield for the provinces of Mani- 

 toba, Saskatchewan and Alberta for the year 

 1921 is returned by the Government at 308,- 

 925,000 bushels as against 234,138,300 in 1920, or 

 an increase of nearly 32 per cent. In 1919 the 

 yield was 165,544,300 and in 1918, 164,436,100, 

 each year showing a consistent and substantial 

 increase. 



Marked Increases, Oats, Barley, Rye 



The oat yield of the three provinces is record- 

 ed as 363,185,000 bushels as against 314,297,- 

 000 last year, an increase of more than 15 per cent. 

 The yield in 1919 was 235,580,000 and in 1918, 

 222,049,500, the same consistency of increase 

 being exhibited. 



The barley yield west of Lake Superior to 

 the Rocky Mountains was this year 46,619,- 

 000 bushels as compared with 40,760,500 last 

 year, or an increase of more than 14 per cent. 

 The harvest of 1919 returned 36,682,000 bushels 

 of barley and that of 1918, which was an ex- 

 ceptional year for this crop, 47,607,400. 



The increase in rye production in the West 

 this year is remarkable. The total yield of the 

 three Prairie Provinces is 23,113,000, which, 

 when compared with the 1920 yield of 8,273,- 

 600, records an increase of more than 179 per 

 cent. There were consistent increases in this 

 crop before 1920, the 1919 harvest returning 

 7,263,000 bushels and the 1918, 6,181,700, and 

 the enormous increase recorded in the past season 

 is due to an increased acreage following an exten- 

 sive and aggressive propaganda. 



Despite the greater volume of the 1921 crop, 

 the increase on the cereals noted alone amount- 

 ing to nearly 150 million bushels more than that 



of 1920, and in face of the fact that the United 

 States market, in which the greater proportion 

 had previously found outlet, was virtually closed, 

 shipment was early got under way and the great- 

 er part of the export crop had left the country 

 before the close of navigation on the St. Law- 

 rence. 



By the middle of November, 120,000,000 

 bushels of export wheat had left the Prairie 

 Provinces and 132,000,000 bushels of grain had 

 reached Montreal. This is a new record in grain 

 handling, being nearly twice the volume of the 

 the best previous year. 



A Manless Farm 



Western Canada is expansive and man-sized. Things 

 are conceived and carried out there in a manner consistent 

 with the gigantic scale on which Nature constructed and 

 framed the country. It is generally conceded that a West- 

 ern Canadian farm is a man's job, the close grips with 

 Nature a purely male issue, the various phases of operation, 

 the many and quick decisions to be made such as only a 

 man's mind can compass and cope with. But occasion- 

 ally one comes across instances of members of the gentler 

 sex big enough in spirit, sturdy enough in physique, vision- 

 ary enough in prospect, imbued with a sufficiently deep 

 love of Nature and her moods and vagaries to enter unmated 

 upon the pursuit of Western Canadian agriculture, and in 

 the very fascination the occupation holds for them carry 

 it out successfully. They are not the masculine, robust 

 Amazons one might reasonably be led to expect but gener- 

 ally demure, modest, Ruths, concealing beneath a timid 

 exterior a wondrous spirit and stalwart physique. 



A maleless Eden on the Canadian prairie is to be found 

 at Oak Lake in the Brandon district of Manitoba, where 

 two modern daughters of Eve have, unaided, wrought 

 miracles of accomplishment in transforming the bald un- 

 cultivated sod into one of the fairest and richest farms in 

 the area. 



Here, where man is never seen, save as a visitor, two 

 fair, young English girls are successfully managing and 

 operating a vast acreage which would tax the capacity of 

 most male agriculturalists. Their success over a number 

 of years, their high degree of prosperity after arduous toil 

 which was all uphill, the manner in which they have con- 

 quered, one by one, the handicaps of their sex and circum- 

 stance, form the most brilliant tribute to Canadian 

 womanhood. 



The fortune they have wrested from the bosom of the 

 Western plains proves conclusively that it is far from im- 

 possible for women to achieve the completest success in 

 Western Canadian agriculture, and their story and example 

 may encourage others eager to try the freedom and in- 

 dependence of life in the open, but who are held back by 

 what they consider the handicaps of their sex. 



Women of Courage and Enterprise 



Their father came from the British Isles to Manitoba 

 some years ago with his wife and daughters and settled 

 upon a homestead in the Oak Lake district. He was city 

 bred, and his daughters as unfamiliar with rural or farm 

 life as any children whose early years have been spent 

 among city streets and whose activities have been limited 

 by urban boundaries. Misfortune overtook them rapidly 

 for the breadwinner of the family died leaving his wife and 

 daughters unprovided for, their only asset a farm heavily 

 encumbered with mortgages. 



The natural thing one would have expected to happen 

 would be the abandonment of the farm and the nocking of 

 the family to the nearest town or city to add three unem- 

 ployed souls to its population. The two girls, however, 

 were made of stern stuff and possessed of intelligence and 

 vision which gave them foresight of the great agricul- 



