crease output of butter, cheese, etc., while irri- 

 gation projects will continue construction with 

 possibilities of new schemes being undertaken. 

 In Saskatchewan, as in the other Prairie Prov- 

 inces, the local governments are devoting more 

 time and attention to putting the agricultural 

 industry on a firm basis by encouraging mixed 

 and better farming, developing scientific methods 

 of production and marketing, and making greater 

 efforts to see that incoming settlers are properly 

 located under conditions that will bring about 

 successful results. 



Research Work Indicates Variety Resources 



It is somewhat early to state what expendi- 

 tures are likely to be made on municipal and 

 other works, but a considerable sum of money is 

 slated to be spent on road improvements, tele- 

 phone extensions and other public improvements. 

 There is much work of this class to be done in 

 the West and some part of it will fall to this 

 year's share. 



Research work is being carried on in the West 

 looking to the discovery of new natural resources, 

 appraising the value of known resources with a 

 view to possible commercial development. The 

 oil drilling campaign is likely to continue and 

 prospects for further work on the sodium sul- 

 phate lakes appear probable. It is a noticeable 

 factor in western commercial life that there is 

 to day an increasing variety of resources under 

 consideration for commercial development, the 

 existence of which was not even known a few 

 years ago. It is a factor which points to a 

 larger measure of wealth, a greater variety of 

 products and possible absorption of a greater 

 number of workers in industries of a permanent 

 nature within the next few years. 1 1 is satisfac- 

 tory to note that resources are being opened up, 

 investigated and dealt with on scientific lines, 

 without suggestion of boom, and in such a way 

 that when capital is available, they can be 

 developed with average prospects of success. 



It is, however, at the moment a little difficult 

 to formulate plans for the year. With the com- 

 ing of spring and a better understanding of im- 

 migration plans and a better financial outlook, 

 there will be greater opportunity for judging the 

 year's prospects; in the meantime, the existing 

 effort to get business matters on a more stable 

 basis will be continued with undoubtedly promis- 

 ing results. 



Supremacy in Furs 



All accounts from the Canadian Northland 

 are to the effect that furs are pouring into the 

 trading centres at a very heavy rate, and the 

 season's catch bids fair to eclipse the very satis- 

 factory one of a year ago. The pelts are stated 

 to be of excellent and exceptional quality, and 

 with a continuance of the higher prices which 

 prevailed at the fall sales the aggregate of peltry 



will be a very valuable one. Thus does Canada's 

 annual fur harvest continue to constitute one of 

 the Dominion's wealthiest natural resources, in 

 spite of the fact that agricultural settlement is 

 annually making greater penetration into the 

 fastnesses of the North, and each year sees new 

 territory wrested from the denizens of the wild 

 and brought under the plough to be rendered 

 yet further productive. 



The fur trade constitutes Canada's oldest 

 industry, the trapping of the wild animals and 

 the exploitation of their pelts first attracting 

 men to what was then an unknown and forbidding 

 land. Though other phases of activity have 

 since outstripped it in importance, Canada still 

 remains pre-eminently the first fur country of the 

 world as a producer of raw pelts. In spite of 

 this priority of establishment, statistics on the 

 Canadian fur industry are remarkably indefinite, 

 and on account of the exceeding difficulty in 

 securing accurate returns it is almost impossible 

 to determine, even approximately, what the fur 

 trade is worth to the Dominion. 



Canada's main source of supply is still the 

 trapper, who goes out with his line of traps each 

 winter and remains in the wilds until the coming 

 of spring puts an end to his chase. Last season 

 over three million pelts were secured by trappers 

 which returned a revenue of more than twenty 

 million dollars. In certain years, the harvest 

 exceeds this by a considerable amount, and this 

 year the catch will undoubtedly be substantially 

 greater. The orly method of computing these 

 pelts is through the records of accredited fur and 

 trading houses, and record is not taken of those 

 which might be disposed of in other manners by 

 farmers and others casually engaging in indepen- 

 dent trapping. 



Domestic Ranching of Wild Animals 



The other contributing factor to Canada's 

 annual fur wealth, which is only commencing 

 its career of influence but which has immense 

 potentialities ahead of it, is the domestic ranching 

 of wild animals. The time must undoubtedly 

 come when the northern wilds will be depleted 

 to such an extent that other sources must be 

 looked to to provide the amount of furs which 

 Canada is accustomed to give the world. Farms 

 for the domestic rearing of foxes and other wild 

 fur-bearers are preparing for this. There were 

 16,529 of these in existence last year, and from 

 them were sold 2,401 live animals valued at $763,- 

 221, and 2,740 pelts worth $388,335, so that 

 Canadian fur farms in that year added $1,151,556 

 to Canada's fur revenue. Taking into account 

 the amount of furs which go unrecorded, and the 

 returns from accredited fur trading houses, 

 twenty-five million dollars is not too pretentious 

 a figure at which to place Canada's fur produc- 

 tion, which gives it a fair place among Canada's 

 industries of the present day. 



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