As one of the most profitable sidelines to 

 farming, poultry claimed a large share of the 

 attention devoted to the different exhibits. 



Four representative breeds were shown, includ- 

 ing the Chanticler which is a native of the 

 province. Incubation and brooding apparatus of 

 various types were shown, as well as a model 

 poultry house. Placards were profusely spread 

 over the walls of the car, calling attention to 

 common faults in the raising of poultry, and 

 steps to be taken to avoid same. Part of this 

 car was given over to the display of modern 

 farm implements, including drainage, cultivat- 

 ing, electric light and household machinery. 



The car devoted to maple sugar and honey 

 attracted a great deal of attention. This industry 

 is probably one of the oldest in the province, 

 and the farmer with a few maple trees on his 

 farm is indeed fortunate, for there is a profitable 

 and ready market in Canada, the United 

 Kingdom and the United States for all the 

 maple sugar and syrup he can supply. The 

 old-fashioned method of boiling the sap in a 

 huge iron cauldron was illustrated, while farther 

 on in the car a complete up-to-date maple sugar 

 manufacturing outfit with its sanitary boiler, 

 pans, flues, receptacles, etc., was shown. Large 

 and small bee-hives of the latest designs were 

 exhibited, as well as an old straw hive used by 

 the early settlers of the province. 



The Home Industries Car 



The Home Industries car was undoubtedly 

 the greatest point of interest in the whole train 

 for the women. Many of the old relics of the 

 early habitant were on display, including flint- 

 locks, powder-horns, grandfather's clock, pottery, 

 hand-looms, and weaving machines, all home- 

 made. Weaving methods employed by the 

 farmers' wives in the remote sections of the 

 province in the manufacture of homespun were 

 also demonstrated. Many of the samples of 

 their handiwork were of the finest workmanship, 

 and brilliantly colored with home-made dyes. 



The educational value of the agricultural 

 demonstration train cannot be over-estimated. 

 In the outlying districts of the province where 

 the populace is too scattered to have an agricul- 

 tural exhibition, or where the inhabitants are too 

 far distant from those of the more thickly- 

 settled districts, this train serves as a courier 

 between the agricultural colleges, federal and 

 provincial departments of agriculture and other 

 organizations interested in the advancement of 

 agriculture, in bringing to the farmer information 

 of the new advances in the science of agriculture. 

 Much time and labor were expended in equip- 

 ping the different cars and careful attention was 

 given to selecting the exhibits. The train has 

 been appropriately termed a "college on wheels." 



Agriculture in Saskatchewan 



The total area of the Province of Saskatchewan is 

 161,088,000 acres, of which 155,764,480 acres are land 

 and 5,353,520 acres water. The total area of the province 

 which has been surveyed to date is 79,027,878 acres, of 

 which 57,884,160 acres have been declared arable. Of 

 the available area of arable land, 29,079,219 acres are under 

 cultivation. A total of 35,397,200 acres have been settled 

 upon as homesteads and pre-emptions and there remains 

 available for entry 5,068,000 acres of survey3d territory. 



In 1921 the total estimated agricultural wealth of the 

 Province of Saskatchewan was $1,513,146,000, the 

 province having, for the first time, assumed the second place 

 among the Canadian provinces, coming after Ontario. 

 This agricultural wealth was made up of land valued 

 at $863,961,000; buildings, $121,703,000; implements, 

 $111, 170,000; livestock, $154,865.000; poultry, $7,463,000; 

 animals on fur farms, $272,000; and agricultural produc- 

 tion, $253,712,000. Saskatchewan led the Canadian 

 provinces in the value of its settled land, took second 

 place in the value of its livestock, poultry and agricultural 

 production, and third place in tha estimated value of its 

 buildings and farm implements. 



Though Saskatchewan is so to the fore in all phases of 

 agricultural production, the outstanding feature of her 

 territory, from the border to the far north, is her expansive 

 wheat fields. As Canada is yearly coming, with greater 

 justice, to be known as the granary of the British Empire, 

 so is Saskatchewan continually further meriting the title 

 of the granary of Canada. This province, which in 1890 

 accounted for a bare four per cent of the Dominion's 

 annual wheat crop and in 1900 for 7.8 per cent, produced 

 in 1921 approximately 50 per cent of all the Canadian 

 wheat. In 1922, with an estimated wheat yield of 230,- 

 218,000 bushels out of the total estimated Dominion 

 production of 388,733,000 bushels, she will account for 

 practically sixty per cent of all Dominion wheat. 



In the seventeen-year period from 1905 to 1921 

 Saskatchewan maintained an average yield over her 

 entire cultivated area of 14.9 bushels of wheat to the acre, 

 the highest average yield being 25.2 bushels in 1915 and 

 the lowest 8.5 bushels in 1919. In the same period the 

 province's average per acre for oats was 32.7 bushels, the 

 highest being 47.1 bushels per acre in 1909 and the lowest 

 21.5 in 1918. The average barley production for the 

 period was 24.1 bushels, the highest average 33.2 in 1915 

 and the lowest 17 in 1918. Flax for the seventeen years 

 averaged 8.0 bushels, reaching a zenith in 1905 with 15.7 

 and the lowest yield in 1919 with 4.8 bushels for the acre. 

 Rye has maintained an average of 16.9 bushels per acre 

 throughout the seventeen years, with the highest yield 

 28.1 in 1915 and the lowest 10.5 in 1919. The province's 

 potato average is 141.3 bushels. 



Exports are Heavy 



The greater proportion of Saskatchewan's annual 

 agricultural production is, of course, available for export, 

 and the total value of such exports to the farmer in 1921 

 was $173,461,000. Included in this volume were 170,000-, 

 000 bushels of wheat worth $127,500,000. Livestock was 

 also heavily represented, receipts from Saskatchewan at 

 the Union Stock Yards, Winnipeg, being 38 per cent of 

 the cattle, 31 per cent of the hogs, 29 per cent of the sheep, 

 and 49 per cent of the swine received there, without 

 taking into account animals sent to the Moose Jaw and 

 Prince Albert yards. A heavy item of production was 

 that of the dairy, amounting to nearly $19,000,000. 



Saskatchewan is making a fair bid in many lines of 

 production for agricultural supremacy among the pro- 

 vinces of the Dominion, and has made a rapid and spec 

 tacular rise to second place. On its gigantic wheat fields 

 more than half the crop of the Dominion is being raised, 

 and adjacent to them are fine stock farms with excellent 

 horses and beef cattle and dairy farms with herds which 

 are yearly becoming more valuable. Still, Saskatchewan, 

 first of all, suggests prime wheat, and in this regard its 

 prestige will increase. Though Canada's wheat production 



205 



