ALBERTA 



158 



ALBERTA 



hay. which was $17,000.000 in 1910 and $60,000,- 

 000 only four years later. The "bumper" crops 

 of 1915, the greatest on record, were valued 

 at $79,400,000. 



The most valuable crop is wheat, whose 

 average annual production is about 30,000,000 

 bushels. The <,:tt crop is larger, usually be- 

 n 60,000,000 and 70,000,000 bushels, but its 

 value is slightly less than that of wheat. Bar- 

 ley, flax, potatoes, hay and alfalfa are other 

 large crops. Some attention is now being 

 given to garden vegetables and to orchard 

 fruits, especially apples. Sugar beets are cul- 

 tivated chiefly near Raymond, where there is 

 a factory for the extraction of the sugar. 



Irrigation. To some extent irrigation has 

 been practised in Southern Alberta since this 

 section was first settled, but the works were 

 crude and the irrigated tracts were small, 

 r the passage of the first Dominion irri- 

 gation law in 1894, there was for a few years 

 a considerable development of irrigation in 

 the districts east of Calgary and east of Leth- 

 bridge. Since 1910 there has been a large enter- 

 prise established west of Medicine Hat. 



The greatest of all the 400 or more irriga- 

 tion projects in the province is that under- 

 taken by the Canadian Pacific Railway. The 

 tract under irrigation consists of 3,000,000 acres 

 along the company's main line between Cal- 

 gary and Medicine Hat. Water for this area 

 is taken from the Bow River; for the western 

 section it is diverted near Calgary, and for 

 the eastern section at the Horse Shoe Bend, 

 near Bassano. The Lethbridge enterprise now 

 also belongs to the Canadian Pacific Railway. 

 Irrigation, far from encouraging large one-crop 

 farms, makes possible three desirable results 

 diversified farming, rotation of crops and in- 

 tensive cultivation. Under ordinary farming 

 conditions which any progressive farmer could 

 duplicate, an irrigated acre on the Dominion 

 ri mental farm at Strathmore has yielded a 

 profit of more than $300 on strawberries. 

 An adjoining acre, planted with garden peas, 

 yielded a profit of $260 for the season's crop. 



ng. The richness of Alberta's mineral 

 deposits naturally makes mining one of the 

 great industries. The production of placer 

 gold, which amounted to an average of $50,000 

 a year about 1895, is now insignificant. Lead 

 and silver are mined in small quantities, and 

 natural gas and oil are found in many parts. 

 Calgary, Macleod, Lethbridge and other cities 

 are supplied with natural gas piped from Bow 

 Island, about thirty miles southwest of Medi- 



cine Hat. The large well at Bow Island pro- 

 duces 8,000,000 cubic feet a day. Farther 

 north, in the vicinity of Wetaskiwin and To- 

 field, exploration and development work is 

 being carried on. A number of wells have been 

 drilled along the Athabaska River. Natural 

 gas and petroleum were discovered in 1913 near 

 Calgary, but the value of these wells is still a 

 matter of speculation. 



The coal production of Alberta, if due allow- 

 ance is made for labor troubles, is making 

 steady progress. The average yearly output, 

 4,000,000 tons, is about three times that in 

 1905. A small quantity, not over 300,000 tons, 

 is anthracite; about 900,000 tons is lignite, and 

 the balance is bituminous. The annual value 

 of this output is about $10,000,000. 



Manufactures. The manufacturing interests 

 are rapidly growing. Slaughtering and meat 

 packing is the first in importance, but a close 

 second is the flour and grist mill industry. 

 These two industries combined furnish about 

 one-third of the total of $25,000,000 worth of 

 manufactures. The industries dependent on 

 lumbering form a third important group, with 

 an annual output which usually reaches a total 

 of $3,000,000. Minor industries include the 

 making of brick and tile, butter and cheese, 

 malt liquors and bakery products. 



Means of Travel and Communication. Lack 

 of railway communication left the Northwest 

 Territories for many years with the character- 

 istics of a frontier community. In 1871, when 

 British Columbia became a part of the Do- 

 minion, one of the conditions on which it in- 

 sisted before joining was the construction of 

 a transcontinental railway. This railway, the 

 Canadian Pacific, was complete in 1885, thus 

 giving Alberta rail connection with the rest 

 of the Dominion. In the following twenty 

 years there was little additional construction. 

 In 1905, when Alberta became a province, the 

 Canadian Pacific was still the only railway; 

 besides the main line there were two impor- 

 tant branches, linking Calgary with Edmonton 

 and Macleod. The total mileage was 1,060. 

 There are now three great transcontinental 

 railways crossing the province, with a total 

 mileage, including branches, of about 4,500. 

 Contracts and surveys already made by the 

 railways call for the construction of an addi- 

 tional 4,500 miles in the near future. See 

 CANADA, subhead Transportation. 



The telephone and telegraph systems have 

 kept pace with this rapid increase in transpor- 

 tation facilities. Wherever the railroad goes 



