ON AGRICULTURE TO CANADA 45 



Albert Board of Trade, was waiting for us when we returned to the 

 farmhouse. It was eight o'clock at night before we got to Prince 

 Albert. We had, however, other four hours before midnight, and 

 we spent most of them at a smoking concert got up in our honour. 



The Saskatoon district was our objective next day. The town 

 itself has risen miracle-like on the plains. One of the Commissioners 

 looked from the far side of the Saskatchewan River to the town, and 

 realising that it had all come into being in seven years, he declared 

 that it would have taken our people at home all that time to draw 

 the plans. Five years ago there were only 100 inhabitants. Now 

 there are 5000. There is a telephone and electric lighting system, 

 a Municipal Council and a Board of Trade. If the streets are still 

 rough and unmade, a few years will work a revolution, and Saskatoon, 

 we doubt not, will be one of the great prairie towns of Canada. 

 Possibly it owes its existence to the development of the prairie in 

 the neighbourhood. We had a fair opportunity of examining it. 

 It is bald-headed prairie, mainly devoted to wheat-growing. 

 The soil in some parts is a black loam for a few inches, 

 chocolate-coloured below that with a subsoil of marl. Seven 

 or eight years ago there was not a homestead between Lumsden 

 on the Canadian Pacific Railway and Saskatoon. We saw scores 

 of them ourselves that day, and there are hundreds which we did not 

 see. There is no district in Canada filling up more rapidly than the 

 district round Saskatoon. 



We had now reached the end of another week. It was Saturday 

 night once more and we were making for Winnipeg. The land 

 alongside the line was on the whole poor land, not well settled. 

 Sloughs were numerous. Brush and scrub prevailed in many places. 

 A good deal of alkali was present in the soil. The settlers, where they 

 did exist, were mostly from the States and from foreign countries. 

 Early on Sunday morning we passed Gladstone. The ground was 

 white with snow. As we got towards Portage la Prairie, the snow 

 turned into sleet and rain. It was wintry-like, with the stooks white 

 and the roads sloppy, and as we entered Winnipeg the air was biting 

 as if it had been blowing over miles of snow. 



All things come to an end, and Monday morning saw us begin 

 the last of our investigations as an Agricultural Commission. Part 

 of the Commission remained in Winnipeg to complete some investi- 

 gations there. The rest proceeded to Carman, a town of about 

 2000 inhabitants, fifty miles south-west of Winnipeg. After this 

 section got well out of the town they entered what appeared to be a 

 good farming district. It was level prairie, with very little bush. 

 At Sperling the farms seemed to be large. The soil was black loam 

 and apparently rich in humus. In some parts it seemed easily 

 worked, but in others it was heavy. The subsoil was generally clay. 

 At Carman the country is well wooded and long settled. It is a 

 good country for mixed farming, but it must be on the way towards 

 exhaustion for wheat-farming, when you consider that the fertility 

 of the soil, which is a sandy loam on clay, has been reduced by the 

 growing of wheat for twenty or thirty years. We returned to 

 Winnipeg in good time to catch the evening train for Quebec. 



