80 EURAL LIFE IN CANADA 



more of wealth coined into existence out of chaos, not 

 transferred out of one pocket into another, but called 

 into existence by intelligent labor out of otherwise chaos, 

 indifference, want of knowledge, want of ability, want 

 of application, waste of sun power, and failure to use 

 the seed power that is all about us, — ^what an enriching 

 gain to us it would be ! If the crops of the whole North- 

 west last year — Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta 

 — had been a complete failure, so that nothing grew, 

 what a depression would have come over Canada, what 

 a measure of dearth and starvation would have come 

 over that part of our inheritance. That hints at the 

 effect on our national life of $220,000,000 of value 

 from crops being here or not here. The doubling of the 

 crops of Ontario would be an addition to the value of 

 the crops of Canada almost as great as the addition of 

 the crops of these three great Provinces has been."* 



Some years ago Dr. Robertson directed an experiment 

 carried on on 1,400 farms throughout Canada wherein 

 for three successive crops the finest heads were selected 

 from the most vigorous plants of wheat and oats. The 

 exact amount of increase was computed in percentages. 

 Dr. Robertson, recognized everywhere as one of the 

 world's trusted leaders in reliable experiment, applied 

 the percentage of increase thus obtained to the field 

 crops of Canada, finding that " if all fields had been 

 sown with similarly superior seed, not imported from 

 Kamschatka, but selected from the fields and farms of 

 Canada, we should have got from the same area enough 

 grain to fill 1,500 miles of railway cars ; enough increase 

 above what we harvested to fill 1,500 miles of railway 



* Commission of Conservation, Report III, p. 91. 



