THE WHEAT LANDS OF CANADA. 767 



some of the principal countries most interested in producing that 

 cereal, and it is to a large extent by exposing the magnitude of 

 these misrepresentations that the validity of his conclusions is called 

 in question and disproved. The two countries which, with perhaps 

 the exception of Russia, are most concerned in the wheat produc- 

 tion of the future, and therefore in the correction of these misstate- 

 ments, are Canada and the United States. 



Mr. Atkinson, the well-known writer on economic subjects, took 

 up the cudgels for the United States, and their case could hardly 

 have been in better hands; but so far no champion has appeared 

 on behalf of Canada; and while Sir W. Crookes may not have been 

 alone in his views about the possible exhaustion of the wheat area 

 in the United States, he certainly stood quite alone when he com- 

 mitted himself to the remarkable statements that are to be found 

 in the address, in order to decry the capabilities of the Canadian 

 wheat fields. I did not immediately reply to them myself, think- 

 ing that some one better qualified would do so, but this has not 

 been done, and as I feel that they can not be allowed any longer 

 to remain unanswered, I propose to deal with them in the present 

 article. 



Mr. Atkinson's defense has been criticised, in the March number 

 of The Forum, by Mr. C. Wood Davis, who naturally upholds Sir 

 W. Crookes's views, seeing that they appear to have been largely 

 induced by his own figures and agree with his own ideas, but his 

 argument in that article is more one of fault finding with the 

 statements of others than an attempt to justify his own position. 

 As a specimen of his style of criticism, Mr. Davis takes Mr. Atkin- 

 son to task for saying that " the present necessities of the world are 

 computed by Sir W. Crookes at 2,324,000,000 bushels," and says 

 that in no part of his address was an estimate of the whole world's 

 requirements so much as mentioned; and yet, on turning to the ad- 

 dress, we find that Sir W. Crookes said: " The bread eaters of the 

 whole world share the perilous prospect. . . . The bread eaters of 

 the world at the present time number 516,500,000. ... To supply 

 516,500,000 bread eaters will require a total of 2,324,000,000 

 bushels for seed and food." The requirements of the whole world 

 are distinctly stated here, for bread is required only for the bread- 

 eating population, and therefore the requirements of that popula- 

 tion are, as far as bread is concerned, the requirements of the whole 

 world. Mr. Atkinson, however, is well able to take care of him- 

 self, and he and Mr. Davis can fight out for themselves the ques- 

 tion as to when, or if ever, the United States will cease to export 

 wheat; but it is amusing to find Mr. Atkinson charged by Mr. 

 Davis, of all men, with dealing in "purely speculative computa- 



