THE WHEAT LANDS OF CANADA. 773 



is possible for such things to be. Is it fair to the country for a man 

 of such high standing and reputation to make such unfounded asser- 

 tions ? Five minutes' real consideration of the question would have 

 convinced him that there are more than that number of acres in 

 the province of Manitoba alone. The figures already given, which 

 have been prepared from the most reliable available information, 

 go to show that there are upward of seventy-five million acres of 

 land in Canada especially adapted for the production of wheat, and 

 this estimate is confined to those portions of the country which may 

 be considered as essentially wheat-producing areas; and no account 

 has been taken of the vast extent of land, not only in the provinces 

 of Ontario and Manitoba and in the Northwest Territories, but 

 also in the otherwise unnoticed provinces of Quebec, Nova Scotia, 

 New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and British Columbia, that 

 is not only suitable for the production of wheat, but on which a large 

 quantity of wheat will undoubtedly be grown, which, entering into 

 home consumption, will increase the exportable surplus. 



I am well aware that there are a number of people who will 

 say that my figures underestimate the resources of the country, but 

 I would rather that it were so than indulge in figures that seem too 

 extravagant to be realized; and if, in the future, it appears that the 

 wheat area is larger than I have stated, then so much the better for 

 Canada. I do not mind how much evidence can be brought to in- 

 crease my figures, as long as I am satisfied that they can not be 

 truthfully reduced. 



It is not intended to accuse Sir "W. Crookes of deliberately mis- 

 representing Canada, but rather of almost criminal carelessness in 

 the preparation of his case ; but it is intended to accuse Mr. C. Wood 

 Davis of the former offense and of intentionally garbling extracts 

 from an official handbook issued by the Canadian Minister of the 

 Interior in order to decry that country's wheat-bearing capabilities. 

 By taking a line here and there which seems to serve his ends, and 

 by leaving out everything that would have a contrary tendency, 

 Mr. Davis, in his article in The Forum, makes it to appear that, 

 according to the Minister of the Interior, the greater part of the 

 Canadian Northwest is not only incapable of producing wheat, but 

 is actually unfit for settlement, and summarizes his extracts by 

 saying, " Available data do not show that any part of the Canadian 

 districts named, except southern Manitoba and the eastern half of 

 Assiniboia, is adapted to wheat culture, while they do show that over 

 the greater part of these vast regions neither summer heats nor rain- 

 falls are sufficient." This statement is false in every particular. 

 The official handbook from which Mr. Davis professes to quote says 

 of Manitoba that there are thirty-seven million acres available for 



