LAND AND OTHER AGENTS OF PRODUCTION 131 



Northwest Canada, for the snow goes soon, being light and never 

 packed. As soon as six inches of the soil are thawed the grain is sown; 

 nor does the farmer trouble about the frost coming out of the ground. 

 As the frost relaxes under the warm sun, the moisture resulting feeds 

 the young roots, and they are provided with an excellent foraging 

 ground. By the end of April all wheat should be sown in order that 

 the warm, moist days of the early summer may contribute to the ger- 

 mination of the seeds. During May and June the temperature 

 rapidly rises, and from the middle of May until the end of July the 

 heaviest rainfall occurs. During July and August bright hot days 

 are frequent, and temperatures exceeding 90 F. have been recorded. 

 A point of great importance in Canada's climate is the percentage 

 of sunshine; nearly all parts of the Dominion have an annual per- 

 centage of over 40, and a summer percentage of between 53 and 59. 

 This aids in the perfect development of high-grade wheats. 



35. THE DISADVANTAGE OF TOO MUCH HEAT 



While it is true that the possibilities for agricultural production 

 diminish as we approach the arctic zone, the opposite statement, 

 namely, that the farther from the pole we go the better are the con- 

 ditions of agriculture, would not be strictly true. As we move away 

 from the subarctic environment we enter regions of longer growing 

 season and more intense heat, regions which have no extreme winter 

 temperatures to preclude the growing of the deciduous fruits, and 

 regions in which farm animals can be cheaply housed and cheaply fed 

 during the winter season. But as we go farther toward the equator 

 we find that this is not an unending cumulation of blessings, but, to 

 no small degree, means merely the substitution of one set of agricul- 

 tural products for another and of a fleeing from ills ve perchance know 

 to others that we wot not of. As we enter the land hot enough for 

 cotton and sugar-cane and citrus fruits, we find that we must drop 

 buckwheat, apples, many of our vegetables, and other equally valuable 

 items from our planting list. As we leave the land where frost some- 

 times nips the buds in spring or the immature crops in autumn, we 

 enter the land where frost fails to help the husbandman to hold weeds 

 in check and where "the worm dieth not" but the boll- weevil and the 

 fever tick and the tetanus germ ravage crops and stock for twelve 

 months of the year. 



Likewise, the absence of frost increases the losses due to soil 

 erosion and the leaching out of plant food; greater heat increases the 



