25 



Thus the history of the United States range country is being 

 repeated or even carried to a greater extreme in Canada. The 

 large ranges are giving way to the grain farmer, who eventually 

 may and probably will adopt a system of mixed farming. At pres- 

 ent the country is short of breeding cattle, but the people are awak- 

 ening to the opportunity for cattle raising. The serious side of 

 the settlement of western Canada by grain farmers is shown by 

 the following report of the Winnipeg cattle market: 



Total cattle Shipped to Ontario 



Year received Feeding cattle Butcher cattle 



1909 170,000 unknown unknown 



1910 191,000 39,750 40,000 



1911 102,700 16,875 unknown 



1912 95,ooo 825 5,500 



During this same period the export trade dropped from 90,000 

 in 1908 to 1,500 in 1912. While a part of the decrease in cattle 

 marketed may be due to a shifting of demand to western centers, 

 it seems evident that the liquidation of western Canadian cattle 

 has assumed large proportions. 



The condition of the range industry was described in striking 

 terms by a representative western cattleman at the National Live 

 Stock Convention in February, 1908, when he said: "No one at 

 all familiar with the ranching industry will hesitate to state that 

 it is in a condition of rapid decline, dying as decently and as 

 quickly as it is financially able to do. It is not yet dead, however ; 

 there were still in force in the four western provinces, on April 

 i, 1908, 039 grazing leases, involving 3,259,271 acres divided as 

 follows: Manitoba, 12,642 acres; Saskatchewan, 632,493 acres; 

 Alberta, 2,132,718 acres; British Columbia, 281,418 acres. The 

 average area under lease is 3,481 acres. It would therefore appear 

 that there are still a good many cattle kept under the old condi- 

 tions, even when the sheep and horse leases are taken into consider- 

 ation." 



In the past, Canada has been a large producer of grain, the 

 bulk of which was shipped from the country. The older farming 

 areas are already reaping the sin of such practice that of de- 

 creased soil fertility. Canada cannot grow such a large variety of 

 crops, and especially legumes, as are found in the United States, 

 and consequently the up-keep of the soil is much more dependable 

 upon stock raising than it is in the United States. Upon the 

 realization of the above facts and of the scarcity of feeding cat- 

 tle, many eastern Canadian farmers are turning to stock raising. 

 This should result in a steadily increasing production of meat ani- 

 mals. As with Mexico and other countries, no immediate result 

 can be expected in so far as beef production is concerned. A check 

 in the slaughter of calves, about which so much is said, would re- 

 quire from eighteen to thirty months in which to finish these same 

 animals as high-grade beef or to increase the size of the breeding 



