PREFACE. 



When the manuscript for "Crop Production in West- 

 ern Canada" was first prepared it included not only the 

 chapters relating to Crops and Cropping Practices which 

 appear in it, but also several others dealing with the soil 

 and its management under Western conditions. When 

 it was discovered that the whole would make a book con- 

 taining nearly 800 pages, it was considered inadvisable 

 to publish it in one volume. Accordingly the material 

 was divid-ed and that having to do directly with crops 

 was published in 1919 under the title referred to. The 

 part which treats of the soil and its management appears 

 in this volume. 



The substance of the different chapters of the book is 

 drawn from lectures and addresses delivered either at 

 the University of Saskatchewan or at Agricultural Meet- 

 ings at different places in Western Canada or tlie 

 Western States during the past ten years. For the 

 contributed portions the author is very greatly indebted 

 to Professor Hansen of the University of Saskatchewan 

 for the chapter on "The Soil"; to W. H. Fairfield, 

 Superintendent of the Experimental Farm, Lethbridge, 

 Alta., for that on "Irrigation" and to ten of the leading 

 agronomists of the Great Plains Region of Canada and 

 the United States for that on "Lessons from Experience". 

 He is also indebted to the Canadian and United States 

 Departments of Agriculture, to many State Experiment 

 Stations, several Dominion Experimental Farms, all of 



vii. 



