244 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE. 
expect that this cereal, as an essential food, will press for its place, 
and all reclamation and adaptation of lands now idle to other crops 
will tend to release land for wheat. 
Regarding it as fairly probable that the United States will not 
materially increase its exports of wheat, the Canadian product assumes 
new interest, not only for the farmer and economist of the Dominion, 
but for every student of the subject. It would be needless—and, 
indeed, presuming—to bring to this place from across the border 
detailed statements as to the history, or confident predictions as to the 
future, of Canadian wheat. 
In comparison with some of its competitors, Canada is old in the — 
industry, having raised over 20,000,000 bushels in 1827, while Argen- 
tina began to raise wheat in 1882. Recent developments in the North- 
West belong to the experience of many who are still foremost in the 
field. Fort Garry has been Winnipeg but for a single generation, 
and the Canadian Pacific Railway entered the city so late as 1881. It 
has already been observed that the Canadian yield is high, owing to 
the native fertility of its prairies, and the greatest crop ever raised from 
unfertilised land is credited to Western Canada in 1901, when 
63,425,000 bushels were raised on something more than 2,500,000 
acres, an average yield of more than 25 bushels. 
The following tables show the progress of wheat in Manitoba, 
Saskatchewan, and Alberta from 1900 to 1908. The figures are kindly 
furnished to the writer by Mr. A. Blue, Chief Officer, Census and 
Statistics Office.1 The product for 1908 is taken from the ‘ Census 
and Statistics Monthly,’ Ottawa, December 1908 ;— 
MANITOBA, 
1900  ... 18,352,929 bushels 1905 ... 47,626,586 bushels 
1901. =. ‘S0:502,035 1906 ... 54472198 ,, 
1902 ... 53,077,267 ., 1907 ... 39,688,266 | 
1903  ... 40,116,878 3. 1908 ... 50,269,000; 
1904 ... 39,162,458 ,. 
SASKATCHEWAN. 
1900  ... 4,306,091 bushels 1905 ... 31,799,198 b 
1901 ... 11,956,069 _,, 1906 ... 50,182,359 iba: 
1902) 691, .193/110,480 64 1907 ... 27,691,601 ° 
1903 ... 15,121,015 ° 1908  ... 34,742,000 
1904 ... 15,944,730 .,, pa 
ALBERTA. 
1900... 797,839 bushels 1905 ... 3,035,843 b 
100i: ee Ors T1S.~ 2s 1906 ... 5,932,267 cil 
W002 ee Bag ie 1907 ... 4.194.435 
1903 ... 1,200,598 1908 ... 6,842,000 ” 
1904. noite: 838.9005);,.:: +208 uf 
The exports of Canadian wheat ranged from sixteen and nine millions 
respectively in the years 1900 and 1901 to a maximum of 43,654,668 
bushels in 1908. The Ontario crop is usually over twenty million 
bushels, but it is from the North-Western provinces that future growth 
is chiefly expected. Dr. William Saunders? states that during 1908 
experiments have been carried on in the Peace River district, at Fort 
Vermilion, 350 miles north of Edmonton, where the crop amounted 
? Letters of March 19 and 24, 1909. 
* Letter to the writer of date March 15, 1909. 
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