EARLY HISTORY OP WHEAT-GROWING 33 



order to get to Winnipeg, had merely to cross the river in a 

 ferry boat.®* 



XXII. The Canadian Pacific Railway 



The St. Paul Eailway was a great boon and formed a 

 splendid link with the United States ; but something still 

 was lacking. The rising spirit of Canada, supported by 

 the voice of Manitoba, demanded that an all-Oanadian rail- 

 way should be built across the continent, so as to give the 

 West a direct connection with the East. This great project 

 was eventually brought to a successful conclusion, with the 

 result that in 1886 there took place an event of outstand- 

 ing significance for the subsequent development of wheat- 

 growing in western Canada : there passed through Winni- 

 peg on Dominion Day, July 1, the first through train from 

 Montreal to Vancouver. Its engine, Canadian Pacific 

 Railway No. 1, ran upon a line of steel destined to bear 

 to the country's ports hundreds of millions of bushels of 

 wheat required to satisfy the world's craving for bread. 



A grain of wheat is a very tiny thing in itself, but the 

 prosperity of western Canada is bound up with its exist- 

 ence ; and it is not too much to say that without the grain 

 of wheat in its collective form, the great and thriving city 

 of Winnipeg, with its population of 200,000 souls, its im- 

 posing buildings, its fine streets, and its busy cosmopolitan 

 life, would scarcely have advanced at the present time be- 

 yond the status of a small trading station. The growth 

 of Winnipeg from a village of 215 people in 1870 to its 

 present proportions has been due in large measure to the 

 construction of the Canadian Pacific Eailway, the connect- 

 ing of the east and west parts of Canada by a band of steel. 

 Through mile after weary mile for hundreds of miles was 

 «* Cf. G. Bryce, loc. cit. 



