TtlK DRY FARMING CONGRESS. 



87 



Transforming the Range. 



"Eight or nine years ago, some large irrigation enterprises were 

 inaugurated, and shortly after this, rt was discovered that the district 

 was peculiarly adapted to the raising of winter wheat. An enterprising 



Turkey Red Wheat. 



American brought in a car of Turkey Red Wheat, from Nebraska six 

 years ago. This was the first hard wi'nter wheat raised in Western 

 Canada on a commercial scale. From this beginning six years ago, the 

 industry has grown till the past season, when we thrashed over four 



Yield Per Acre. 



million bushels of hard winter wheat. The average yield for the Province 

 of Alberta of this wheat, is put by the government at twenty-five and 

 one-half bushels per acre. 



"I visited personally, scores of individual fields this past summer, 

 that yielded fifty bushels and upward to the acre. I can site one field of 

 over ninety acres that yielded sixtj-^-three bushels to the acre. In quality, 



Quality of Dry Grains. 



our wheat is very high — to grade No. 1, it must weigh sixty-two pounds 

 to the bushel. In attending a large number of seed fairs, I found that 

 there was not a single exhibit of Turkey Red wheat, or as it is locally 

 known, 'Alberta Red,' that weighed as low as sixty-two pounds to the 

 bushel and there were many that weighed sixty-six and sixty-seven 

 pounds to the bushel. 



"Naturally in Southern Alberta, where winter wheat thrives, yielding- 

 better than spring wheat, it has been substituted in place of the latter. 

 Although the rainfall in Southern Alberta is not much different from 

 Southern Saskatchewan, the other climate conditions are different, and it 

 has not yet been determined whether we have suficient moisture to raise 

 two crops in three years, or whether it would be better to expect only 

 one crop in two years. Recognizing the need of investigation along 



Experimental Stations. 



these lines, the Dominion Department* of Agriculture, has established 

 two experimental farms in the province of Alberta. 



"Besides raising winter wheat and spring grain, v/e have raised al- 

 falfa, 300 miles north of the international boundary. 



Sugar Beets. 



"We are raising sugar beets commercially. There is a sugar-beet 

 factory, which has been successfully operated for the last five seasons 

 at Raymond, Alberta. 



Irrigation. 



"There has been inaugurated, some very extensive irrigation sys- 

 tems within the last few years. The largest is the one put in by the 

 Canadian Pacific Railway, which will irrigate 3,000,000 acres in one 

 tract. 



