8 Economic Position of Wheat Growing. 



Note. — (a) The single black line across the columns for 1890, 1900, 1907, 1908, 

 represents the estimated total acreage of the Dominion of Canada for which no 

 continuous series of statistics exist. 



(b) Were the preliminary estimates for 1909 taken into account, the total acreage 

 would have been given as 7,750,000 acres — a rise of 1,139,000 acres in the latest 

 twelve months. This is indeed the net result, for the West has added 1,402,000 acres 

 — of which 1,289,000 were in Saskatchewan and 113,000 in Alberta — while there are 

 declines in the East and in Ontario of 114,000 acres, and likewise a reduction 

 of as much as 149,000 acres in Manitoba since 1908. 



anticipated in the one case represented 254,000,000 bushels, and 

 in the other 812,000,000 bushels, while the higher figure had the 

 high authority of Dr. Saunders. It was, therefore, for the experts 

 now assembled to say if the lapse of another quinquennium full 

 of interesting movements > both of population and of crops in the 

 North-West, had enabled them to arrive at any greater certainty 

 as to the future. 



It was incumbent on those who forecasted the wheat areas of 

 coming years carefully to avoid exaggeration and loose deductions, 

 and whatever ample surfaces they believed to await the wheat 

 grower, and whatever tales were told of practically inexhaustible 

 regions yet untapped, they must not neglect to bear in mind the 

 necessity of enlisting for the improvement of the yield the very 



