Agriculture in North- West Canada. 373 



semi-digested oats in horse-droppings, etc., but in rural 

 districts it is drawn largely from man's supply. 



Agriculture in North-West Canada. 



From the annual report of the Department of Agriculture 

 of the North-West Territories of Canada it appears that 

 the acreage and production of the three principal grain crops 

 grown in the Territories in 1900 were as follows: — -Wheat, 

 412,864 acres, 4,028,294 bushels; oats, 175,439 acres, 4,226,152 

 bushels; and barley, 17,044 acres, 353,216 bushels. The 

 yield per acre of wheat is only 975 bushels, or half that of 

 the two preceding years ; oats and barley were also below 

 the average. Since 1898, the first year in which a report 

 was issued, the area under wheat has increased by 100,000 

 acres, and that devoted to oats by 70,000 acres. 



No statistics are available as to the numbers of live stock, 

 but considerable attention is given to the fattening of cattle 

 in the ranching districts. An interesting feature of the 

 cattle industry has been the movement of stock from Ontario, 

 Manitoba, and the arable districts of the Territories, to 

 Southern Alberta and Western Assiniboia. The total influx, 

 of cattle into the ranching districts in 1900 was over 42,000 

 head, of which 36,000 were stores from Ontario and Manitoba. 

 During the past few years the Department of Agriculture 

 has afforded encouragement to the importation of pure bred 

 bulls, but the necessity for this action is said to be now 

 disappearing, as there is hardly a town or village of any 

 importance in which pure bred bulls are not offered for sale 

 by local importers. 



Sheep farming is for various reasons declining, notwith- 

 standing the existence of a favourable home market for wool, 

 and an unlimited export market for mutton. The flocks in 

 the Territories are estimated to number 225,000 head, but 

 there are said to be large tracts of land in Western Assini- 

 boia and Southern Alberta admirably adapted to sheep 

 raising on a large scale, which have never been utilised. 



