288 
Canadian Agriculture. 
In criticising the foregoing statement, it is impossible icy 
ignore the price of wheat, which is estimated to be worth close 
upon 27s. per quarter, free on rail, at Indian Head. This 
estimate seems to me too high, and certainly unreliable for a term 
of years. Adding lis. per quarter for freight to Liverpool, the 
price at that port would require to be 38s. ex ship, a figure 
quite unobtainable during the past winter. Still, if a price at 
all approaching 27s. per quarter can be obtained at Indian 
Head, and wheat can at the same time be raised for less than 
12s. per quarter, there is ample margin for profit. 
The Bell Farm affords an example of farming reduced as nearly 
as possible to the factory system. The division of labour is 
necessarily carried to an extreme, and the management of so 
huge an undertaking involves an almost military discipline 
among the workers, and the proprietors are fortunate in having 
so experienced and capable a manager as Major Bell. It is an 
interesting phase of prairie farming, but it is farming with 
much of the poetry taken out of it. 
Tlie Alkali Lands. — Before describing the Experimental 
Farms of the Canadian Pacific Railway it seems desirable to 
place before the reader some account of the alkali lands of the 
North American plateaux, and though I have not been able 
to find a record of a thorough examination of any of those 
within the Canadian territory, yet as they are presumably much 
the same in character wherever they occur on the prairies, the 
following description of the alkali lands met with in the super- 
ficial deposits of Nebraska, written by Dr. S. Aughey, will 
convey a very fair idea respecting them : — 
" "Where they have been closely examined thej- are found to vary a great 
deal in chemical constituents. Generally, however, the alkali is largely com- 
posed of soda compounds, with an occasional excess of lime and magnesia, or 
]i<)tash. The following analyses of these soils show how variable they are. 
'J'he first is taken from the Platte bottom, south of North Platte ; the second 
from near Old Fort Kearney, and the third two miles west of Lincoln : — 
74-00 
73- 10 
73-90 
3-80 
3-73 
3-69 
2-08 
2-29 
2-10 
6-01 
4-29 
3-90 
1-70 
1-40 
1-49 
1-89 
1-29 
1-47 
1-68 
1-80 
3-69 
Carbonate and bi-carbonate of soda 
5-17 
7-33 
4-91 
0-70 
0-89 
0-89 
099 
0-98 
0-98 
1-20 
210 
210 ■ 
0-78 
0-80 
0-88 
100 00 
100-00 
100-00 
