Figuring out the result of the year's crop. The yield of which he estimates at over forty bushels per acre of wheat.
Dean Curtiss of Ames Agricultural College, Iowa, says:
"We of the United States think we know how to get behind agriculture and push, but the Canadians dare to do even more than we do in some respects. They have wonderful faith in the future: they hesitate at no undertaking that offers prospects of results. More significant still is the wide co-operation for agricultural promotion, including the government, private individuals, and corporations and the railroads.
"Manitoba has in the last two years provided about as much money for the building of an agricultural plant as Iowa has appropriated in half a century. It has given in two years $2,500,000 for buildings and grounds for its agricultural institutions. Saskatchewan is building a plant for its university and agricultural college on a broader and more substantial plan than has been applied to any similar institution in this country. Yet neither province has more than half a million population.
"For public schools equally generous provision is made. They are being built up to give vocational and technical training as well as cultural. They fit the needs of the country excellently and should turn out fine types of boys and girls. They do this with a remarkable faith in the value of right education."
Dean Curtiss was much interested in the many ways the Canadian Government aids agriculture, aside from appropriations for education. It is helping to solve marketing problems; encouraging better breeding of livestock by buying sires and reselling them at cost, and doing many other things of like character. He says:
"I found that the Government is advancing from 50 to 85 per cent of the money necessary to build coöperative creameries and elevators. Where cattle need breeding up, the Government buys bulls of dairy, Shorthorn, or special dairy breeds, and sends them in at cost and long time payments."
The words "Canadian wheat" are familiar to all, but many have not yet participated in the benefits derived by those who, within the past few years, have placed their capital in Canadian wheat lands. They, who, through foresight, so invested, they who broke the first furrow, have reaped bountifully.
The development of the fertile plains and valleys of Western Canada is still in its infancy. The accomplishments of the past few years, while truly wonderful, have but proven the great resources and future capabilities of this vast country.