Canada and the British immigrant

by Emily P. Weaver

Let us speak first of the kingdom of wheat.

Saskatchewan, in the south, has a breadth of three hundred and ninety miles, and a length of about seven hundred and fifty miles, or an area of somewhat over a quarter of a million square miles, including a water surface of about eight thousand three hundred miles, made up chiefly of lakes, large and small. It is larger than France, and over twice the size of the British Isles, with which it roughly corresponds in latitude. Edinburgh, by the way, is further north than any part of Saskatchewan yet settled, and the northern boundary of the province—the 60th parallel of north latitude—touches the two European capitals, Christiania of Norway and St. Petersburg of Russia.

It comprises the greater part of “the second prairie steppe,” which has an average elevation of about fifteen hundred feet above sea-level, but Lake Athabasca, thrusting itself into its extreme north-west, is less than seven hundred feet above the sea, and the highest summit of the Cypress hills is over four thousand two hundred feet. Thus this “prairie province” is by no means all a level plain. In fact, it possesses such differences of surface that it has been said that it may be divided into “four well-defined zones.” In the south (with the exception of some hilly districts) and extending to Saskatoon is the rolling prairie. Next comes a belt of mingled prairie and woodlands, dotted with small lakes, and often described as park-like. Then, about Prince Albert, begins the great northern forest of “spruce, tamarac, jack-pine, poplar and birch.” This timbered belt crosses the province, and is between three and four hundred miles wide. North of it is the fourth zone, only sparsely wooded.

The province is situated in the very heart of the Dominion, but it is watered by several great rivers, which have cut their way deep into the plains. One of these, the Saskatchewan or “Rushing Water,” as the Indians called it—has given its name to the province in which its two branches, the North and the South Saskatchewan, unite to flow together into Lake Winnipeg and thence to Hudson Bay. Farther north the mightiest river is the Churchill, one thousand miles long, which by many a tumultuous rapid hurries to the same inland sea.

For a long time Saskatchewan had a bad reputation so far as climate is concerned, and if any British immigrant comes to settle in the country without understanding that the winters are very much colder than those he has been accustomed to, he will probably be much disappointed and may feel himself ill-used, though the chances are that he ought to have made more particular inquiries before he came. The disadvantages of the climate are a low winter temperature (for ten years the average temperature of the coldest months, January and February, shows from 27 to 29 degrees of frost); an occasional severe snowstorm or “blizzard,” and some dry windy weather at other seasons of the year, when the blowing of the dust is very trying.

The advantages, often held by residents in Saskatchewan of more than two or three years’ standing to outweigh the disadvantages, are the clear exhilarating atmosphere, the light snowfall, the bright sunshine at all seasons, the cool, pleasant nights of summer, and the infrequence of rain or thaws during winter. Usually the cold weather does not reach its greatest severity till after Christmas, and winter may be said to end late in March. The sowing of the crops occasionally begins in March, but generally not until April.

It used to be supposed that the climate of the province was too severe to allow grain crops to come to perfection, but a few years ago the experiment of growing wheat was made successfully a little east of Regina, at Indian Head (where, by the way, are situated a Dominion experimental farm and forest nursery), and in 1911, at the “Land Exhibition” in New York, a prize of $1,000 (£205) in gold, offered by Sir Thomas Shaughnessy for the best “one hundred pounds of milling wheat grown in America,” was carried off by a sample of Marquis wheat, grown on a farm near Rosthern, about forty miles north of Saskatoon. The Marquis variety of wheat was originated by the “Dominion cerealist,” Dr. Charles Saunders, on the Central Experimental Farm at Ottawa, and the prize sample was grown by Mr. Seager Wheeler, an Englishman from the Isle of Wight who had been farming in Saskatchewan for fifteen years.

The importance of Saskatchewan as a wheat-growing region is only of recent development. When white men first settled in the country, a generation ago, they began with cattle ranching; now it is the prime wheat-growing province in the Dominion. In 1913 the crop amounted to 108,288,000 bushels; but though for years to come the actual yield of this grain is likely to increase enormously, for the land at present under crop does not, it is said, greatly exceed that set apart for roads, there are signs that in the future other products of the farm will dispute the almost exclusive sway of King Wheat. For example, at the International Exhibition at Lethbridge, in 1912, Saskatchewan won the first prize for the “best collection of farm products.” One argument in favour of changing to a greater diversity of crops is that it tends to simplify the labour problem, as the harvesting of different crops is spread over a longer period than that of wheat alone.

At present about 80 per cent. of the population of the province belongs to the farming class, but the opportunities in Saskatchewan are not limited to the cultivation of the soil. The northern half of the province, lacking railways, is not yet ready for ordinary settlers, but in the great woods north of Prince Albert the lumber industry is important. In fact, in 1911, between eight and nine thousand men found employment in the lumber camps and mills. There is, by the way, a vast demand in the West for railway ties or “sleepers,” and this is largely supplied by the jack-pine of the northern woods.

Flouring mills, as might be expected, are amongst the chief of Saskatchewan’s industrial establishments, and brick-making plants are numerous. There is an excellent home market for bricks, and suitable clay is found in every quarter, north, south, east and west. There are already several companies making structural steel for bridges, and soon large iron works will be established at Prince Albert, deposits of good iron ore having been discovered in the northern wilderness.