Never Had a Failure in Wheat
during that time, although he had as low as five and one-half bushels to the acre. There was one very dry season which reduced the average, but there was always a certain amount of grain raised there that was good for seed and grinding purposes. There has never been a complete failure from frost or any other cause. They have no rust on the wheat up there. He had raised as much as sixty-six bushels of wheat to the acre. That was the biggest yield, and accomplished without any fertilizer whatever. The heads of wheat at Fort Vermilion often would grow to the length of six inches, and at times he had counted sixty-five kernels in one head of wheat. Barley sown after the middle of May is usually ripe in the last week of July. The continuous daylight with about eighteen hours of sunlight accounts for the rapid growth of all vegetables in these parts.
During the month of July, Mr. Lawrence stated, they have at Fort Vermilion an occasional frost that sometimes cuts the potato vines down, but never puts them back seriously—just enough to show the effect of the frost on some of the top leaves. The potato vines, however, often show no sign of frost until they are ripe, and the potatoes obtain their full size and are matured. They had never had July frost severe enough to ruin the potato crops. These frosts are very slight. In 1906 he planted his garden during the week following May 24, and he planted tomatoes, cucumbers, peas and other vegetables. In the fall, during harvesting, his family had squash pie that was made from squash ripened in their own garden. The squash were raised just the same as the peas and other vegetables and took their chances, no hotbed and no special care, and he also raised cucumbers and tomatoes. The tomatoes did not ripen, but before they had a chance to freeze they were taken up. He thought that with care such as is given to these things in Manitoba and other parts of the Northwest, planting these tender vegetables early in hotbeds, and giving them care, the same success could be had in raising tomatoes, squash or other things of that kind as is had in Manitoba and other districts. At Peace River Landing tomatoes were ripened in 1906 in the open garden. Other garden vegetables, such as cabbages, and so on, grow very well. He had raised cabbages at Fort Vermilion eighteen and one-half pounds in weight, and swede turnips are raised in the open field. Out of a three-acre patch
He Had Selected Turnips,
and a great many of them weighed from eighteen to twenty-five pounds. They were of the purple-top variety. They had no special attention or care, and they were good sound turnips.
Another of the witnesses examined before the same committee of the Senate was Mr. W. F. Bredin, member of the Alberta legislative assembly for the district. Mr. Bredin, in his evidence, stated that as regards Peace river valley, he would judge that from the mountains to Peace point, a distance of between seven and eight hundred miles, following the winding of the river, there is an average of seventy-five miles in width on each side of Peace river that is equal to the soil on any similar length of the Saskatchewan. That would make Peace river country about one hundred and fifty miles in width, and extending from the mountains to Peace point, a distance of seven or eight hundred miles, which is all equally good for agricultural purposes with the Saskatchewan valley. That would extend considerably beyond the bottom lands of the river, including also the table land back of the river. A great deal of it is clean prairie, on the north especially. There is more of it covered with scrub and small timber than there is clean prairie, but the soil is equally good where the timber grows. Mr. Bredin stated that he had a ranch at Grande prairie for six years, and raised oats and vegetables every year there. He had cattle there for five winters, and the average length of feeding them during those five years was six weeks of each winter. That is south of Peace river, but within this belt of one hundred and fifty miles. In that Spirit river country he knew there were some white settlers, as well as half-breeds, who were making their living by
Raising Stock and Farming.
That seven hundred or eight hundred miles of good country, of which he spoke, would extend right to the foot of the Rockies. As to the question of the uniformity of the quality of the soil, he had only been down to what they call Wolverine point, near Fort Vermilion. He would say the country is uniformly good from Rocky mountains to that point. At Wolverine point the valley is much lower and perhaps the soil may be blacker, and the black soil may be deeper on the lower stretches of the Peace. All of that country would be good for stock. Both slough and upland hay is abundant. The pea vine and all the small fruits that grow anywhere else in the northwest grow up there, and all the wild flowers that he knew of in the northwest grow there. This area in Peace river country would compare on the whole with any part of Canada.
In reply to a question, Mr. Bredin stated that after his ten years’ experience of the country north of Edmonton he would consider that to be quite as good a place for a man to settle in as the Saskatchewan valley was twenty-five years previously. During the debate on the capital question in the Alberta legislative assembly at Edmonton, Mr. Bredin remarked, he had made an estimate of the good land north of Edmonton in Alberta, and it figured up more than the good land south of that city. If you were to add all the good land north of the Alberta boundary to Alberta, you would have about twice as much good land in the province north of Edmonton as there is south of that city.
One Hundred Million Acres of Good Land.