Mr. Bredin submitted what he said he considered a careful estimate of all the good land north of Edmonton, east of Rocky mountains. He stated:—“My estimate of the area of the agricultural lands that will be available in northern Alberta—say north of the 55th parallel of latitude—and in the unorganized district of Mackenzie, is not less than one hundred millions of acres.”
Mr. Bredin informed the committee that one spring, when he left Fort St. John on the upper Peace, the grain there was up six or seven inches. He must have been at least a month going to Edmonton, and when he got there the grain there was just in the same stage of growth as the grain had been when he left Fort St. John; so the season must be earlier at the latter place. They very often sowed seed at Fort St. John in March, and invariably no later than April. In 1906 they began cutting the wheat at Peace River Landing on the last day of July, and the wheat was ready to cut five or six days earlier than that. As a matter of fact, Mr. Brick, the member for Peace river district in the Alberta legislature, started to cut on the last day of July, and he told Mr. Bredin that the grain was ready to cut a week earlier. Mr. Brick cultivated there, that year, three hundred acres of land in wheat, oats and barley.
Vegetable Garden 15 miles west of Fort St. John.
Stockmen west of Peace River Landing would have to feed their cattle, taking one year with another, an average of seven weeks, and east of that probably more.
Mr. Elihu Stewart, of the city of Ottawa, at the time Superintendent of Forestry for the Dominion Government, since retired from the public service to engage in private business, was one of the most important witnesses examined before the committee. He explained that his knowledge of the country beyond the Saskatchewan has principally been derived from two trips that he made, one in 1902 to Peace river, and one during the season of 1906 down the Athabaska, down Slave river, and down the Mackenzie to the delta, and thence across to the Yukon, and back by the way of Dawson. Mr. Stewart produced before the committee samples of some of the grains that are grown at the end of Lesser Slave lake. One was a sample of hulled barley, grown for the use of the mission schools; another, wheat from Lesser Slave lake; a third, another quality of wheat from the Roman Catholic mission at the end of Lesser Slave lake, grown that year (1902). These exhibits were principally from the farm at the end of Lesser Slave lake. The Roman Catholic mission there has
A Very Large Farm and Stock,
and grain is grown there by others as well. Mr. Stewart said he had noticed in discussions on Peace river that there was not enough distinction made between the valley of Peace river and the tableland above. There is a high level country, and all at once it drops down some six hundred feet to a valley. He thought the difference between the height of the banks and the water at Peace River Landing is something like six hundred feet. In that valley there is no question at all about the wheat ripening. He produced some specimens of grain grown in the valley near Peace River Landing, also some tobacco grown there. The width of Peace river valley is very narrow, not over two miles at the crossing. The soil is good, perhaps a little heavy, with the exception of a few miles which is light and covered with jackpine. The rest is good agricultural land. There would not be a great quantity of it in the valley of the river at that part. The altitude is pretty high, but down the river towards Fort Vermilion it lowers, and probably the elevation of the upland there would not be greater than the level of the water at Peace River Landing. The grain-growing capabilities of that plateau all depend on the elevation. Peace river district is an immense country extending some six hundred miles from the mountains to the lake. Down at Fort Vermilion crossing they raise large quantities of wheat. Of course, at a very high altitude the same result cannot be expected, but wheat he saw on the plateau above Peace river was uninjured on September 20. But there was frost that night. He did not know whether it was enough to kill the grain. However, if they had no frost up to September 20, there should be
No Trouble Ripening Grain There,
because it ought to be fit for harvesting before the end of August. The wheat in question was sown by an Indian and put in very late. Wheat grown at Fort Vermilion took the first prize as the best wheat shown at the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia, in 1876.