Mr. Young, in his evidence, drew attention to the fact that the posts in the far north at which grain had been grown had not been selected for wheat raising, but because they were convenient locations for the fur trade. He proceeded:—“I want to discuss that point a little further. I say there are three reasons why we can expect better results in wheat raising in our northern country than has been accomplished up to the present time.
“(1) I will quote what Professor Macoun has stated in a pamphlet relating to the Yukon:—‘When grain ripens in the country and is again sown there, it will take on the conditions of its environment and mature earlier, and early frosts like those attributed to Manitoba will have no effect, as the crop will mature before they come. I may remark here that the wheat in the northwest ripens earlier now than it did twenty years ago, and many people believe that it is the climate that has changed, whereas it is only that the wheat has adapted itself to its environment.’ I think that any gentleman who has been following the trend of affairs in the northwest will agree with me that the conditions are better with respect to possible injury by summer frosts than they were twenty years ago. I think that cannot be questioned. That is one reason that is given.
“(2) Now, a few days ago, I asked a gentleman who is better able to express an opinion on the point than I am, what he thought of that statement of Professor Macoun’s. He said:—‘I don’t altogether agree with that statement. I do not hesitate at all in saying that the improvement is marked, but I will account for it in another way. If you raise wheat on virgin soil on the prairie it will grow to perhaps about the height of a man’s shoulder the first year. The next year it will not be quite so high. The third year it will be perhaps not so high as the second year, but it will mature earlier. Devote that land to some other use for a year or two and then go back to the cultivation of wheat again, and you will get the wheat growing to the height of about the second or third year, but it will mature earlier. The soil is sharpened.’ He explained to me that in Red river valley, where the land is heavier, it would take very many years to bring about that result, and it would not be of so much value to this generation, but in the lighter soil, farther west, it has a marked effect, and, as he argued, there is no question about it.
“(3) The third reason why we can expect better results in that north country is because the staff at the Experimental Farm have been steadily carrying on experiments with a view to obtaining a variety of wheat that will ripen a few days earlier, and if they can shorten the term for the ripening of wheat by four or five days or a week, it will bring into the certain line, as to wheat growing, an enormous area of land. There is no question about it. They have accomplished some good things already, and they expect to accomplish a great deal more.”
Mr. Young stated before the committee on this occasion that “there is no question about it that in the north country there are grasses of the greatest possible value to cattle raising, finer grasses than there are in other parts of the northwest.”
Professor Macoun’s Estimate Still Holds.
Speaking in his evidence generally about the suitability of the far northwestern country for agricultural pursuits, and specially discussing the climatic condition, Mr. Young remarked:—“About three weeks ago I wrote to Professor Macoun and gave him a list of questions about that country to which I asked him to give me answers. I think it is a very remarkable thing that in his reply he says: ‘In my report to Mr. Alexander Mackenzie in 1877, just when I was fresh in the northwest, I gave details about certain districts of the northland which I could not give in a letter, but I would suggest that extracts from this report may be taken and placed upon file with this letter, as my statements and conclusions as printed thirty years ago still remain without impeachment at the present time.’ I think it is a remarkable thing that with respect to the country through which Professor Macoun went in 1872 and 1873, and which excited his enthusiasm—this is the country that I am trying to tell you about—he now says of it: ‘My statements remain without impeachment at the present time.’ Now, he speaks in this letter of two facts that I think are very striking. He says, ‘In conclusion, I may say that the climate of the whole northland is a stable one, and as local conditions change it will improve, and where small spots are now called good land, whole areas will take that term. The low altitude and the long day are fixed conditions and will always be the same. The forest will be cleared and the muskegs drained, and as the land becomes drier the frosty conditions will pass away and a good country will result.’ ”
| [18] | Franklin (“Narrative of a Journey, etc.”) relates that the thermometer during the month of October, 1820, at Fort Enterprise (headwaters of the Coppermine) never rose above 37° but never fell below 5°. The mean temperature for the month was 23°. The highest temperature at the same place in the following April was 40° above zero, the lowest 32° below. The mean was 4° above zero. May 9, the snow had disappeared from the ground. The first robin appeared May 14. The average temperature for May was nearly 32° above zero; the greatest heat 68° and the lowest 8°. At the end of the month there was constant daylight. When the Franklin expedition was at Fort Franklin (west side of Great Bear lake) in 1826, the first flower was gathered on May 27. (“Narrative of a Second Expedition, etc.”) |
| [19] | The population of Vologda, in 1910, the latest available, was one million, five hundred and ninety-seven thousand, five hundred, or ten per square mile. (E. J. C.) |