The Movement to the Canadian West.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 25 July 1910, Page 4

The Movement to the Canadian West.

AN EXTRAORDINARY INFLUX

(From the Times' Canadian Correspondent.) Never before have we had such a remarkable movement of population towards .the Western prairies as we are now Wii/iMassing. 13o'ti}i fiknn Europe and from the United States settlers are coming by tens of thousands. During the last fiscal year, according to the returns of /the Canadian Department of Immigration, 96,000 people came over from the adjoining counltry. It is estimated that this year the influx will reach 125,000. At Noiith PorItal, in Saskatchewan, 60 cars a day with 250 people enter the country. In March 6000 American settlers entered at Portal, and it is expected tlvalt. the total for April will prove to be over 8000. Mr William Whyte, second Vfee-

President of the Canadian Pacific Railway, reports, that 'tho class of immigrants this year both from the United States and from the Mother Country is the best we have ever received. He believes "bbflifc in five years' time Saskatchewan will lie pioducing more wheat than Texas, and that in 15 years this single Canadian Province will be growing n'ore wheat than: the whole of the United States. To the south the corn (i.e. maize) belt is steadily encroaching upon the wheat belt, which, as a result, is being forced further north. He is convinced that in a few years the United States must import _ wheat, from Canada if the bi" mills of Muniiieapolis are to be kept rulining. The railways want the long ihaul, but it a considerable ciuniittty of Oanndian grain .should go inito Minnesota the Western farmers would gelt gooc:

prices and would have more money to spend for general merchandise and manufactures which the nailwavs would carry. According 'to the Bureau ot Immioratidn at Washington, in the period from March 31, 1909, to March 1, 1910, 'the sum of 90,3/1,000 dollars (£19,074,200) was taken into Canada by the 95,371 Americans who crossed the border. It is further estimated' that between March 31, 1897, and March 1, 1909, 425,400 persons left jthe United Staite permanently to lise in Canada, and that they brought at least 425,401,000 doll are (£80,092,000) into the country; Of the 95,371 persons who I'eft the united States last year for the Canadian West, 07,57(3 were American-bom, and 37,795 aliens who had contemplated permanent residence in the neighbouring country. The movement into Canada has been cruelly from the .Middle Wes*t. During last year North Dakota lost 3,4()l heads of families, Minnesota 1,741, South Dakota 522, Michigan 514. Washington 510, Wisconsin 477, lowa 430, Illinois 290, and Montana 184.

PROGRESS IX SASKATCHEWAN It iw bo worth poinlting out that last year Saskatchewan grew 90,255,000 bushels of whoat, 105,465,000 bushels of oats, 7,833,000 bushels of barley, and 4,448,700 bushels of flax. The total area in grain crops was 6,898,559 iaeres, and the average acreage of grain crops per farm was 84.9 acres. Saskatchewan now holds Ithe third place amongst the Provinces of the Dominion and States of the Union as a producer of wheat aiul oats. The only States which show a great-

er wheat production aro Minnesota, with 94,000,000 bushels, and North 'Dakota, with 90,700,000 bushels. Minnesota's average yield per acne was 16.8, North Dakota's 13.7, that of Kansas 14.1, and that of Saskatchewan 22.1. Illinois and lowa were the only American States to produce more oats than Saskatchewan in 1909. These States yielded 159,000,000 bushels and 116,000,000 bushels respectively, ns against 105,4(So,000 in the Oaiiwidian Province. The average yield in Illinois was 30.G, lown 27.0, Minnesota 33.0 and Saskatchewan 47.1. The average price realised on the farm in Saskaltchewan for the wheat crop of 1909 of all grades was 84 cants per bushel, which means that 'the crop was worth 75,780,600 dollars (£15,156,120) to the producers. The oa- crop was sold at an average price of 26 cents (Is Id) per bushel, and, .therefore, was worth 27,420,900 dollars (£5,-

484,180). The total value of all grain, roots, and fodder crops raised in Saskatchewan in 1909, together with milk and its products, was 32,539,242 dollars (£20,507,848). The Province, including livestock, now has agricultural assets of 178,421,981 dollars (£35,684,390), belonging to 81,303 farmers, and grown on less than 12 per cent, of the estimated arable acreage in the Province south of Pa-roillel 55. In order to harvest the crop of 1909 itho fanners brought in 12,500 harvesters from outside. There are now in Saskatchewan 842 grain elevators, with a total capacity of 24,279,000 bushels. These figures, complied by the Bureau of Information and Statistics at Regina, were collected from 20,000 individual farmers and from several. thousand threshers throughout the Province. The figures for Alberta show wholly different conditions and results. According to returns from G2O threshers, the Province .produced 5,877.486 bushels of wheat, 23,907,998 bushels of oate, and, including other grains, a total field crop of 24,646,440 bushels. It is manifest that this Province will be devoted to mixed farming und ranching. It has some advantiajjes of climate, anl ultimately will be at least as closely selttled as Saskatchewan.

STATISTICS OF THE WESTERN PROVINCES. According to a new homestead map of the Western Provinces which 'has just been issued by the Department of the Interior at Ottawa, the surveyed area is now 145,249,985 acres out of a .total area of 334,894,320 acres. The total area under homestead entry is 44,027,000 acres. Railway land grants cover 31,304,074 acres, school lands 7,948,500 acres, Hudson's Bay Company lands 6,505,000 acres, and lands otherwise disposed of 11,490,100 acres. The total area under grain crops last year was 11,900,000 acres, of which 6,878,000 wore devoted to wheat, and of which the total yield was 147,000,000 .bushels. The total area cultivated is only one-twelfth of the total surveyed area, less than onethird of the homestoad, ..and only one-eighth of the Wtal land area.