Soil.— The soil of Alberta consists, gen erally speaking, of a marly clay subsoil over laid with a black or chocolate-colored mould. The latter, the product of ages of decayed vegetable matter, varies from six inches to several feet in depth. The combination results in a soil capable of storing moisture and at the same time of extraordinary fertility.
Industries.— The chief industry is agricul ture. The immense crops returned by. the virgin land of Alberta have too often caused the farmer to devote himself exclusively to grain growing and to neglect stock With the establishment, however, of extensive packing plants and resultant steady markets, increased interest is being taken in mixed farming, for which Alberta is admirably fitted. The area under crop and the production of cereals are annually rapidly increasing. In the acre age of spring and autumn wheat was 30,361 and the product 583,806 bushels; in 1905 the acreage was 107,527 and the product 2,306,524 bushels; in 1910 the acreage was 592,960 and the product 7,904,520 bushels; in 1915 the acre age was 1,669,076 and the product 60,088,689 bushels. In 1900 the oat crop amounted to 2,625,581 bushels; in 1905 the return was 9,514, 180 bushels; in 1910 the yield rose to 12,158, 530 bushels and in 1915 with an acreage of 1,570,596 sown to oats the harvest totalled 90,582,694 bushels, averaging 57.66 bushels to the acre. The acreage of barley in 1915 was 374,062, and from this area 12,761,187 bushels were garnered. Flax in 1915 amounted to 569,762 bushels, the land under crop being 41,243 acres. In 1915 there were in the province 183,974 milch cows and 660,000 other cattle. Dairy farming is rapidly on the increase and excellent markets, both domestic and export, have been developed for dairy products. The production of butter for the year ending Octo ber 1915 was 7,200,000 pounds, an increase of 2,000,000 pounds over the previous year. Much attention has been paid to the breeding of horses and with the introduction of such stand ard strains as the Clydesdale, Percheron, Hack ney, Shire, Suffolk and Belgian the standard of horseflesh has reached a high pitch. In 1915 there were 544,772 horses in Alberta. The growing of sheep, both for slaughter and for the wool crop, has proved profitable. The num ber of sheep in 1915 in Alberta was 238,579. The raising of swine has also in recent years yielded handsome returns. Extensive packing plants affording steady markets are in opera tion in Edmonton and Calgary.
As has been said, the bulk of the precipi tation in Alberta comes at the growing time and provides ample moisture to mature the crops. This remark applies to by far the greater part of the province, but there is a dry area in the southern section — particularly the region lying between the cities of Medicine Hat and Calgary and Lethbridge. The situ ation in regard to this section is, not that there is always inadequate rainfall, but that the rain fall cannot confidently be depended upon and recourse has been had to irrigation schemes as a species of -insurance so that the farmer may be always sure of his crop. The most
aanbitious irrigation project is that of the Cana dian Pacific Railway, which when complete will supply water to a block of land of 3,000,000 acres adjacent to the company's right-of-way.
While Alberta is obviously not distinctly a lumber country, still the forest resources are very considerable. The chief merchantable tim ber is spruce, of which heavy stands are found here and there, especially in the northerly part of the province. The forest reserves of Al berta cover 26,112 square miles. Of this vast area, nearly 13,000,000 acres lie along the east ern slope of the Rocky Mountains and extend in a northwesterly direction some 450 miles from the international boundary. Under the inspiration of the Forestry Branch and the Do minion Commission of Conservation, intelligent measures are being enacted for the conservation of provincial forests. In 1912 the lumber cut was approximately 50,000,000 feet. Of this 90 per cent was spruce. The remainder was made up of small quantities of pine, poplar, Douglas fir and tamarack.
Alberta is known to contain large deposits of minerals. Indications of pe troleum have been found at many far-scattered points. Hitherto, however, only one region -,. that to the south of Calgary — has actually produced oil. Natural gas is found in large quantities in the Medicine Hat-Bow Island dis trict and is piped into the city of Calgary. At Pelican rapids on the Athabasca River natural gas exists but owing to there being no settle ments of any size it has not yet been utilized. A new gas field has recently been discovered at Viking on the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway east of Edmonton. Several wells have been successfully sunk and it is expected that Ed monton will shortly be supplied with natural gas from this field. At McMurray on the Atha basca River are immense deposits of tar sands. The commercial value of these, whether for the paving of roads or for highly valuable ex tractive matter which may be wrested from them by chemical processes, is a question un dergoing investigation in the laboratory. Other minerals are known to exist but owing to lack of transportation or other difficulties have not yet been developed. It remains to speak of coal, the one mineral industry whose exploita tion has already assumed substantial and per manent form. Very wide areas of the province i are underlaid with coal. Anthracite is mined near Banff. Extensive deposits of bituminous coal, an excellent steam and coking coal, are found in the Crowsnest Pass as well as in the Palliser, Costigan and Bighorn fields. The commonest coal is lignite, and of this inex haustible quantities occur. According to the report of D. B. Dowling submitted to the Geo logical Survey in 1909, coal underlies nearly 17,000 square miles of territory and the total quantity is estimated at upward of 90,000,000, 000 tons. The production of coal is steadily increasing. Two hundred and eighty thousand tons were mined in 1901, while in 1914 the number of collieries operating was 264 and the production of coal had risen to 3,821,739 tons.