97. Government The Canadian states are -.,_ called provinces. Th eir blontatioa, Ottawa, Canada governments do many n Canada. things to help the citizens with business affairs. They help farmers to buy good, pure seed, and cattle of good breeding. In some cases government cream eries are run to help farmers sell their milk. There are many agricultural colleges and schools, and men in experiment stations are teaching the people better ways of fanning.
98. Transportation and early settlers near the Atlantic coast could market some of their produce by water, but the Northern Wheat Belt is so far from the coast that it had to remain unsettled, the roaming ground of the buffalo and the hunt ing ground of the Indian, until the railroads came. The railroad brought the wheat grower to the new land, and now on every autumn day tens of thousands of farmers' wagons haul wheat from threshing ma.ehine: to railroad stations. Freight trains are laboring southeastward toward Minneapolis and Lake Superior with millions of bushels of wheat, most of which goes to Europe by way of lake boats from Duluth, Minnesota, and from Port Arthur and Fort William, Ontario.
The grain reaches the steamboats late in the season, and only about one-fifth of it can be taken down to Buffalo and Montreal before the lakes freeze over for the winter.
The rest of the grain of that season is stored, and comes down to the Atlantic ports the next spring.
Most of the wheat grown in the American part of this region goes to Minneapolis to be ground into flour, and to Duluth for shipment to our eastern cities.
We do not expect to find many cities in a region so far from the sea and so recently settled as is the Northern Wheat Belt. The cities are chiefly trading cities, busy supply ing the farmers, and forwarding the grain that comes to them from the country railroad stations. The cities are all small except three: Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Winnipeg.
99. The wheat cities.—Minneapolis and St. Paul, " The Twin Cities, " have become the metropolis of the part of this region which lies in the United States. There are two reasons for this: (1) The head of navi gation on the Mississippi makes a natural trade center for a wide region; (2) water wheels driven by the Falls of St. Anthony have made Minneapolis the great flour-mill ing center. Have you seen an advertisement of Minneapolis flour? Winnipeg is the metropolis of the Canadian part of this district. It is located on the
Red River, and steamboats bring it grain from the south. It has the best location of any city in western Canada. Like Chicago, Winnipeg is a railroad center, and you cannot travel west by train without passing through it. Look at Fig. 308, 'and tell why the rail roads from west to east draw in at Chicago like the rays of a fan. For how great a dis tance do Lake Winnipeg and Lake Winnipe gosis block railroads from going east? (Fig. 91.) How long is Lake Michigan? (Fig. 309.) 100. Future agriculture.—As the popula tion of America grows larger and larger, this region may become one of the three greatest sources of food supply. The other great food sources are the Central Farming Region and the Cotton Belt. Bread, butter, cheese, meat, potatoes, and beets can be produced in the Wheat Region in great quantities. There farm machinery can help greatly: the tractor can do wonders on such level land. Thus the farmer there may some day divide his farmland into six fields, raising crops in regular order somewhat as follows: (1) wheat, to send away to distant cities; (2) oats; (3) barley; (4) hay for his own horses and cows; (5) pasture for his cows. The sixth field could be one-half in beets for the cows, and one-half in potatoes for men. The 160-acre farm of this region might then yield the following products each favorable year: wheat, 25 acres, 25 bushels per acre; potatoes, 12M acres, 200 bushels per acre; milk, 30 cows, 3500 quarts per cow. European lands are made to yield as much and more in the regions where intensive agri culture is employed. This system is much like that in parts of Europe. It is a good example of intensive agriculture, because the land produces many crops and large yields.
Compare the population per square mile in Poland, Czechoslovakia, and the Canadian provinces.
We do not at present need such great quan tities either of dairy produce or of potatoes; but if the price of gasoline should go much higher, we may have to use alcohol to run motorcars. If that time comes, the Northern Wheat Belt farmer may spend the winter haulingloads of frozen pota toes to the alcohol distil leries.
101. Manufacture. — At present there is but little manufacturing in this re gion, although thousands of square miles of this land are underlaid with coal. Its quality is rather poor, but it could easily be made to furnish power for many large manufacturing cities.