Canadian Stories

THE WHEAT BOOM

For many people around the world, bread has been a staple of life. So people lived where wheat was grown. But in the 19th century, people in Europe and America began to move to cities, and no longer grew their own grain. Where would the wheat to make bread come from? One place was the new country of Canada.

Feeding the World

Starting almost 100 years ago, wheat changed Canada. Hundreds of thousands of people settled on the Prairies. Grassland changed into farmland so quickly, the business of growing and exporting wheat experienced a “boom.” Many settlers grew wheat, and some worked for railways that took this valuable crop to be shipped overseas. Towns and cities sprouted along the railway lines. This simple grain was so important it was called “King Wheat.” By 1930, Canada was an important wheat exporter, making a major contribution to feeding the world.

New Ways, New Wheat

The Canadian government established experimental farms and research stations to find better ways of growing wheat. One of the problems was the short growing season on the Prairies. A government researcher named Charles Saunders developed a type of wheat, called Marquis, that took less time to grow. Seager Wheeler, a Saskatchewan farmer, carried on experiments to improve Marquis wheat even more.

Another problem was plant disease, which could threaten a successful crop. In 1916, a fungus called “wheat stem rust” devastated the harvest. Dr. Margaret Newton (a plant researcher, not a medical doctor) dedicated her career to developing rust-resistant wheat. Her contributions to agricultural science brought her international acclaim.

Standing tall on the prairie: grain elevators

Grain elevators are used to weigh, clean, and store grain. About 100 years ago, grain elevator owners had complete control over all inspection, shipment, and sale. Some farmers started co-operatives, joining together to compete with the big “line companies” for control. In the 1930s, there were almost 6000 grain elevators in western Canada; now there are fewer than 850.

"The farmer extracts wealth from the soil."

In 1901, William Richard Motherwell founded the Territorial Grain Growers’ Association, a farmers’ co-operative to challenge the control of line companies. Concerned with bettering the lot of farmers, Motherwell was Saskatchewan’s Commissioner of Agriculture and Canada’s Minister of Agriculture, and he founded the agricultural college at the University of Saskatchewan.

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