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Glenbow Archives
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PavedwithGrain
Today, with about 65 million
acres in production, Western Canadian
farmers are busy growing crops to feed
the booming BRIC markets—Brazil,
Russia, India and China. But Canada’s
role in feeding the world dates back much
further—long before those countries were
even on the radar—as this 111-year-old
illustration shows.
This inspiring illustration recognizing
“Canada: The Granary of The World”
is the
front cover of a 30-page booklet printed
by the Canadian government in 1903 as
part of a campaign to attract new farming
immigrants to Western Canada.
This particular booklet, filled with
red, white and blue Uncle Sam images,
was aimed at attracting U.S. farmers to
homestead on the Canadian Prairies. It
was part of a drive headed by Sir Clifford
Sifton, Minister of the Interior in the
Wilfred Laurier government, to encourage
farmers from the U.S., Britain, Germany,
Scandinavia and eastern Europe to come
to Canada.
It was part of a series of booklets de-
scribed as being “flamboyant and spec-
tacular,” not to mention overstated, with
AGAINST
THE GRAIN
some similarities to a “travelling medicine
show,” promising free homesteads and
great opportunities. Canada, “the land
that produced the finest of the wheat—
where cyclones are unknown, where the
crops show large and profitable yields, and
where civil rights and religious liberty are
maintained and enjoyed.”
Although not all remained to farm,
many did, bringing with them community
names reflecting the diversity of the coun-
tries left behind. The campaign had rea-
sonable success as immigration increased
from 16,835 in 1896 to 141,465 in 1905.
Winter
2014
Grains
West
50