Prairie Agriculture Research Articles

The Canadian Pacific Railway and the development of Western Canada, 1896-1914

A large federal cash subsidy aided CPR construction of the Crows Nest Pass Railway from Lethbridge, Alberta, to Nelson, British Columbia. The line, completed in late 1898, was designed to en-courage mining and smelting in the Kootenays and to link this region with Central Canada. From 1989 to 1914 the Great Northern Railroad in the United States also built lines into southern British Columbia to tap this valuable mining traffic. The CPR completed a line to Vancouver in 1915, by which time it dominated the regional traffic. However, it still faced competition for this traffic from the Great Northern which had allied itself with the Canadian Northern Railway. John Eagle examines the lengthy and bitter conflict which resulted between the two railways. Eagle provides the first scholarly analysis of the Crows Nest Pass Agreement of 1897. Under this historic agreement, the CPR stimulated prairie agriculture by lowering its freight rates on grain, matching both the lower rates of the Canadian Northern on grain and the rates on wheat established under the Manitoba Agreement of 1901. The development of southern British Columbia also opened a new market for prairie grain and cattle. The Canadian Pacific Railway and the Development of Western Canada challenges the prevailing view that CPR land policies were designed primarily to promote settlement in order to generate traffic for the railway. Eagle argues that the railway adopted policies which maximized profits from its agricultural lands so that proceeds from prairie land sales became an important source of revenue for the company.

The Cost of a Licensing System Regulation: An Example from Canadian Prairie Agriculture

Previous articleNext article No AccessThe Cost of a Licensing System Regulation: An Example from Canadian Prairie AgricultureAlvin Ulrich, William H. Furtan, and Andrew SchmitzAlvin Ulrich Search for more articles by this author , William H. Furtan Search for more articles by this author , and Andrew Schmitz Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Journal of Political Economy Volume 95, Number 1Feb., 1987 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/261446 Views: 8Total views on this site Citations: 17Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1987 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Andrew Schmitz, P. Lynn Kennedy, Michael Salassi Sugarcane Yields and Production: Florida and Louisiana, (Jul 2017): 143–157.https://doi.org/10.1108/S1574-871520170000017010Anton Bekkerman, Heidi Schweizer, Vincent H. Smith The Impacts of the Canadian Wheat Board Ruling on the North American Malt Barley Markets, Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie 62, no.44 (Jul 2014): 619–645.https://doi.org/10.1111/cjag.12044Kentaro Kawasaki, Erik Lichtenberg Econometric Analysis of Grading Standards: The Ordered Fractional Approach, American Journal of Agricultural Economics 96, no.11 (Dec 2013): 345–365.https://doi.org/10.1093/ajae/aat088Tim Josling, Kym Anderson, Andrew Schmitz, Stefan Tangermann Understanding International Trade in Agricultural Products: One Hundred Years of Contributions by Agricultural Economists, American Journal of Agricultural Economics 92, no.22 (Apr 2010): 424–446.https://doi.org/10.1093/ajae/aaq011Lota D. Tamini, Jean‐Philippe Gervais, Bruno Larue The Value of the Initial Payment of the Canadian Wheat Board as a Signaling Device, American Journal of Agricultural Economics 92, no.11 (Jan 2010): 42–55.https://doi.org/10.1093/ajae/aap012Charles Moss, Troy G. Schmitz, A. Schmitz Segregating genetically modified and nongenetically modified corn in a marketing channel, Applied Economics 40, no.2121 (Nov 2008): 2765–2774.https://doi.org/10.1080/00036840600970336Brian D. Wright, Philip G. Pardey, Carol Nottenburg, Bonwoo Koo Chapter 48 Agricultural Innovation: Investments and Incentives, (Jan 2007): 2533–2603.https://doi.org/10.1016/S1574-0072(06)03048-9Derek Berwald, Colin A. Carter, Guillaume P. Gruère Rejecting New Technology: The Case of Genetically Modified Wheat, American Journal of Agricultural Economics 88, no.22 (May 2006): 432–447.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8276.2006.00869.xRobert Tripp Seed Regulatory Reform, Journal of New Seeds 4, no.1-21-2 (Sep 2008): 103–115.https://doi.org/10.1300/J153v04n01_08Richard Gray, Stavroula Malla, Alison Stephen Canadian Dietary Fat Substitutions, 1955-93, and Coronary Heart Disease Costs, Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie 46, no.22 (Jul 1998): 233–246.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-7976.1998.tb00365.xDavid Gisselquist, Jean-Marie Grether Why Agricultural Technological Transfers to Developing Countries Should be Deregulated, SSRN Electronic Journal (Jan 1998).https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.123455Francesco Braga, Roberta Raffaelli Implications of a changing commodity quality definition: The case of Canadian durum wheat exports to Italy, Agribusiness 11, no.55 (Sep 1995): 463–472.https://doi.org/10.1002/1520-6297(199509/10)11:5<463::AID-AGR2720110509>3.0.CO;2-9 John H. Constantine , Julian M. Alston , and Vincent H. Smith Economic Impacts of the California One-Variety Cotton Law, Journal of Political Economy 102, no.55 (Oct 2015): 951–974.https://doi.org/10.1086/261960John A. Murphy, W.Hartley Furtan, Andrew Schmitz The gains from agricultural research under distorted trade, Journal of Public Economics 51, no.22 (Jun 1993): 161–172.https://doi.org/10.1016/0047-2727(93)90082-5Bruno Larue Is Wheat a Homogeneous Product?, Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie 39, no.22 (Jul 1991): 103–117.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-7976.1991.tb03560.xW. Wilson, W. Koo, A. Carter IMPORTER LOYALTY IN THE INTERNATIONAL WHEAT MARKET, Journal of Agricultural Economics 41, no.11 (Jan 1990): 94–102.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1477-9552.1990.tb00622.xFredoun Z. Ahmadi-Esfahani Estimation of Price Elasticities of Export Demand for Canadian and U.S. Wheat: A Nontraditional Approach, Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie 37, no.22 (Jul 1989): 173–190.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-7976.1989.tb03345.x

New Agricultural History - The American Prairie Agriculture in a Wider Context

New Agricultural History - The American Prairie Agriculture in a Wider Context

Cultivation techniques as a response to risk in early Canadian prairie agriculture

Cultivation techniques as a response to risk in early Canadian prairie agriculture

Bringing in the Sheaves: The Harvest Excursionists, 1890–1929

THE RAPID EXPANSION of prairie agriculture and the development of a highly specialized regional economy based on wheat production have provided an important theme for historians of twentieth-century Canada. The economic dimension of the thirty-year 'wheat boom' has been described by Britnell, Fowke, and Murchie, • the political response of the farmer to his economic situation by Sharp, Morton, Macpherson, and Lipset, 2 and the 'social side of the settlement process' by Dawson and Burner/These authors proceed from one common assumptionthat the basic element of prairie agricultural society was the independent farm operator who owned and worked the land which provided his family's living. But although independent operators and family workers made up the larger part of the agricultural work force, a substantial minority of that work force 30 per cent at the peak harvest period was made up of wage labourers. These farm workers have been left in an historiographical 'no man's land,' for labour historians of Western Canada have naturally concentrated on the activities of organized workers in the transportation, manufacturing, and the extractive industries. 4 Farm workers have left few traces of their existence

The Government and the Rate of Canadian Prairie Settlement

The determinants of the rate of Canadian prairie settlement have been a problem of long-standing interest to Canadian economic historians. Most authors acknowledge that the rate of Canadian prairie settlement was desultory prior to 1896 but very rapid thereafter. The traditional literature suggests that the period 1879-1911 cannot be examined as continuous and devoid of structural shifts.' Instead, it is argued, technological and institutional factors affected the response of homesteaders to economic incentives in prairie agriculture differently within subperiods of the years from 1879 to 1911. For this period, Norrie (1975) presents the most sophisticated analysis of the timing of prairie homesteading and structural stability. Norrie examined the determinants of the rate of prairie settlement using a partial adjustment model. In this model, homestead entries in the current period were assumed to be a function of nominal wheat prices of the previous period. A partial adjustment mechanism was specified because of assumed lags in factor flows and information. The results from the estimated model

Reviews/Comptes rendus

Main Street: Windsor to Quebec City, by Maurice Yeates A Geographical Analysis and Classification of Canadian Prairie Agriculture, by Peter Laut L'Economie des Etats‐Unis, by Jacques Soppelsa Regional Development in Western Europe, edited by Hugh D. Clout, John Wiley Glacial Geomorphology (2nd ed.), by Clifford Embleton and Cuchlaine A.M. KingMacmillan, Toronto, 1975, vi + 573 pp., paper $28.00 Periglacial Geomorphology (2nd ed.), by Clifford Embleton and Cuchlaine A.M. The People of Hamilton, Canada West: Family and Class in a Mid‐nineteenth Century City, by Michael B. Katz Mathematics for Geographers and Planners, by A.G. Wilson and M.J. Kirkby

“Permanently Wasteful but Immediately Profitable”: Prairie Agriculture and the Great War

“Permanently Wasteful but Immediately Profitable”: Prairie Agriculture and the Great War

Soil and Water Conservation in Prairie Agriculture

Soil and Water Conservation in Prairie Agriculture

Economic Effects of the War on the Prairie Economy

The effects of the war on the prairie economy can best be considered against a background of three elements—one of them general and two more specific. The first, and most general, of these elements is the historical position of Canadian agricultural groups and agricultural communities in war-time situations. The second is the specific position of the prairie economy in relation to the First World War. The third is the familiar record of prairie agriculture throughout the depression of the nineteen-thirties. These background elements will be sketched in briefly.Canadian agriculture conforms historically to the typical pattern of agriculture developed within a mercantilistic framework. Though traditionally solacing itself, and being solaced, with the belief that it is Canada's basic industry, Canadian agriculture has most readily attracted attention and secured encouragement and support in situations where mercantile or industrial groups have considered that agriculture should be encouraged and supported. The French fostered the original agricultural settlement on the St. Lawrence in order to secure their fur-trade route against the Iroquois. The English considered agricultural settlement to be an indispensable adjunct to their military strongpoint, Halifax. United Empire Loyalists were welcomed to the upper St. Lawrence after 1780 so that they might settle around the frontier posts at Cataraqui, Niagara, and Detroit and thus strengthen the respective garrisons. Plans for the settlement of the prairie regions, put forward before and after Confederation, envisaged the establishment of a strong and vigorous agricultural community north of the forty-ninth parallel of latitude, a community which would forestall the threat of economic and even military occupation of Rupert's Land by the Americans. These historical examples illustrate the extent to which Canadian agricultural communities have derived significance from situations involving war or the threat of war.