Volume 2 - ElectricCanadian.com

202 HISTORY OF THE BANKthe Great Northern Railroad of the United States,held theview that the scorching suns of what are now the provinces ofAlberta and Saskatchewan would shrivel the wheat berrybefore it attained maturity. By 1900, however, wheatgrowinghad spread along the main line of the CanadianPacific Railway to a short distance west of Moose Jaw, andalso along the railway to Prince Albert in northern Saskatchewan.In the Edmonton district settlers were striving withThe Medicine Hatthe elements to get their gram ripened.district to the south had, in school geographies of the time,been placed within the area of the "Great American Desert;"and it is true that the droughts in that district had for a timethat the settlers who injustified the belief of meteorologists1902 began to arrive in large numbers would have cause forbitter regret, a belief which unfortunately during recent yearshas to some extent been confirmed. The possibilities ofthe Saskatoon district, which has since proved a wonderfullyproductive region, were unsuspected even by the companieswhich were selling land there; and their agents used to indulgein expressions of pity for those whom they regarded as theirmisguided victims. As late as 1903 an officer of The CanadianBank of Commerce travelling on a train fifty miles south ofSaskatoon heard a fellow-passenger say, pointing to a settlerengaged in breaking a half-section on the prairie at muchexpense, "Poor devil, he'll be broke in a couple of years!" Itis more than likely that the "poor devil" was able to reap thereward of his industry and enterprise. Even if he did not, itis certain that many who have since become his neighbourshave been more fortunate. Whether Providence had anythingto do with it or not, the predictions of meteorologistsas todrought ceased to come true from the time the inrush ofsettlers began in 1901. In that summer there was a fairlygenerous rainfall in districts where pessimists had declaredrain to be almost unknown, and the desert places began toblossom. The average rainfall ever since has been fairlygood. There have been seasons when drought has recurred