The Canadian Wheat Boom,  says Pierre Berton in Marching As to War, was enabled by the discovery of a hardy form of wheat, Marquis, early in the century.  But why was flour so expensive in 1910?  Of all the food items in the Nicholson Household Account Books flour seems the most 'dear', 3 to 4 dollars  a barrel. To supplement wheat flour they bought graham flour, much cheaper. Read all about Herbert Nicholson's opinions on wheat (growing and glut) and Free Trade in the letters.

According to this thesis, the Port of Montreal was totally transformed during the Laurier years by the WHEAT Boom. Two huge grain elevators were erected in 1911-1912.  "If Canada was the granary of the empire, Montreal was its spout," claimed people of the day. By 1912, the  port could accommodate 38,000, 000 bushels of wheat a year, second only to New York. Read the thesis above to get a real full picture of "how things are connected" circa 1912. The owners of the Ogilvy Mills were all against free trade and after Laurier lost the free trade election in 1911 that mill became the official supplier to British Royals. Hmm.  One of D. W Griffith's masterpieces of the era was The Corner in Wheat, a nifty piece of social and socialist realism. See it here.

I can recall the POM Baker bringing around his wares to my duplex in Snowdon in the 1960s'. POM stands for Pride of Montreal.  There's something special about having a man in uniform drop chocolate doughnuts off on your porch--when you are 10.

Here are two articles shedding light on the Wheat Boom: The first perhaps explains why wheat is so expensive: they were exporting it to Europe!  Today, Canada is the major supplier of oil to the US, yet we Canadians pay through the nose -or, more aptly, through the hose.

Professor Robertson speaking to House of Commons:

The other matter I thought of bringing up this morning is "Canadian flour and its place in the British market. We have a large export trade in flour. In 1898, up to June 30^th, Canada exported flour to the value of $5,425,760. It is no inconsiderable sum. Looking into the question in England so far as I was able in the limited time at my disposal, mainly in London, I found bakers did not know Canadian flour as such in hardly any case, but where they did know it, they spoke exceedingly highly of it as a good strong, flour, good for mixing with other flours and giving good bread. The English bakers make up their sponge from seven or eight kinds of flour, so as to have a continuity of quality in case one brand should fail them in the market.  Just before leaving Canada for England I got a sample of the best Hungarian flour, brought from Hungary by a gentleman in the milling business who was passing through.  This was examined by the best experts and they established that Canadian flour contained 10 percent more albuminiods (flesh-forming qualities Editor (Protein??)) than the best Hungarian.  I went to a prominent baker in London to see if there was any possibility of having a test made by using Canadian flour in one of the modern bakeries. The test was made. It was done by the bakers themselves for their own information. One of their tests using Canadian flour gave at the rate of 146 pounds of bread from 100 pounds of flour, and that of excellent quality. There is no other flour going to England that from any country that makes as good bread."

That was from Manitoba wheat, of course.
Source: CIHM Document Canadiana.org : Movement for Rural Education; 1908


From 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica:

Entry on Canada: Wheat.

Of wheat many varieties are grown. The average yield of wheat in Canada is 20 bushels per acre. In 1901, the estimated total production of wheat was 55 ½ million bushels. In 1906 it was 136 million bushels. Up until the end of the 18^th century, Ontario was the biggest wheat producing province, mostly fall and winter wheat.
But the predominance in wheat growing has been shifted to the Western Provinces. A 1906 census shows that total wheat acreage in the North West Provinces was 5, 062, 493 yielding 110, 586, 824 bushels, of which Manitoba had 2, 721,079 acres; Saskatchewan 2, 117, 484 acres; and Alberta 223, 930 acres. Canada is destined to become one of the most important grain producing countries.

The Hudson Bay Route to England?