why did farmers take over from cattle in Canada in the early 1900's?

Answer 1

I presume the same reason as in the US. With the coming of modern farming technology (fertilizers, stronger plows, irrigation, railway transport, better crop varieties, better crop rotation, tractors, combines), land that before was only fit for grazing cattle, became fit for intensive growing of crops. Cattle can be transported on the hoof, but with the building of canals and railways crops could be transported in bulk efficiently too. Government policies also helped.

"By the early 1800s, agricultural techniques, implements, seed stocks and cultivars had so improved that yield per land unit was many times that seen in the Middle Ages. With the rapid rise of mechanization in the late 19th and 20th centuries, particularly in the form of the tractor, farming tasks could be done with a speed and on a scale previously impossible. These advances have led to efficiencies enabling certain modern farms in the United States, Argentina, Israel, Germany, and a few other nations to output volumes of high quality produce per land unit at what may be the practical limit."

"Agriculture : History" : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farming#History

"Cattle are often raised by allowing herds to graze on the grasses of large tracts of rangeland called ranches. Raising cattle in this manner allows the productive use of land that might be unsuitable for growing crops."

"Agricultural cultivation using horse collar leveraged plows (3000 years ago) increased cereal grain productivity yields, as did the use of seed drills which replaced broadcasting sowing of seed in the 18th century. Yields of wheat continued to increase, as new land came under cultivation and with improved agricultural husbandry involving the use of fertilizers, threshing machines and reaping machines (the 'combine harvester'), tractor-draw cultivators and planters, and better varieties."

"Industrial agriculture" : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_agriculture

"With only water routes as the primary transportation network, further integration was propelled by the construction of the Grand Trunk Railway in 1854 linking Montreal to the Great Lakes by rail. This network also continued later into the American Heartland. The main beneficiary of this system was Canada West, later Ontario, where the a web of rail lines promoted quicker settlement of both cities and rural areas."

"Expansion of the railway westward, with the eventual goal of linking the two ocean coasts became a main goal prior to and especially after Confederation. This was eventually achieved in 1885 with the final spike driven into the Canadian Pacific Railway line near Revelstoke, British Columbia, the result was more rapid settlement of the Canadian West."

"The timber industry also created large peripheral industries, the most important of these being agriculture. Unlike the fur trade, the timber trade saw large numbers of men in one location for a substantial period of time. The lumber camps, and the lumber towns needed to be supplied with food and other provisions. In the early years of the trade, much of the food, mostly barrels of pork, was shipped from the United States. Mostly coming from around the Cleveland area, shipping costs were high, creating a market for locally-produced goods. As the loggers pushed ever westwards, farmers followed to take advantage of this captive market. Some of these farms failed after the loggers moved on, but many found new markets and became permanent settlements. This process formed the basis of many communities in what is now Ontario."

"To encourage the settlement of the best land in the region, the government created the Canada Company. It was given much of the land in Southwestern Ontario and tasked with selling it off to immigrants. It was successful in this, but it also became deeply unpopular for its monopolization of the land. This was an important trigger of the 1837 Rebellions."

"The cause of this boom is fiercely debated. Whether the settlement of the west was a cause or effect of the boom is one of the most important issues. Globally the economy was improving with the end of the Long Depression. The last semi-humid farmland in the United States was exhausted, leaving Canada with the best unexploited farm land in North America. Technological changes from the steel plow to combine harvesters played an important role, but perhaps the most important development was the practice of dry farming that allowed farmers to profitably grow wheat on the semi-arid southern prairies."

"Economic history of Canada" : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_history_of_Canada

"To open the West, the government sponsored construction of three trans-continental railways (most notably the Canadian Pacific Railway), opened the prairies to settlement with the Dominion Lands Act, and established the North West Mounted Police to assert its authority over this territory. Under Liberal Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, continental European immigrants settled the prairies, and Alberta and Saskatchewan became provinces in 1905."

"Canada : History : Confederation" : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada#Confederation