4. The Greening of the West:
Horticulture on the Canadian Prairies, 1870-1930
by Lyle Dick
Parks Canada, Victoria, BC
Manitoba History, Number 31, Spring 1996

Early horticultural efforts after Confederation often focused on tree culture in both Manitoba and the North-West Territories (after 1905, Saskatchewan and Alberta). In this vast, often sparsely treed region, settlers planted trees for a variety of reasons, including aesthetic enhancement, protection of their farmsteads from wind, and for psychological security.

Tree culture also enabled the creation of farmstead microclimates within which gardens could flourish. Among the earliest groups to plant trees were Mennonites from Ukraine who settled in southern Manitoba after 1874. These newcomers established agricultural street villages, which they lined with cottonwoods transplanted from nearby riverbanks. In, so doing they demonstrated the viability of tree culture in areas of open prairie. By 1883 Manitoba’s 9,077 farmers were cultivating 120,000 hectares of land, of which 1,400 hectares were devoted to gardens and orchards. The importance of tree culture was officially recognized with the proclamation of Arbor Day in the North-West Territories in 1884, followed by Manitoba in 1886.

The systematic horticultural development of rural areas was an ancillary goal of Dominion experimental farms in the settlement period. The Dominion government, whose National Policy initiated a coordinated program of immigration, railroad construction, and settlement on the prairies, viewed forestry and horticulture, as well as field crops, as essential to sustained settlement. Accordingly, federal authorities established experimental farms at Brandon, Manitoba and Indian Head, Saskatchewan, in the late 1880s. In addition to cereal grain and livestock trials, the farms tested a wide variety of tree and plant material originating in central Canada, the northern United States, and Eurasia. In Alberta the first federal agricultural research station was established at Lethbridge in 1906. Its experimental work included comparative tests on both irrigated and non-irrigated land to determine the potential for cultivating a broad range of plant material within the dry belt. In 1915 the Dominion government established the first prairie research station devoted primarily to horticulture, at Morden, Manitoba. Its staff carried out extensive trials in small fruits, trees, vegetables, and ornamentals, and disseminated the results to the farm community.
 

Shelter belts and tree-lined approach, Dominion Experimental Farm, Brandon, circa 1905.
Source: Archives of Manitoba

An early role of the experimental farms was the promotion of tree shelterbelt plantations on farmsteads to create microclimates for garden and fruit culture. Between 1886 and 1890 the Central Experimental Farm in Ottawa shipped about 500,000 young trees to the prairies for distribution to farmers. While many of these trees did not survive, they provided an empirical basis for determining suitable varieties for prairie tree culture. To expand its promotion of farmstead shelterbelts, the federal government in 1903 established a separate Dominion Tree Nursery at Indian Head as the basis for a large-scale distribution program. In 1914 a second tree nursery was established at Sutherland, Saskatchewan, specifically to encourage farmers to expand their plantations to comprise field shelterbelts as well as farmstead windbreaks. Under the general direction of Norman M. Ross and his successors, the two federal nurseries distributed and supervised the planting of 145 million trees by more than 100,000 farmers between 1901 and 1935.

The Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) played a supporting role in promoting western tree and flower culture in the settlement era. As the principal corporate agency of land disposal on the prairies, the CPR had a strong interest in promoting settlement through horticulture. By 1907 the company had established two early nurseries—one at Springfield, Manitoba devoted to ornamental production, and another at Wolseley, Saskatchewan for the propagation of tree, shrub, and perennial stock. In 1908 the company organized a forestry department to administer its parks and gardens and to advise officials in the planting of railway gardens and windbreaks along its rail lines.