arvesting machinery which made possible the production of
wheat for export. Close on heel the railways and water-carriers began
competing for the transportation of the grain, the railways pushing
eagerly in every direction where new wheat lands could be tapped. In
1856 wheat was leaving Chicago for Europe and four years later grain
vessels from California were rounding Cape Horn. The nine years that
followed saw the conquest of the vast prairies of the American West
which were crossed by the hissing, iron monsters that stampeded the
frightened bison, out-ran the wild horses and out-stayed the lurking
Indian.

No sooner had the railways pushed back the frontier than wheat began to
trickle steadily upon the market, to flow with increased volume, then
to pour in by train-loads. Sacks were discarded for quicker shipment
in bulk; barns and warehouses filled and spilled till adequate storage
facilities became the vital problem and, the need mothering invention,
F. H. Peavey came forward with an idea--an endless chain of metal cups
for elevating grain. From this the huge modern elevator evolved to
take its place as the grain's own particular storehouse. With the
establishment of exchanges for conducting international buying and
selling the universalizing of wheat was complete.

These things had come to pass while that great region which is now
Western Canada was still known as a Great Lone Land. Pioneer settlers,
however, were beginning to venture westward to the newly organized
Province of Manitoba and beyond. The nearest railroad was at St. Paul,
Minnesota, from which point a "prairie schooner" trail led north for
450 miles to Winnipeg at the junction of the Red and Assiniboine
rivers; the alternative to this overland tented-wagon route was a
tedious trip by Red River steamer. It was not until 1878 that a
railway was built north into Manitoba from St. Paul; but it was
followed shortly after by the projection of the Canadian Pacific
Railway, which reached Vancouver in 1886.

Then began what has been called the greatest wheat-rush ever known.
Land, land without end, to be had for the asking--rich land that would
grow wheat, forty bushels to the acre, millions of acres of it!
Fabulous tales, winging east and south, brought settlers pouring into
the new country. They came to grow wheat and they grew it, the finest
wheat in the world. They grew it in ever increasing volume.

Successful operation of new railroads--e