ural implements, and
herds of horses and cattle with them. All this, however, was desirable
and praiseworthy. But what worried the older settlers of the west and
particularly the residents in the east was, did they intend to
disseminate their previous Republican ideas? In justice to them it
must be affirmed that they did not. On the contrary, they settled down
as resident Canadians, loyally supporting existing institutions and the
Crown. Many of them, however, were Canadians by birth, returning to
their native land, or the children of Canadians. But whether Canadian
by parentage or naturalisation they are a splendid asset to the west.
And their knowledge of modern farming methods is by no means the least
important of their accomplishments. In their train, there has also
arrived a large number of skilled and unskilled European labourers.

When the House of Commons on May 22, 1919, adopted a recommendation of
an address to the King not to grant further titles to Canadians, it was
asserted by some that it was primarily caused by this western invasion.
But it can be rightly maintained that such action was caused by
conditions existing at the time entirely independent of this influence.
It may be that in the future the resolution will be withdrawn.
Resolutions in Canada are not as fixed as the ancient laws of the Medes
and the Persians.

Side by side with this agricultural expansion there has been an era of
discovery in the Dominion unequalled even by the golden age of '49.
Alexander {463} Macdonald, a Scotchman from New Brunswick, found a
fortune in the great Klondike rush of 1894-8 and other Canadians did
the same at Cobalt, Ontario, in 1903, where a member of a railway
construction gang picked up a silver nugget by accident, thereby
disclosing to an eager continent the famous Cobalt silver fields.
Canada has, as a result, one of the greatest gold and silver-mining
centres in the world.

As if to keep pace with this unexpected development, Dr. Charles E.
Saunders, of the Department of Agriculture, Ottawa, announced his
successful evolution of Marquis wheat. The Doctor had been
experimenting with mid-European Red Fife and Red Calcutta ever since
1903. By successfully crossing the two, an early ripening, hard red
spring wheat with excellent milling and baking qualities was evolved.
Marquis wheat, as it was named, is now the dominant spring wheat
throughout America. Over three hundred million bushels are produced