Regina Leader Post
July 7, 1937. p.1
Forces of the church and state are being mobilized to meet drouth-razed western Canada's greatest farm emergency.
Baldest spot of the whole west, southern Saskatchewan this year will need relief on a scale far greater than in 1934-35, worst of the drouth years, when 210,000 tons of feed were shipped in to keep livestock alive.
But unlike that year, when the province was helped somewhat by green pastures in the north, this year there are not pastures and relief fodder will have to be brought in from outside, Premier W.J. Patterson said on Wednesday.
Clear skies and southerly winds brought promise of continued hot weather on Wednesday. In Regina the temperature at noon was 85 above, a climb of 41 degrees in six hours. No rain was reported.
GARDINER'S PLANS
At Calgary, where he opened the stampede, Hon. J.G. Gardiner, federal minister of agriculture, cancelled a proposed brief holiday at Banff and swung east and south into the drouthlands to survey the situation first hand.
"I have found crop conditions so bad I decided to return to Ottawa to press for further extension of drouth relief payments," Mr. Gardiner was reported as saying.
Conditions in Alberta are equally as bad as in Saskatchewan.
A report of the Searle Grain Company, issued at Winnipeg, indicated crop conditions in south Saskatchewan are only 28 percent of normal. Generous rainfall during July would be necessary to produce even seed, the report said.
Disappointing Liverpool cables and continuous hedging pressure by United States grain interests checked mid-session rallies in wheat prices at Winnipeg Wednesday and forced prices down from one and a half to nearly four cents at the close. July wheat stood at $1.48.
With two-thirds of the province without a commercial crop, it was expected only elevators used to distribute relief feed will be open this year south of the C.P.R. main line.
There are approximately 1,200 elevators in towns along the main line and south of that route.
