13 FEBRUARY 1932, Page 14

On the great wheat controversy in England, which is now

inclining heavily against grain-growing, there is only one opinion in Alberta. " Wheat is the one factor on which the prosperity of Canada depends," writes one farmer from Edmonton (where, incidentally, I saw years ago one of the most perfect farms in my memory). " . With wheat at $1 or even 75 cents, there would be a wave of prosperity through Western Canada which would immediately communicate itself to the East, as the prairies are the principal market for the surplus production of factories east of the Great Lakes." The prophecy is doubtless well justified ; but it is neverthe- less a contradictory situation (still unexplained by the econo- mists) that dear bread should be a benefit to a bread-eating genus ! Into what absurd positions the complication of cur- rency has inveigled us !