Alberta

Alberta Acreage & Agriculture is in our DNA!

Little did Peter Pond know that as he cultivated his first garden in 1779 on the lower Athabasca River, that he was going to create such as diverse and strong agriculture presence in Alberta. While many settlements, mostly forts, started vegetable gardens, this was also when European crops such as oats, barley and wheat was introduced. Between 1874 and 1880, ranching also took hold in Southern Alberta. Agriculture and ranching would remain relatively small scale operations, however, this was changed when the Trans Canada Railway reached Alberta in 1883. The railway, working in tandem with the Dominion Lands Act rapidly encouraged settlement in Alberta. The Dominion Land Act or the “homestead act” allocated about 480,000 square miles of land across the Prairie Provinces. This was the foundation for today’s agriculture operations in Alberta.

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