That correlates much more closely with agriculture than oil. Compare this map with one for arable land. Lots of the AB, SK, MB area covered in roads are also covered in farms, while large parts of that area does not have significant oil industry.
But wouldn’t farmed land increase if there is an abundance of oil? Needed for farming equipments.
Actually, most of the ground would have originally been broken using literal horsepower, which runs on hay rather than oil. Tractors didn’t become the norm until after WWI (maybe not even until after WWII, I’m not an expert on agricultural history, but I do know that the reason you used to see wooden grain elevators every few kilometers along prairie railways was to accommodate farmers who were still hauling stuff in horse-drawn wagons). By the time the oil was being commercially exploited, most of the useful land was already under the plow.
This is pretty much the case. I farm in an area that was homesteaded late for most of the prairies (early 1900s), and that was all done with horses. I have an uncle that just recently passed away that was part of the transition to mechanical power, and their first tractor was gas-powered one since it would start in the cold. That would have been about WW2 time since he was a teenager when it showed up and they got rid of the draft horses.
That correlates much more closely with agriculture than oil. Compare this map with one for arable land. Lots of the AB, SK, MB area covered in roads are also covered in farms, while large parts of that area does not have significant oil industry.
But wouldn’t farmed land increase if there is an abundance of oil? Needed for farming equipments.
I guess my point is. If there is an over abundance of oil it also facilitates agriculture because farming equiments is cheaper to power?
I don’t know if it translates to other places in the world because well…deserts and oceans but it would be interesting to find out.
Actually, most of the ground would have originally been broken using literal horsepower, which runs on hay rather than oil. Tractors didn’t become the norm until after WWI (maybe not even until after WWII, I’m not an expert on agricultural history, but I do know that the reason you used to see wooden grain elevators every few kilometers along prairie railways was to accommodate farmers who were still hauling stuff in horse-drawn wagons). By the time the oil was being commercially exploited, most of the useful land was already under the plow.
This is pretty much the case. I farm in an area that was homesteaded late for most of the prairies (early 1900s), and that was all done with horses. I have an uncle that just recently passed away that was part of the transition to mechanical power, and their first tractor was gas-powered one since it would start in the cold. That would have been about WW2 time since he was a teenager when it showed up and they got rid of the draft horses.
And even during that transition, the first generation of tractors ran on wood or coal, not oil.
Interesting! Thank you for taking the time to explain