User:FrancoSaxonJackson/sandbox

Article Evaluation
The following is an evaluation of the article "Palliser's Triangle" and its quality as a Wikipedia article.

With the recent addition of the comprehensive list of information needed for a complete article, the below can be considered a basic draft. The answers of the subjects in question will be added as they are found.

Information
This article does not steer away from topics of relevance. Every section is of a subject of importance to the topic at hand. However, certain instances of insufficient information exist: for one, when the article mentions "poor agricultural practices," it does not elaborate on what, exactly these practices were.

Week 5: This article lacks much important information that would serve it well in achieving a complete, informative entry. For one, it goes into very little detail on modern agriculture and ranching/grazing, offering little more than the barest hints as to what is grown and what animals are raised. A short paragraph on this subject may be in order, if information on the matter is available. Furthermore, further elaboration on the droughts the region has experienced would be in order, with information such as the cause of these frequent droughts, the most major droughts beyond the Dust Bowl, and responses to these droughts, such as The Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration of 1935. However, most importantly, there is almost no talk about the politics surrounding the settlement of the region: it was heavily debated whether or not the region should have been opened to homesteading.

Objectivity and Sources
This article addresses a subject of relatively little complexity and interpretive potential, with relatively little potential for biased claims. While this is reflected in the content of the article itself, there are issues with sourcing. While the first source, The Encyclopedia Saskatchewan, is a real book from a reputable publisher (the University of Regina Press), the source in the article does not link directly to the book, nor to a page from which to purchase the book, but to the front page of the University of Regina Press. The second source, while visibly neutral and objective, is not clearly a source of repute, and research into the matter has failed to yield clarification on its nature and level and objectivity. The third source is from a reputable, peer-reviewed source, The Geographical Journal, and the information cited is present in the article in question.

Talk Page and Associated WikiProject
The talk page for this article reflects an absence of concentrated maintenance of the page. While the most recent edit, at time of writing, was on 7 September 2017, the last meaningful comment on the Talk Page is dated to 2015. This is despite the fact that Palliser's Triangle is within the scope of WikiProject Canada, an effort to improve coverage of Canada on Wikipedia. This may, however, reflect the quality of the information: all issues mentioned on the Talk Page have since been resolved.

Quality of Language and Structure
This final point is relatively subjective, but will be discussed nonetheless for the sake of completeness: to the perception of the writer of this evaluation, the quality of the English in this article is lacking: phrasing, sentence structure and vocabulary seems to be simplistic and of a lower quality than many articles, almost as if this was an article on Simple English Wikipedia. In addition, this article is built out of a collection of short subsections, two of which should perhaps be merged ("Fertile Belt" and "Farming," specifically), while ideally the remaining subsections should be expanded, if possible, with new information.

Overall
This article is best described as 'functional,' which is to say that it is flawed and imperfect, but nonetheless provides a simple but effective overview of the subject at hand despite its many faults. The current state of the article could have the potential to be the foundation upon which an article of higher quality could exist. This, however, does not diminish that it could afford to include more information, a better overall structure, a broad rewrite to improve the quality of the English, and a different source for its second citation.

Improvements
This article would benefit from a number of improvements: first of all, I intend to fuse multiple short, unsubstantial and redundant paragraphs together into a smaller number of larger and fuller paragraphs. The subsections "Ranching," "Farming," and "Fertile Belt" could all be subsumed into a single "Agriculture" subsection. An expansion of the information at hand would most certainly be for the best, regardless of whether or not the articles are combined. This could include specifications on the size of Palliser's Triangle, what cities are inside of it, what agricultural practices that caused the Dust Bowl in the region (specifically the failure to apply dryland farming methods). Last but not least, there must be a serious effort to upgrade the quality of the English to meet Wikipedia standards.

Potential Sources:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4015056/

This link leads to an article on the Dust Bowl, a period very relevant to the history of Palliser's Triangle. The broad analysis of the period as a whole has the potential to provide much of the more esoteric, scientific, or political material that may be relevant to an accurate and detailed article on the subject.

http://www.jstor.org.cat1.lib.trentu.ca:8080/stable/1790499?Search=yes&resultItemClick=true&searchText=ti:&searchText=%22Palliser%22&searchText=OR&searchText=tb:&searchText=%22Palliser%22&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3Fgroup%3Dnone%26amp%3Bwc%3Don%26amp%3Bfc%3Doff%26amp%3Bacc%3Don%26amp%3BQuery%3Dti%253A%2522Palliser%2522%2B&refreqid=search%3A884caaf1f6c352cb16bf3fa96a47bd5c&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

This link, already sourced in the article in question, is a book written on John Palliser's exploration of Western Canada. This will be a vital source in terms of historical context and the history of the region.

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/drought-in-pallisers-triangle-feature/

This article, from The Canadian Encyclopedia, provides a concise and detailed account on how the Dust Bowl period (or the Dirty Thirties) affected Palliser's Triangle. I will look into the reputability of the source in question, though I do have reason to believe that The Canadian Encyclopedia can be trusted.

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/prairie-dry-belt-disaster/

This article looks into the various droughts in of the Prairie Belt, of which Palliser's Triangle is a part of,between initial settlement and the Dirty Thirties. This is an aspect of life and agriculture in the Prairies that goes largely neglected as it stands.

PLEASE TAKE NOTE: The sources listed below are not in a proper citation form. These are simply present for the sake of my own use, and to clarify the existence of my sources.

Draft
Palliser's Triangle, or the Palliser Triangle, is a semi-arid steppe occupying a substantial portion of the Western Canadian Prairie Provinces, Saskatchewan, Alberta and Manitoba, within the Great Plains region. While initially determined to be unsuitable for agriculture (outside of the fertile belt) due arid conditions to dry climate, expansionist rhetoric eventually won out, leading to homesteading in the Triangle. Agriculture in the region has since suffered from frequent droughts and other such hindrances

History
This region takes its name from John Palliser, the leader of the British Palliser Expedition into Western Canada from 1857 to 1859. Among his findings was an extension of the American Great Plains, an area that Palliser described as being "a more or less arid desert". Palliser, as well as Henry Youle Hind who lead a similar expedition on behalf of the Canadian government, both confirmed the existence of a fertile belt around the extremity of the Triangle itself, but argued against settling within the arid body of the triangle. This changed perceptions of the region: previously seen as untamed wilderness, the British Canadian public began to see potential farmland in the Triangle, and expansionists such as John Macoun extended this perception to beyond the fertile belt and into the semi-arid region, opposing Palliser's generalizations of the Great Plains region's ability to yield crops.

Many farmers who did settle in the semi-arid portion of the Triangle between the period of the expedition and 1914 saw success, especially as the demand for wheat was driven up by the outbreak of the First World War, though many others were force to partake in wage labor as hired farmhands, members of itinerant threshing crews, or manual labor for road and rail construction companies, logging camps and mining towns, to continue sustaining their farms. Furthermore, the influx of agricultural technology on larger farms that came with the wartime boon such as tractors, combines and trucks all cut labor requirements on larger farms and increased the capital needed to establish oneself as a farmers, further hampering smaller farms. The loss of employment opportunities was further compounded in the 1930s as the government completed rail and road projects, in addition to the cutting of government work budgets.

During the Great Depression, the Triangle was hit by the Dust Bowl. This was caused, in large part, by a decrease in precipitation as well as longstanding flawed farming practices that exacerbated aeolian soil erosion and dust storm activity. This includes the practice of leaving fields fallow, seen as necessary at the time to support agriculture in the given climate, as it was believed that exposed soil would better absorb and retain moisture. Measures undertaken in Alberta and Saskatchewan have since alleviated many of these issues. The Alberta government had the Special Areas Board buy up as much drought afflicted farmland as possible to convert to grazing land, 2.1 million hectares of which it still administers. Both provincial governments subsidized the relocation of farmers willing to leave their farms in the drought stricken-regions, and the federal government established the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration in 1935, and organization that expanded on government research into soil erosion, carry out soil surveys, encourage farmers to adopt soil conservation measures and new farming practices, and establish shelterbelts and community pastures.

Modern Agriculture
Alberta and Saskatchewan are currently the provinces with the second and third most farms, respectively, only being surpassed in this respect by Ontario. This is despite the fact that Palliser's Triangle, which occupies much of the southern portions of both of these provinces, has had consistent issues with droughts, almost every decade being marked by at least one dry year, in no small part due to the orographic lift caused by the Rockies, the Coast Mountains, the Cascade Range and the Sierra Nevada Range. This is has much to do wit efforts to maintain sustained agricultural practices such as crop diversification and conservation tillage which have softened the blow of complications that could have otherwise had far more severe effects.

Saskatchewan is currently the nation with the the largest amount of farmland, and the leading crops are canola, spring wheat and lentils. Cattle is also a major player in the farming economy, given that Saskatchewan has the second highest number of cattle of all the provinces. The reverse is true in Alberta, which has the second largest total farmland and the highest number of cattle. This Western Canadian agriculture is noticeably focused around the Palliser's Triangle region, demonstrating that agriculture in the area has persisted in spite of the dry climate.

Updates to Article
The following is a copy from the Talk page of the Palliser's Triangle article. It will be used as a checklist of sorts to help me keep track of planned additions to the Palliser's Triangle article.

- The Palliser expedition itself. Granted, there is supposed to be a whole article on this, but more background on the origins of the deemed “unfarmable” land would be helpful.

- Henry Hind and the fertile belt surrounding the region’s history. - Original assessment of land (what would it be used for? who would settle there and why?).

- More info on Macoun. He was a botanist and had a fascination with the land’s potential.

- Agricultural expansionist views on the land and its possible uses.

- If you’re willing to go into the later years, there was a massive drought in that area that has lots of information recorded about it.

- What the discovery of the triangle meant for the Canadian expansion West, and the trading companies there.

Most importantly, get the “History” section filled up.

If you haven’t already seen them, here’s a couple of sources to consider when expanding your research.

Last, William M. "Paleohydrology of playas in the northern Great Plains: perspectives from Palliser's Triangle." SPECIAL PAPERS-GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA(1994): 69-69.

Wolfe, S. A., C. H. Hugenholtz, and Olav B. Lian. "Palliser’s Triangle: Reconstructing the ‘central desert’of the southwestern Canadian prairies during the late 1850s." The Holocene 23, no. 5 (2013): 699-707.

Vance, R. E., and W. M. Last. "Paleolimnology and global change on the southern Canadian prairies1." INTERIOR PLAINS AND ARCTIC CANADA (1994).

Expeditions
- Reason: Uncultivable Canadian Shield to the North and expanding USA to the south (Below: 151-155 Captain John Palliser)

- Rush to not let America get there first.

- Expansionists wanted the land, plain (heh) and simple.

- Local HBC had a rudimentary working knowledge of the region, but not enough, blanks on the maps, and were hesitant to share info to protect their monopoly.

- Royal Geographical Society knew very little about Western Canada

- 155-156 has goals of the expedition.

- 1840s discovered that latitude was not the only factor in determining climate (from here:http://marcialalonde.weebly.com/uploads/9/3/8/2/9382401/hp_expeditions_reading.pdf)

- Western Canada made up three regions: arid triangle, northern cold zone, and fertile belt of which Red River Settlement was inside.

- Discoveries drove Canada to buy Rupert's Land from the HBC for 300,000 pounds

- Prospects of fertile land encouraged the idea of 'the Canadian Empire'

- Palliser saw the prairies in the middle of a drought, and thus saw the region in a worse light than if he had seen it later. (From here: https://manitobamuseum.ca/main/john-macoun-the-botanist-who-changed-the-map-of-western-canada/)

John Macoun and Expansionism
- His advocacy had a hand in encouraging the Canadian Pacific Railway to go south through the triangle, and this is the reason Brandon, Regina and Calgary exist as we know them.

- When he visited the Triangle, he saw it in a state of fertility thanks to historic wet period and the decline in grazing animals, and thus in a different light,

- The prairies became "Canada's Breadbasket" as Macoun expected, but this has caused a plummet in biodiversity, and the many droughts have taken their toll.

Draft
In the middle of the 18th century,a large variety of factors contributed to an increase in Canadian expansionism, and eyes fell upon what would become western Canada for this purpose given that the cold and uncultivable Canadian shield was found in the north whereas the expanding United States of America controlled the south. This American expansionism also drove Canadian expansionist due to the fear that the United States would look north and lay claim to the land before they could. With this said, it became apparent that no sources existed that had a full and reliable assessment of the land. While the Hudson's Bay Company had a working knowledge of the land inasmuch as it was useful to their end and business interests, it was insufficient to the needs of the Canadian government. In addition, the HBC was hesitant to share information about the land they controlled for the sake of protecting their monopoly in the region. Even the Royal Geographical Society was uninformed about the region. All the above drove Great Britain and the Dominion of Canada to organize the Palliser and Hind expeditions, respectively, especially since the discovery in the 1940s that latitude alone did not determine climate, which in turn suggested that good farmland may exist in the region.

The Palliser Expedition for which the Triangle is named had the objective of spending two or three seasons in the:

1. In examining "the region along the Southern frontier of our territories, between the parallels of 49° and 53° north latitude, and from 100° to 115° west longitude" with a view to surveying "the watershed between the basins of the Missouri and the Saskachewan [sic]; also the course of the south branch of the Saskachewan and its tributaries; and... the actual line of the frontier, on the parallel of 49°";

2. In exploring "the Rocky Mountains, for the purpose of ascertaining the most southerly pass across to the Pacific, within the British Territory" since the well-known Athabasca Portage was too far north and "totally useless" for horses;

3. In reporting on "the natural features and general capabilities of the country" and mapping it. The R.G.S. also advised that scientific assistants should accompany Palliser.

The expeditions came to the conclusion that what would become western Canada was divided into three regions: a northern cold zone that was inhospitable to agriculture, the semi-arid Palliser's Triangle towards the south, and a rich fertile belt in the middle that was ideally suited to agriculture and settlement. The prospect of an ample supply of fertile land lit a fire under Canadian expansionists, and the Canadian government started to buy up HBC land in the region as they were under pressure to ensure that it would be Canadians who settled the region, not Americans. This began with the purchase of Rupert's Land for 300,000 pounds. This wellspring of expansionism came with the idea of a "Canadian Empire" of which the North West was a part of, in defiance of the idea that these lands were those of the First Nations and Métis who inhabited them at the time.

In this period of expansionism, one prominent figure advocating homesteading in the North West was botanist John Macoun. He undertook expeditions alongside Sir Sanford Fleming in the 1880s during which he had the chance to look at the ostensibly uncultivable Palliser's Triangle. It turns out that Palliser saw the region in a state of drought during which ample buffalo herds were grazing the grass shorter. He also bore witness to a number of grass fires, all of which gave the impression of an inhospitable desert. Macoun, on the other hand, found the region in a major wet period after a severe decline in animal life in no small part due to the overhunting of bison. This skewed his perspective to the exact opposite of Palliser's assessment: where Palliser could be said to have underestimated the agricultural capacity of the Triangle, Macoun could be said to have overestimated it.

With Macoun's assessment in hand, the Canadian government undertook a advertising campaign to encourage European immigration to western Canada, which was joined by the distribution of 160-acre tracts of farmland for a token fee of ten dollars. In addition,the planned Canadian Pacific Railway was moved southwards from its original route through the Parklands to instead pass through Palliser's Triangle for the sake of facilitating homesteading and grain shipment, thus further encouraging settlement in the region.

...

With this in mind, it could be said that Macoun was, to some extent, right. Despite the frequent and sometimes disastrous droughts, the Triangle did become and still is the metaphorical breadbasket of the nation as he expected. However, the region has also suffered a major loss in terms of biodiversity over the course of settlement. Canada as a whole has found itself with under 20% of its mixed grass prairies, under 5% of its fescue prairies, and less than a half-percent of its tall grass prairies. In addition, the prairies have a very high rate of endangered species.

...

Before European interests and settlement, Palliser's Triangle was inhabited by a variety of First Nations, such as the Cree, Sioux, and the Blackfoot Confederacy. Their lifestyle was centered around the buffalo hunt, as the bountiful herds of buffalo made this a sustainable and effective means of feeding themselves, the meat of which was used to make pemmican. ( http://firstpeoplesofcanada.com/fp_groups/fp_plains1.html and http://firstpeoplesofcanada.com/fp_groups/fp_plains3.html) By the mid-1850s, however, the hunt had become an economic venture, their hides and meat sold by Métis and First Nations hunters to the North West Company and the Hudson's Bay Company, and the increased demand led to a decline in herds. (Clearing the plains pg.65)