Score contribution per author:
α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count
This paper offers a new interpretation of Canadian Prairie settlement during the “wheat boom” period. Rather than use a Nerlovian model on which most recent work has been based, I develop a method of simulating the extension of the feasible region of cultivation: the area on which farming is profitable. The model is applied to a wheat-growing district of Saskatchewan that experienced rapid settlement from 1898 to 1911. Comparisons of the actual area of cultivation with the simulated feasible region indicate that settlers responded quickly to changes in the profitability of wheat farming. I also find that the extension of rail lines and the increase in mean wheat yields accounts for nearly all of the increase in the feasible region.