Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-04-07

~ up and down the rag
ged passes Of gor-
seous white mountain ranges, the heads Of
some OF which are capped with vast blue
glaciers, and the faces Of which are rough
| with beard Of frosty pines! During the
| past four days have travelled from Mime
| apolis to Vancouver over the new line.
known as the Soo-Pacific, the last great
| arm to reach out from the Mississippi to
| grasp the riches Of the great northwest
1t has now been in operation only a few
| weeks and 1t opens up some new and inter
estins country. Leaving Minneapolis, 1t
cuts across Minnesota, ploughs Its way
through some of the richest of the undeyel-
oped lands of North Dakota, and enters
| the Canadian boundary in the province of
Assiniboia, joining the Canadian Pacific at
Portal about 500 miles west of Winnipeg
and thence onward without change Of
cars to Vancouver. 1t runs through new
country, and it will throw open to settle
ment, l am told. millions of acres Of good
| government land. The biggest town in the
| United States on the western part of the
road is Minot which has about 1900 popu-
lation. Tributary to this there are about
2,0O0,0O0 acres of government land already
surveyed. and in the Moose River valley
| and the De Lac valley the road runs for
| 100 miles through some Of the richest farm
| ing lands of the country, none Of which
have as yet been touched by the plough.
| The BRITISH provinces nave VaSI areas OF
good farming and grazing lands, and there
is here in this northwest a great world
| which awaits the advent of muscle and
brains to make it produce enough to feed
the nations.
Canadian Domains.
We people of the United States have but
little idea of the vast extent of Canada ard
her provinces Did she belong to the United
States we would have long before this have
built an empire upon her territory, and her
property would be worth billions where it
is now worth thousands. Look at her
agricultural area. From north to south
for a distance OF LOCO miles the cereals
can be cultivated. a distance about as far
apart as Rome is from st. Petersburg. The
Province of Ontario is wide, taking its
northernmost and southernmost points. as
Cleveland. Ohio, is distant from Mobile,
Ala, and Canada can grow anything that
we can, with the exception of rice cotton
and tobacco. Ontario grows more corn to
the acre than any of our states, except
Missouri, and the wheat fields Of the do
mnion are among the best of the world
| The Manitoba wheat is noted in the mar
kets of Europe, and ii is said good wheat
can be grown as far north as the Macken-
zie river basin. Along the Canadian Pacific
| road l passed a number of big farms, and
| there is one great agricultural stock COM
| pany which runs its farms on big scale
| and has about dozen farms of ten thou
| sand acres each. This company engages In
| wheat raising, as well as stock and sheep
| farming, and aims 10 keep about 4,OOo acres
under cultivation at each OF its ranches.
1t manages everything on scientific princi-
/ pies and is, am told doing we'll
Canadian Farmers.
This Is not the case, however, with many
| Canadian farmers. There is a disaffected
| class here as there is in the United States.
| and the cry of hard times is often heard.
Many young fellows have come out from
| 49,
with kid gloves who are now going about
| bare-handed and red-nosed. with patches
| on the seats of their pantaloons. Some Of
| them the good-for-nothing second sons
! Of old families, who came here and bought
| land, thinking 1t would farm itself, and
others were sent out by their rich
| fathers to learn farming. few years ago
| a number of sharp Canadians made a
| business of going to England and bringing
| back young Englishmen for agricultural
| tuition. They would get from $500 to 81 900
per year for bringing the young men here
and having them work on their ranches
| learning practical farming. The young men
when they arrived were allowed to do much
| as they pleased, and between doing a little
| work at long intervals and smoking and
hunting and drinking, they passed the time
| till they could persuade their fathers to
| buy ranches for them. A number of such
| men, and younger sons, are in the dominion
| today. They are facetiousy termed re-
mittance men, because they depend on re-
| mittances from home to keep them going
| Numbers Of good stories are told here Of
| how they keep up appearances and of
| their excuses and arguments which they
| send home to extract more money. The
! latest is regarding a British Columbia
good-for-nothing, who had bled his father
until the old gentleman had written from
England positively declining to send any
more money. This state continued up
| until six weeks ago. when the boy wrote
home an enthusiastic letter about his ranch
oh
| told his father that he had now a stock of
seven hundred blooded gophers on his
place, and If he had $500 TO keep them in
good condition he would come out all right
The name OF gopher, ground squirrel was
new one to the old man and he sent the
| money. He evidently thinks his boys
stock a fine variety of sheep or cattle
The Sheep Industry.
Speaking Of sheep, I find that the profits
are fast being knocked out Of sheep farm
ing. Australian mutton is being frozen
and sent by the shiploads to the London
markets and several cargoes have been
shipped to Vancouver and sold at less
than the cost Of the handling in order to
introduce the meat In the stores here
see canned Australian mutton for sale at
seven pounds for a dollar, and the sheep
growers OF Montana, North Dakota and
Canada are losing money. L Travelled here
with Manitoba stock man, who told me
| he had sold all but LOO, and he said he
intended to sell them in the spring and
get out Of the business. There is no
money in it now" he said. 81 refused So. so
head for sheep year age, which l would
now be glad to sell for 81 25. / have got
ten numerous letters from sheep men in
Montana wanting to sell out to me, and
there are great numbers of Montana sheep
growers who want to come to Canada for
work. l got seven such letters in my yes
terdays mail Sheep are worth practi-
cally nothing in Montana. l know of one
firm there who owned two years ago about
1900 sheep. They feared that they would
be crowded out and they wanted to buy
some land. They borrowed $4,000 on
their sheep and bought large tract Of
land, giving a mortgage on the sheep and
the land The hard times of last fall came
Their sheep fell in value and they could
not see their way out. They went to the
bank and offered to give up their sheep
and the land If they could be cleared of
the debt The bankers would not accept
their offer. They tried to sell out They
could not get buyer. The result was they
left and the sheep brought only sl.35 a
head and they still owe more than $40, 900 4"
Grand Scenery.
Some Of the grandest scenery Of this world
is seen at it's best under a covering Of snow
The Canadian Pacific railway runs for
about thousand miles through some of
the most beautiful parts Of the Rocky
mountains and the Selkirk range During
he Of