The morning call., 1894-04-08
ON A LOCOMOTIVE.
A Ride Down the Ice
Clad Rockies.
ABOUT THE REMITTANCE-MAN
The Gold Dust of the Fraser River
and American Plans to
Get IL.

VANCOUVER, b. u, Marcn 5.-IW0
thousand miles through the snow! A ride
through vast white plains which glitter
under the sun like the icsfelds of Lieu
tenant Peary's Greenland tour! Hauled
by the iron horse through hundreds of
miles of sllvery hills and rolling plains!
Dragged up and down the ragged passes of
gorgeous white mountain ranges, the
heads 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 Min
neapoIis to Vancouver ever 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 few
weeks. aud it opens up some new and in
teresting country. Leaving Minneapolis,
1t cuts across Minnesota, plows its way
through some of The richest of the undevel-
oped lands of North Dakota, and enters
the Canadian boundary in the province of
Assinibola, joining the Canadian Pacific at
Portal. about SEQ miles west OF Winnipeg.
and theme onward without change of
cars to Vancouver. 1t runs through
new country, and it will throw open To
settlement, am told, millions of acres of
good Government land The biggest town
in the United States on The western part of
the road is Mlnot, which has about 1000
population. Tributary to this there are
bout 100000 acres of Government land
ALREADY surveyed. and in the Moose River
Valley and the De Lee Valley the road
runs for 100 miles through some of the
richest farming lands OF the country. none
of which have ms yet been touched by the
pillow. The British Provinces have vast
areas Of good farming and grazing lands.
and there is yet in this northwest a great
world which awaits the advent of muscle
and brains to make it produce enough to
feed the nations.
We people IF the United States have but
little idea of the vast extent of Canada and
her provinces. Did she belong to the
United States we would have long before
THIS have built an empire upon her t9rri-
tory, and her property would be worth
billions where it is now worth thousands
of dollars. Look at her agricultural area.
From DOrth to south for distance of 1000
miles the cereals can be cultivated, a dis
lance about as FIR apart as Rome is from
st. Petersburg. The province of Ontario
is as wide. taking its northernmost and
sou be most 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 10 the acre than
any Of our States, except Missouri. and
the wheat field of the Dominion are among
the best OF the world. The Manitoba
wheat Is noted in the markets of Europe.
and it is said good wheat can he grown as
far north as the Mackenzie River basin.
Along the Canadian Pacific road l passed
a number of big farms. and there is one
great agr cultural stock company which
runs its farms on a big scale and has
about az dozen farms of ten thousand
acres each. This company engages in
sheep raising, AS well as stock and sheep
farming, and aims to keep about 1000
acres under cultivation at each of its
ranches. 1t manages everything on scien-
tific principles and Is, | am told doing
well.
This is not the case. however, with MANY
Canadian farmers. There is a disafferted
class here, as there is in the United States,
and the cry of hard times is often heard.
Many young fellows have come ont from
England to pick the dollars out of the soil
with kid gloves. who are now going about
bare handed and red-nosed. with patches
on the seats of their pantaloons Some'of
them are the g0od-for-nothing second sons
of old families, who came here and bought
land. thinking it would farm itself, and
others were sent out by their rich fathers
to learn farming. fewyaar agoa num-
her OF sharp Canadians made business of
going to England and bringing back young
Englishmen for agricultural tuition They
would get from $500 to $1,000 per year for
bringing the young men here aDd having
them work on their ranches learning prac-
tlcal farming. The young men when thew
arrived were allowed to do much as they
pleased, and between doing 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
to-day. They are facetiously termed re-
mittance men, because they depend on re-
mlttances from home to keep them going.
Numbers OF good stories are told here of
now 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-nothlng. who had bied his fathe
until the old gentleman had written from
England positively declining to send any
more money. This state continued up
home IN enthusiastic letter about his ranch
aud his prospects. Among other things
he tod his father that he had now stock
oil 100 olooded gOphers on his place, and if
he had $500 to keep them in good condi-
ton he would come out all right. The
name OF gopher-ground squirrel-was
new one to the old man, and he sent the
stock fine variety of sheep or cattle.
Speaking OF sheep | 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 intro
duce the meat. In the stores here see
canned Australian mutton for sale at seven
pounds for 81, and the sheep-growers of
Montana. North Dakota and Canada are
losing money. Travelled here with Man
itoba stockman. who told me that be had
$500 sheep last year, but that he had sold
all but HOO, and he said he intended to sell
them IN the spring and get out of the bust
ness. Inere Is no money in it now" he
said. II refused SO so head for sheep a
year ago which l would now be glad to sell
Tor 81 %. / have got numerous let
ters from sheep men in Mon tana
wanting to sell out to me, and there
are great numbers of Montana sheep
gro wers who want to come to Canada for
work. got seven such letters in my yes
terday's mail. Sheep are worth practi-
cally nothing in Montana. / know of one
hrm there who owned two years ago about
$4,000 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 mortgage on the sheep and
the land. The hard times of last fall