The Forrest City times., 1899-08-11
GROWTH OF CANADA.
Its Rapid Development has At tracted the Attention
 of Many.
Settlement of the Vacant Lands of Our NeighbOr will Prove of Ad- vantage to the Entire Conti-
 nent.

States going to do to escape the manifold evils they fear, not without reason. Iron the operations Of gigantic trusts which ar. being formed almost daily in every pari of the country? This is a question thai agitatcs not only the poor man. but the man of moderate capital. In years gone by. the man of energy out of employment or the man with small capital was able tc go farming in the United States with every prospect of securing a competency tor himself But the day when Uncle Sam was rich enough to give every man a farm has gone by. In discussing the question Of the future welfare of the in- creasng population of the continent with MT. J. A. Stuart, deputy member of the interior for Canada, who was found busy with his superintendent of immigration in their office at Ottawa, Canada, Mir. Smart made the statement that there IS now very little homestead land in the United States, and the man who seeks fortune m that way must now look elsewhere It fortunately happens that we have right at our very door an opportunity for acquiring land or getting iato lucrative business oi some kind that is equal to any even offered in this country. Some years ago the peo- pie of the United States were accustomed to see Canada figure on the maps as a long narrow strip of land. with scattered villa ges and towns along the Si. Lawrence and great lakes. It Is hard, therefore. to real ize that a rival nation. with territory vastly larger than the whole United States. has risen upon our northern border and has set about making great future for Itself. building factories, Ieveling noun tains. filling up the valleys, bridging riv- CTS. digging new and enlarging old canals. constructing thousands of miles of railway 10 bind together its territories and carry fhe fruit of the earth to distant market and make easy ot access its enormous re- sources of timber. mines and agricultural lands.
 Since the accession to power of vigo rous. up-to-date, progressive government. determined that the world shall know what grand country Canada is and what unparalleled opportunities it offers, the ignorance that heretofore existed regard ing the country is rapidly diminishing.
 The area of Canada, all told, is 3.456, :;S2 square miles. The mind can scarcely comprehend the vastness of this area . The distance through Canada from the Atlantic to the Pacific is roundiy 5000 miles. In Ontario and Quebec. the older provinces of the Dominion, there is not much farming land available, but west, ward of Ontario, in the old Hudson Bay territory, now known as Western Canada, there are hundreds of millions of acres of the choicest land on the continent all ready for the plowman. There are the provinces of Manitoba. comprising T4,000 square miles ; Assinaboia. about 90,000 square miles; keewatin. S2,000 square mtIes Saskatchewan, 107 1000 square miles Al berta. l06 900 square miles; Athabaska. lOi.000 square miles; Northwest territo- rles. 900 square miles. Now that the United States has filled up, no similar block of agricultural lands awaiting the settler is to be found anywhere else.
 Lord Selkirk in 1872 pr0phesied that these plains of Western Canada would yet maintain population of 800, 900 900 souls And why not? Last year Manitoba alone had nearly 2,000 900 acres under crop ill wheat, oats, barley, flax and other grains. and potatoes and other roots. This is undoubtedly the coming wheat field of the world. The yield per acre is prodigious A late United States consul, in one of his reports from Winnipeg, wrote that when the harvest time came the entire labor to be found in the region was wholly made. quate to the task of caring for the crop. The wheat had grown SO tall and stout and was so heavily laden with grain and the work of threshing and stocking was eXlEsustlng in the extreme. The strength and weight of the growing grain fire. quenty broke the reaping machines, and the utmost exertion of strong men was needed to handle the great weight of the sleaves. In some years the average yield has been about 30 bushels per acre, in one or two years it fell to about eighteen bush els. but even that production with present prices will yield large profit, the cost oi raising an acre being placed by experts al from live to seven dollars per acre,
 Wheat. however, is not the only cereal grown. The crops of oats, barley and peas are phenomenal. Oats were found by delegates visiting the country to yield from 6O to 90 bushels to the acre, while lu some instances they have been known tC exceed 100 bushels. One delegate states
 The grain stood five feet six inches high the heads are more than l2 inches long ana each chaff case Is found to contain not one but three perfect kernels of oats. y what other country can produce such oats !?
 
 The yield of barley is enormous and the quality Is so superior that it is sought al. Ter by brewers everywhere at several cents per bnsbe more than that grown in other countries. Peas. too, yield a splendid cror. They are entirely free from bugs ano grubs. aud being used for hog fattening they give splendid results both in quait, of meat and in the weight gained by ths animals. To the fact that rie hogs art fed on peas instead ot corn experts attrib ute the entire absence from the country o hog cholera. so familiar in some of tho Western states. It must not be suppo ,ef that corn will not grow in Western Cana da. IL does grow there to a height Of ter or twelve feet, and is used for ensilag, and occasionally for fodder.
 With regard to the yield of cereals a few figures may not be out of place. There i. an experimental farm in Manitoba ane another In the northwest territories.
 In oats. in three years continuous fest at the Manitoba farm the averag, weld with l2 different varieties sown. wa. 70 bushels 20 pounds to the acre at tn, experimental farm in the northwest terri tories the average was .s5 bushels ?: bounds nor aero q