Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1903-04-23
SASKATOON LETTER.
Former Cavalier County Resident
Writes About Northwest
Territories.
BIG CANADIAN IMMIGRATION.
Impartial View of Settlers Life in
the Canadian Northwest Portray
ed in Letter Written by Com
rade "Zach Gordon" Who Has
Now Been Subject of Edward
VII for Two Years.

= l
date of April sth. Comra,lc Zach Cor
don. a we'll known rv-rcsdcn1 OF Gava-
lier county gives those Interested m the
lands of the Canadian Northwest good
idea of his experiences there during the
past winter in the following extracts of "a
letter given below:
Taken as Il whole | may suy hat ~"
have had quite Il cold winter here, and
there have been q number OF storms
though am glad To say all of the worst
of them were experienced after nightfall:
"a time when farmers are not likely to be
caught ON the road. Thermometers in
the town of Saskatoon have registered
as much Assoc below zero this winter. But
that town being on the river they look
as rule to have more cold and wind
than we have here ut Nutana. Here at
my place it got down to Is below. This
spring the town of Saskatoon is having
a bigger building boom than anything
of the kind that l ever saw in my en-
perience of North Dakota's early days
The endless flow into this country of
new settlers has been coming into .his
section since some little time before the
snow began to disappear with the APP
proaeh of spring. At the hotels there u
barely standing room. When there is Il
bigger crowd than usual they put she
men to sleep and then stand them up
against the wall like Il row OF shot guns.
Spring appears to me to be rather lat"
in opening up and when you get outside
Of the town there is still a little snow I"
be found on the ground at the date OF
this letter. April Sth. What | do like To
to see. however. is the fact that aS the
snow nlcltS the ground gets the benefit
of all the moisture. last winter the ground
was dry and consequently it did not
freeze up Very hard. Regarding land
prices they are booming There is no
other name for. This spring they are
exactly double what they were when ]
came out two years ago and what inn
presses the new conner still more good
lands are now mighty hard to get. What
is viewed as the countrys greatest draw
back is the altogether inadequate ship
ping facilities over the railroad. The
heavy traffic is beyond doubt the cause
of it as we have daily passenger train
and from two to three freights every
day. People coming in here often arrive
from week to two weeks in advance of
their baggage. The stores have gone
through three or four famines owing to
the inability of the railroad company to
handle the business. The reason is
stated as being the strike pending be-
tween the company and its freight hand
ling crews at Winnipeg. There have
been spells for weeks at time when
dealers have been unable to supply their
customers with staple article of every
day trade. First it will be sugar, then
-four and we have had building opera
tons delayed by nail famine. just
now the machinery dealers are trying to
get the railroad company to open up
traffic SO as to get in their seeders and
blows. There is of course considerable
talk Of new railroad building through
this section this summer, and it will
have to come in order to properly take