Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-08-31
IN NORTHERN ALBERTA
A Land as Fair as One Could
Desire.
ITS FERTILE MEADOWS
YIELD A RICH HARVEST TO THE
LUCKY SETTLER.
Where Horses and Cattle Live Out Of
Doors the Year
Around.

EDMONTON, N. w. T., August ~, 1904.
Eight hundred miles west from Winnipeg,
near the foot of the Rockies, lies Calgary,
the metropolis of Alberta.
We reached this town at am. AS we
dropped from the train 1 listened for the
usual clamorous cry of the hotel runner.
calling. the weary voyagers to rest. but
heard only the shutting of feet Out in the
station shed a man reached for my grip,
saying, "All full up, but we can put you
In the annex"
/ asked another runner and he grunted
drowsily, Full"
l followed the largest crowd to the best
hotel, and, being behind, wrote last and
learned from the landlords lieutenant that
the last two travellers would have but one
room, with two beds, between them. we
exchanged glances and agreed to risk it.
The thin dark man whose room l was to
share said he must go to another hotel for
his mail, but would hurry back" 1
promised to leave the lamp burning. and
followed the bell boy out into the night, up
thet street, down an alley, then up wide
stairway to the annex"
1 fell asleep, but was awakened a rev
minutes later by the bell boy conducting a
flock of Frenchmen through my room, ~,
into 20, that opened off it. l fell asleep
again. awoke at dawn, found the light sun
.turbed -.,....
In the hotel lobby l found the thin, dark
man. a s-French-Canadian nodd1ng IN
chair. I asked why he had not gone 10
bed. Because" said he, II did not return
until o'clock, and l did not wish to dis
turb YOU
l tell this to show why Americans travel
ing in the Canadian northwest are con-
stsntly commenting upon the kindness and
simplicity of it's people. ooo
At 7:45 we were off for Edmonton. 200
miles due north of Calgary.
Much Like Nebraska.
Almost Immediately we leave the Bow
river, up which we had Travelled the pre-
vious day, and begin to climb the gentle
slope to the level, or nearly level, prairie
land The recent rains have made these
mild meadows glad. The tall grass waves
like growing wheat the wild mower doom
in the unplowed fields adds to the charm
and beauty of the rolling prairie II re
minds one of beautiful Nebraska, west OF
Omaha. We crossed and recrossed run
ming stream. Here and there are Httle
lakes, pools and ponds that would De cailsu
COW tanks in Texas Across the surface OF
these quiet pools wild water fowl are hur-
irving. followed by their brood of young
birds, heading for the flags which fringe
the further shore. Presently prairie men
flutters through barbed wire fence, shak-
ing her head at the passing train and call
ing her children from the right of way.
These water fowl and field fowl are loath
to leave the paradise; but the antelope tnat
only yesterday We saw leaplEs along the
banks of the Bow not here; they are
gone forever from their fair fields-gone
like the buffalo. whose once deep trails are
now hidden in the tall grass.
Not many fields are furrowed, ana ye.
the farm houses are not far apart, and the
towns in touch every eight or ten miles
along this new line have population from
200 to 2000 each.
Grows More Beautiful.
:. Contrary to our expectations, the country
as we go north grows more beautiful. There
are more fields planted to wheat, oats ana
barley. Here at new town we find a
grain elevator and see old straw stacks in
the distance. Vast reaches of these wild
lands are now under fence, and In these
far-hung fields fat horses are frolicking and
in other fields fat kline creep lazlly along
the margin of a little lake. belly-deep in
wild grass Suddenly below our window
flashes a field of oats. in the ear, then
comes a new-made meadow with timothy
tall az q Japanese general, and barley IN
bloom. The elevators and last year straw
stacks are more numerous now. once In
a while we see stacks of leftover hay In
the fields.
At noon we stopped at Red Deer for a
room in frame building. Upon each table
etood a large pitcher of milk, which would
be welcomed as cream by the victims of the
average American hotel, or European hotel,
for that matter Now everybody drank
milk. Frail women who should, but never
did and strong, well-nourished men who
did not need it drank freely of the rich,
sweet milk and declared they had never
tasted such milk before. 1t must be the
quality of the grass that gives the milk
that unusually sweet flavor, as the grass of
England makes the matchless English NUT
ton. At all events, all men who travel
here in the wake of the warm chinook
drink it as naturally as the average Amer
lean drinks Van Rauge in Paris and leaves
it off in London.
The rolling treeless prairie has pinched
out now, and we pass through a strip OF
wooded country, comparatively level. with
few sWampS and no stony or uncultiVat-
able spots. Even in this wooded region
there are few patches of prairie lands
ready for the plow.
A Real Godsend.
1 deplored the presence of the swamps
that seemed to me to mar the beauty of
the country. "Dey we're put here to save de
cattle" said a small man in the next seat.
"Ven it shall be plenty rain we cut hay on
dose highlands but ven deGe is draut, that
is sometimes every seven, fourteen or
twenty-one years, cut swamp grass, so
we have here always plenty feed for cat
tle.''
man had just sold his herd and moved into
the new town of Lacombe, in order, as he
put it, to give his nine children some school.
He had come to this wild region ten years
ago, ahead of the railway, with wife, four
small children, one COW and little cash
in hand. Instead of homesteading he
squatted and began to plough and sow, and
grew enough to keep his family. Into the
hands of his eleven-year-old son he gave
a shotgun, and the boy kept the family in
meat, water and field fowls, rabbits and
such other game as he could bring in.
AS fast as he could afford to do SO the
ranchman, imported fine cattle to mingle
and mix with his herd. Last year he cut
600 tons of wild hay. all within radius of
one mile from his house, and fed it to his
herd. which had grown from a single COW
to 400 head. Then he sold out and moved
to town. For his calves he got 500. for two
year-olds 49, for steers $50 and for all
his COWS $40 head.
In ten years he claned up $11 900, which.
taking into account the one thousand he
had when he settled, makes a thousand
dollars a year besides keeping and bring
ing up an interesting and healthy family.
A Rich Land.
AS We near Edmonston the kitchen gar
dens are more and more In evidence about
the farm houses. The potatoes are hin
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