Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1904-09-13


is said Edmonton is to be on the line
OF the new Grand Trunk Pacific, which
the people here claim will surely pc
built within the next five years. But
what interested me more than the
price of town lots, prospective railway
lines, and the future possibilities OF
Edmonton as commercial center, was
the unquestioned fact that here IN the
Canadian Northwest is great farming
district, which, notwithstanding tne
climate and the present long distance
from markets. is being utilized in re-
markable manner and is filling up rap
idly with the list class of settlers. The
distance from Calgary which is locat-
ed on the main line of the Canadian
Pacific. to Edmonton is practically two
hundred miles. For the first fifty miles
from Calgary one passes through a
purely grazing section, where general
agriculture is not feasible excepting in
connection with irrigation. 1t is in
teresting to note that the Canadian Pa
ciflc railway is now building a great
irrigating ditch near Calgary, which
will supply sufficient water to irrigate
three hundred thousand acres of land.
Near the town Of Red Deer. Oh the
road from Calgary to Edmonton, and
which point is half way between the
two cities, one comes into a farming
section that is a surprise to everyone
who first visits this country. The
cheap lands are being rapidly bought
UP by settlers, many of them from the
United States, and not few from
Iowa, who are doing remarkable things
If the statements made to me be true,
and l have reafon to believe that they
are. The splendid towns that are be-
ing built up along the line of railway
are doing away with the awful isola.
ton Of home in this far distant coun
try, as we'll as furnishing school,
church and other desirable advantages
for the home life to the settler. AS
an example Of how rapidly this coun-
try is filing up. will cite an incident:
At Red Deer. a gentleman boarded the
train. whom engaged in conversation,
and who advised me that he was pro-
fessor of the Chicago University,
spending the summer in this country
on account of the hay fever, This was
his fourth season in Red Deer. Four
years ago there were not four hundred
people In the place. Today there are
over twelve hundred
See that fine brick building up
yonder on the hill?" That he said,
lis new fifteen thousand dollar hos
pital, put up this season. and in charge
of one of the best surgeons in Canada
THAT new building yonder is an
electric power house, to furnish cleo.
trio lights for the city of Red Deer.
We are also putting in a rural tele-
phone system.
Il say we because am interested
up here. having become one of the
people already
Farmers From iowa.
To my expression of establishment
that there were enough farmers in the
vicinity of Red Deer to utilize the rur.
al telephone, he responded with a
laugh. declaring that the Northern Al,
berta farmer was progressive and
strictly up-to-date. and couldn't very
well help being so, because many OF
them come from Iowa. He cited an
instance of one farmer from near Des
Moines. who had come into this vicin
ity two years ago and purchased a sec
ton of land at five dollars an acre
which he is now farming together witt
another section of school land which
he had leased. This man, he said, is
not only contented but is making mon
ey as any good farmer can who come!
in here and farms on a scientific basis
There are creameries at almost ey
cry one of the towns passed through
on this line. and just now the butte1
made here is largely exported to ia
pan. From Edmonton, I took forty
five mile drive through the countr.
with my Chicago University friend
and we saw many unusually fine farms
The chief crops Of the Edmonton dis
trict is oats. which am informed will
average 80 bushels to the acre, year II
and year out. and there are many stor
les, OF certain sections where even ;
} hundred or more bushels are produced
to the acre. Wheat, barley and ry,
are also raised in quantities. TIL
very finest of vegetables grow ant
mature here, and horses, cattle an'
hogs are to be seen everywhere. Their
| being no corn I was much intereste'
. to know what is fed to the hogs, an
9 was informed that the poorer grade
S of wheat, which it does not pay to maj
4 ket. barley and SO forth, make exec
i lent hog food, and that there is a.
n abundance of it, AS indicating jus
t what the crop is in this section, tn