St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1906-09-12
In the Canadian Northwest.
A Former Ryegate Man in the Great
Wheat Fields observation-disclosures.

A<DiA Ok SALEDONlANs -
am at W. E. Young's, the manager OF
the Saskatchewan Elbow Wheat Land
Co., of which Luther D. Wishard is presi-
dent.
This company owns several sections
of land in this vicinity and have this
year 2480 acres in wheat. When l came
here two weeks ago this wheat was
standing in fields OF 400 acres each.
Now it is nearly all cut and shocked up
and in few weeks new steam thresher
belonging to thecompany will commence
threshing out the golden grain. This is
the first crop off this land and the peo-
pie here say it will average 35 bushels to
the acre, but to be conservative call 1t
80 bushels and as it is all Number One
Northern it should sell for at least 70
cents bushel, but call it 60 cents, this
2480 acres will yield "a 400 bushels of
wheat at 60 cents, $44 $4,000. Three
or four crops like this will pay the first
cost OF the land, now selling for about
SIG per acre and all the cost of buildings,
horses, tools, hired help, ETC., and the
property will be worth $50 to $40 an
acre.
Joseph Glen ofIndian Head commenced
twenty years ago buying land and letting
it to tenants on half shares. With the
profits he bought more land until now
he owns % sections of GAO acres each
and he told me that year before last his
net income was over $40, 900 and last
year it was over ninety thousand. This
year he expects to have 10000 bushels
OF wheat his halfshare of the land his
tenants have in wheat, besides great
quantities of oats, fax etc. I am told
the price of land all over this country is
going up by leaps and bounds. bought
a section ofland, $40 acres, near here from
Mr.. Wishard last spring for 81 an acre.
Such land is now selling for $15 to SIG
an acre and land with few improve
ments is selling for S25 an acre. If any
OF your readers would like to make an
investment that will be absolutely safe
and will bring them in at least Is per
cent ask them to write to Luther D.
Wishard, Metropolitan Building, New
York City. He will give full information.
Thousands OF Americans are coming here
from the United States and are getting
land Everybody, who comes from the
states, they call Yankee even if be can
not speak a word of English. The
horses that come from the states are
Yankee horses and the COWS are Yankee
COWS. A man near here bought two
wild western horses last fall. They ran
away and were out on the prairie all
winter. He did not find them till this
spring and they were tat as seals.
The railroads are beginning to realize
the potential possibilities of this
Canadian northwest, stretch of fertile
land 1000 miles long BY about 300 miles
wide, and they are surveying new lines
OF road and are double tracking the main
lines and leveing up and ballasting the
road beds and getting large numbers of
new engines and cars to carry this years
great grain harvest. Some one said to
me the other day, This country will
soon be covered with a net work of
steel" My heart goes out for the tens
OF thousands young men in this couu-
try, who work for the farmers in the
summer and 60 back to their homesteads
for the winter. They have to live on the
land six months of each year for three
years to get a homestead Many OF
them are unmarried without any stock
to care Tor no work to do, most of
them nothing to read. Many of them
are 20 to 40 miles from the nearest rail-
road station, store or post office. am
told that most of them spend the winter
months visiting each others shacks and
playing cards. How eagerly the books
and papers given by the St. Johnsbury
and Passumpsic people were received and
read. A young man where / was stop
ping sat up till l a. m. reading The
Crulcl6xiou OF Phillip Strong" by
Charles NJ Sheldon. l had q service
here last Sabbath for the men, who are
working this large estate, and after the
service we sang hymns for nearly two
hours We sang through the "Pente-
costal Hymns" The pastor OF the
church at Passumpsic gave me about 25
copies. l heard the men whistling the
tunes the next morning. One of the men
said I'VE are having quite Sunday
school," AneighbOr asked me to conduct
a prayer meeting in her house Although
p she had not a chair or bit of furniture in
the house, she said she wished to have
: prayer in her house once more. A new
school house is being built in this
, neighborhood and Mrs. Young intends
: to have Sunday school in it. She has
ordered a new piano aud she told me to
write to my sisters at Ridgewood, New
Jersey, for an earnest Christian young
lady to teach the day school and help in
the Sunday school. She says school
? teachers get much larger salaries here
than they do in the states Mrs. Young
! says she will give the young lady teacher
the best room in her house and her
board if she will teach her to play the
piano by note.
/ hope to do something to start travel
ing Libraries such as they have in the
., states in this Northwest and in otter
2 ways get good reading matter into the
hands of these lonely homesick young
men.
! GEORGE w. LEITCH
Caron Saskatchewan, Aug 2S, 1906.