The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1906-06-28
ALBERTA IS COLD
CROPS UNCERTAIN

A Pendleton man writing of the AL
berta country to the East Oregonian,
says ,,, .,o.
we have quit the Alberta country.
That place is very much over rated
and is nothing like what it is repre-
sented by some of the suckers who
went there. | think from what have
seen and from the information |
gained that the place is too cold and
the seasons too uncertain. The
country has been partly settled by
farmers thre9 times during the past. 80
years, but they did no good and had
to quit. 1t is cattle country and
nothing moIe. Sheep do no good, in
fact, you cannot see a sheep in hun
dreds of miles.
Last winter it got down to 81 be-
low zero and stockm en- had to feed for
eight months. Whilst we we're there
they got some rain, the first for 10
months, and the cold was intense.
~ notice in Calgary most OF the
houses have storm doors and windows
and | guess a storm cellar about the
premises somewhere.
"There is not much of the country
being farmed, and people who have
lived 30 years in the country never
tried to do any farming for the Iea'
son that the seasons sre;too,uncertain.
"The @. p. r. and other land com
panies say that settlements will alter
weather conditions. Perhaps they
will, but they have not done 30 dur
ing 30 years SO would not want to
take chances, and land is dearer than
it is right z in Umatilla, where crops
are certainty. Ii ranges all the way
from $l8 to $35 per acre, and that
from six to 10 miles from the rail
road. | don't know how much they
sell at,thatprice, but that is what they
ask. "The talk about cheap land Is
all rot there Is none to be gotten and
all the land is rough and new. The
brush has to be cut, burned and the
breal so broken up. The plowing
costs $3.50 per acre, besides the cost
Of cutting and burning the brush,
and then there is fencing and hun
dred and one other things to be done
in the way of making corIals, barns,
sheds, etc, which makes that land
pretty dear.
"The water proposition is very un
certain Some get wells where others
have gone 150 feet and have not found |
water. The country might do for some
of the Minnesota and Dakota people,
but Oregonians had better stop at
home. Even the land that may be
made to produce something Is very
limited, and the crop conditions very
preoarious.
1.-THE irrigation project is a fraud.
They are trying to sell people land,
and the ditch is not dug within five
miles of il. There are not nearly
enough bitches even If they did all
they say they are going to, and in
many instances farmers have to dig
bitches for more than mile and a
half to get the water onto their land.
The land is all cut up with gulches
and draws which, Of course, cannot be
graded, which will necessitate lot of
aterals and box fumes to get the
water on to all parts of the lands, and
ihele will be lot of waste land. The
roads and bitches ale all taken out
Of tho farmers land, the company
giving nothing. The price for the
and is: Irrigable, $25; non -irrigable,
slS; 81 per year for water, one cubic
DOT for each acre; water supplied be-
,ween May and October only, and this
or the toughest kind of prairie land
nearest point six to seven miles
rom railroad.
This is the toughest kind of hold
Up country from Fernie on the boun. {
larry till one gets out at Vancouver, q
B. G. The Q. p. II. charges A cents
,eI mile, and almost all places meals |
ire 81; beds from 81 to 81.
Il have heard of places where hon
,st men are scarcer than hens teeth
md rogues an thieves are thicker than f
yeavils in a barnyard. Well, Alberta {
s one of those places. u