The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1907-07-08
SOME STRIKING CONTRASTS.

The Kansas City Journal tells US
that farmers who were seduced by
land agents. and their glittering prom
ises into leaving Missouri and Kan
sas several years ago, to settle IN
Northwest Canada, have grown sick
of their hard lot in that bleak country
and are selling out as fast as they
can and coming back to the italian
azure tinted skies of the Southwest"
as Ambassador Bryce enthusiastically
termed them on the occasion of his
recent visit to Oklahoma and Indian
Territory.
We hear the same thing from per-
sons who left oregon and Washing
ton some years ago. on the same VEN
ture. for the splendid and fertile
praires of Alberta and Assin:bOia and
Saskatchewan" Wheat could be
grown there until everybody was rich,
says the Oregonian. Doubtless money
has been made and can be made. by
those situated favorably; but it is not
the rule. The summers are short and
hot: the winters long and intensely
cold: domestic animals require con-
slant. care for their preservation
against frost insects and necessity of
large provision for feeding them; and
fuel raiment and houses and barns,
adequately prepared for defense
against cold. require not only good
deal of capital. but incessant care
taking and labor.
We certainly have in our own states
as favorable conditions for crops. and
for more kinds of crops than can be
grown in those boreal regions, and we
have climatic conditions of the best.
Wheat can be grown in Oregon and
Washington as successfully as in
Canada, and lands still are cheap. And
we have as good prospects of the ne
cessary railway extensions here into
the new wheat country at least as
they have there. And think of that
climate,
From a farmer in the Canadian
northwest, writing to a friend in
Oklahoma. a letter comes, which the
Kansas City Journal is permitted to
publish 1t contains statements like
hese: The frOsts begin in August,
and from November, the thermometer
stands at from So TO so degrees below
zero. with snow over three feet deep
on level, while around the houses
it drifts until it covers the house,
barn ana even haystacks. The snow
drifted seven feet around his house
last winner and remained frozen hard
until May. He had to cut steps to his
barn, and was prisoner in his
house all winter. Worst of all, he re-
ports that they had on an average
one blizzard week from November
16 to April 5. while in summer they
suffered from hot winds. For weeks
in winter the trains We're stopped and
there were no mails or news of any
kind from the outside world. Many
people We're without coal during the
worst weather, and some were even
without wood and were compelled o
burn straw and fenceposts. But the
writer adds: This is a great big I'M
developed country. and the finest
wheat producing country l ever saw.
but when you think of coming here
YOU must be prepared to shovel snow.
chop ice and buck up against the real
thing, for this is Canada" And in
sects during the hot season are so
numerous and fierce that cattle are
leased and tortured to the limit of
endurance by them. and horses are so
reduced by their attacks as often to
be too weak for effective work
Wouldn't it seem from these reci-
ais that our own states, and eSpe-
cially our Pacific states. had merits
enough TO hold our people. and that
the motto: Seek no further" were
about the thing to be placarded all
a bout uSP