Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1907-05-09
INDIANA PEOPLE IN WESTERN
CANADA.
What Shall We Do?-l've Got to Build
Cranaries.

tie hands of the Canadian government
agents whose privilege 1t is to offer
one hundred and sixty acres of land
free. and low railway fares. But here
is copy OF the letter:
"Tipton, Ind, Nov. %, 1906.
AT your earnest solicitation party
of us from Upton left May Is for
Western Canada. Our interviews with
Won and a careful study OF your liter
ature led us to expect great things OF
YOUR country when we should arrive
there. and we were not disappointed.
We went prepared to make careful
examination of the country and its re- |
sources. and we did So At early dawn |
the second morning out OF Upton we |
awoke in a new world. AS far as the
| eve could reach was an apparently
limitless expanse OF new sown wheat
and prairie grasses. The vivid green
of the wheat just beginning to stool
ont and the inky blackness of the
soil contrasted in way beautiful to
see. An hour or two later we steamed
into Winnipeg. Here we found num-
her of surprises. A hundred thousand
souls well housed, with every con-
yenience that goes to make modern
up-to-date city-banks, hotels, newo.
papers, stores, electric light, strees
railways, sewerage, waterworks, as
phalt pavements, everything. with
ewes and ears open we travelled for
two thousand miles through Manitoba,
Saskatchewan and Alberta, going out
over the Canadian Pacific railway, via
Calgary to Edmonton, and returning
to Winnipeg over the Canadian North
ern railway. In the meantime we
, made several side trips and stopped
) of at a number of points where we
r made drives into the surrounding
: country. On every hand were evil
] dences of prosperity. The growing
: wheat. oats, rye, fax, barley, not lit
tie patches, but great fields, many OF
!, them a square mile in extent the
! three. FIVE and sometimes seven-horse
teams laying over an inky black rib
bon of yellow stubble, generally in fur
rows straight as gun barrels and at
n right angles from the roads stretching
) into the distance, contrasted strangely
n with our little fields at home. The
O towns both large and small were dou
:. bly conspicuous, made so, first by
q their newness and second by the tow
u ering elevators necessary to hold the
y immense crops of wheat grown in the
- immediate neighborhood.
4 The newness, the thrift, the hustle
k the sound of saw and hammer, the
lie tents housing owners of buildings II
Of various stages of completion, the pile'
j. of household effects and agriculture
u implements at the railway station
n waiting to be hauled out to TIT
Claims" the occasional steam ploV
turning it's twenty or thirty acres
day. the sod house, the unpainte'
ie house of wood, the up-to-date moderl
~ residence with large red barn by, al
~ these were seen everywhere we wen
RI an earnest of prosperity and wealth I
1T. be. We talked with men and visite
he their places that four years ago wa
re unbroken prairie. Their houses
vs., barns. implements and live stock wer
Ito the equal of anything in Upton Coul
~ ty. and why not, when they were raj
ing five. ten and twenty, yes, in on
instance, forty thousand bushels
-. wheat year The fact that sue
- large Yields of wheat are raised
,s, easily and so surely impressed +,
on very favorably. And when we sa
in. men who four or five years ago cor
enl menced there with two or three tho
sand dollars, ans were now as we
al fixed and making money much easi
on and many times faster than lots
use our acouaintances on Indiana farm
III fifty years cleared and valued at 10
~ times as much, we decided to inve'
So we bought in partnership a litt
-. over two thousand acres, some OF
Inc improved and in wheat.
NC BEFORE leaving Indiana we agre
sa. that if the opportunities were as Sre
her as they were represented to be, Tn
Dad we would buy. and own in partn'
in ship body of land, and leave one
nen our number to look after and opera
cru 1t. This we accordingly did.
nee Just before time TO thresh l
ceiyed a letter from him. What sh
we do?" said he; I've got TO bu
20 granaries There's SO much whe
ent that the railways are just swamp
ele We can't get cars and the elevate
OF are all full. l never saw anythl
was like it." In reply we wrote, Good
day you. Go ahead and build; your ste
or sounds better than the letters we us
ocal to get from our friends in Kan'
TN when they bewailed the fact that
hard wheat had been destroyed by
chinch bugs and the corn by
winds, and that they must sell
20 stock for means to live on. Yes, bu
1 S. by all means Anu ne uiu' 49, A..
Rev. wheat put In py renter maue :"
we're ty.seyen bushels per acre.
e r Very truly yours,
ride (Sd) A. G. BURKHART.
Om's fCd( II TREI ,OAR.TRESIDD