The Beaver herald. [volume] (Beaver, O.T. [Okla.]) 1895-1923, 1907-06-20
INDIANA PEOPLE IN WESTERN
CANADA.
What Shall We Do7--l've Got to 5uiId
Granaries.

is but one of many similar that are IN |
the hands of the Canadian government
agents whose privilege It is to offer
one hundred and sixty acres of land
free, and low railway fares. But here
is a copy of the letter
"Tipton, ind. Nov. 2s. 1906.
at your earnest solicitation a party |
of us fror, Upton left May Is for
Western Canada. Our interviews with |
you and 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 a 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
out, and the inky blackness of the
soil contrasted in a way beautiful to
see. An hour or two later we steamed
into Winnipeg Here we found num-
Der of surprises. hundred thousand
souls well housed. with every con-
venience that goes to make modern
up-to-date city--banks. hotels, news
papers, stores, electric light street
railways, sewerage, waterworks. as
phalt pavements, everything. With
eyes 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
off at a number of points where we
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
right angles from the roads stretching
into the distance, contrasted strangely
with our little fields at home. The
towns both large and small were dou-
bly, conspicuous, made so, first by
their newness and second by the tow
ering elevators necessary to hold the
immense crops OF wheat grown in the
immediate neighborhood
The newness. the thrift, the hustle,
the sound of saw and hammer, the
tents housing owners of buildings in
various stages of completion, the piles
of household effects and agricultural
implements at the railway stations
waiting to be hauled out to the
Claims" the occasional steam plow
turning it's twenty or thirty acres a
day, the sod house, the unpainted
house of wood, the up-to-date modern
residence with large red barn by, all
these were seen everywhere we went
an earnest of prosperity and wealth to
be. We talked with men and visited
their places that four years ago was
unbroken prairie. Their houses
barns, implements and live stock were
the equal of anything in Upton Coun
ty, and why not, when they were rails
ing five, ten and twenty, yes, in one
wheat year The fact that sucf
, large yields of wheat are raised Sc
easily and so surely impressed vi
very favorably And when we saw
men who four or five years ago com
menced there with two or three thou
. sand dollars, and We're now as wei
, :, fixed and making money much easier
and many times faster than lots o
our acquaintances on Indiana farmI
fifty years cleared and valued at foul
times as much. we decided to invest
So We bought in partnership a littl'
over two thousand acres, some OF i
improved and in wheat
Before leaving Indiana we agreed
that IL the opportunities We're as grea,
,, as they were represented to be, tina
We would buy, and own in partner
! ship body of land, and leave one o
our number to look after and operat'
il. This we accordingly did.
Just before time to thresh ! re
ceived letter from him. What shal
We do?" said he; I've got to buil'
> granaries. There's so much whea
that the railways are just swamped
We cant get cars and the elevators
are all full. | never saw anything
: like it, In reply we wrote. Good TO
: you. Go ahead and build; your stor,
sounds better than the letters we use'
: TO get from our friends in Kansa
when they bewailed the fact that thu
; hard wheat had been destroyed by th'
1 chinch bugs and the corn by no
: winds, and that they must sell thu
stock for means to live on. Yes, buil'
by all means" And he did, and on
I wheat put in by renter made TWEEN
4 ty-seven bushels per acre.
Very truly yours.
E (Sd) A. G. BURKHART.
a (Sd) j. LOAR-TRESIDDER