Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1907-05-17
INDIANA PEOPLE IN wEsTERp
CANADA.
"Whnt Shall We Do. I've Got Il
Build G~ranarics

out one Oh 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:
Upton, Ind, Nov. 2S, 1906.
AT your earnest solicitation a party
of us from Upton left May 10 for
Western Canada. Our interviews with
you and 4 careful study of your Literal
ture led us to expect great things Of
your country when we should arrive
there, and we were not disappointed
We went prepared TO make Il careful
examination of the country and its re.
sources, and we did SO. At early dawn
the second morning out of Upton wa
awOke in q new world. AS far as the
eye could reach was an apparently linz
itless 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 con-
trasted III a way beautiful to see. An
hour or two later we steamed into
Winnipeg. Here we found Il number Of
surprises. A hundred thousand souls
well housed, with every convenience
that goes to make a modern, up-to-date
city-bankS, hotels, newspapers, stores
electric lights, street railways, sewer
age, water works, asphalt ~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 Edmon-
ton and returning to Winnipeg over
the Canadian Northern Railway. In
the meantime we made several side
points where we made drives into the
surrounding country. On every hand
were evidences Of prosperity. The
growing wheat, oats, rye, fax, barley,
not little 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
ribbon of yellow stubble, generally in
burrows straight as gun barrels ana
at right angles from the roads stretch
ing into the distance, contrasted
strangely with our little fields at home.
The towns, both large and small, were
doubly conspicuous, made 50, 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 its twenty or thirty acres a
lay. the sod house, the Imprinted house
If wood. the up-tO-datG modern resi-
dcncc with large red barn by, all these
were seen everywhere we went, an ear
nest Of prosperity and wealth to be.
Ne talked with men ana visited their
places that four years ago vas unbro-
ken prairie, Their houses, barns, inn
Elements ana live stock were the equal
II anything in TiptOI County ana why
l3t. when they were raising five, ten
,HI twenty. yes in che instance forty
thousand bushels Of wheat a year.
.uc iact that such large yields Of
wheat are raised so easily ana so sure
IS impressed us very fayorlb!y. And
wien we saw men who four or five
years ago commenced there with two
or three thousand dollars, AMI are now
Is well fixed ard making money much
easier ana many times faster than lots
If Il acqUaintancos on Indiana farms
ilty years cleared and valued az four
tines as much. we decided TO invest.
so we bought IN partnership 4 little
over two thousand acres, some of it
improved and in wheat.
Before leaving Indiana, we agreed
that If the opportunities were as great
rs they were represented to be, that
we would buy, and W in partnership
Il body Of land. and leave one of our
number TO look after and operate it.
This we accordingly did.
Just before time to thr2sh | re-
ceived IL letter from him. What shall
wc do said he, I've got to build gram
aries. There's so much wheat that the
railways arc just swampcd. We can't
get cars and the elevators are all full.
| never saw anything like It, In re-
ply we wrote Good for You. Go ahead
and build, your story sounds better
than the letters we used to get from
our friends in Kansas when they be-
walled the fact that the hard wheat
had been destroyed by the chinch bugs
and the corn by hot winds, and that
they must sell the stock for means to
live on Yes, build by all means
And he did, and our wheat put in by
a renter made twenty-seven bushels
per acre.
Very truly yours,
"(Sd) A. G. BURKIART,
"(Sd) j.. TRELOAR.TRESIDDER,
"(Sd) WALTER W. MOUNT"