The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1907-06-01
INDIANA PEOPLE IN WESTERN
CANADA.
What Shall We Do?-I've Got to Build
Granaries.

A letter written to a Canadian Gov
eminent agent from Upton. Indiana,
IL 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 copy of the letter:
Upton, Ind, Nov. %, 1906.
"At your earnest solicitation a party |
of US from Upton left May Is for |
Western Canada. Our interviews with
yun 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
eye 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 way beautiful to
see. An hour or two later we steamed
into Winnipeg. Here we found num-
Der of surprises. A hundred thousand
souls well housed, with every con-
venience that goes to make modern
pp-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
OF at 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 pillow
turning it's twenty or thirty acres
day, the sod house, the Imprinted
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 te
be. We talked with men and visited
their places that four years ago wal
unbroken prairie. Their houses
barns, implements and live stock wer'
the equal of anything in Upton Coun
ty, and why not, when they were rails
ing five, ten ard twenty. yes, in ont
instance, forty thousand bushels o
: wheat a year. The fact that sucl
! large yields of wheat are raised 81
easily and so surely impressed u
> very favorably. And when we say
. men who four or five years ago com
menced there with two or three thou
= sand dollars, and were now as wei
9 fixed and making money much easie
9 and many times faster than lots Q
our acquaintances on Indiana term
Q fifty years cleared and valued at fou
/ times as much. we decided to inves1
q So we bought In partnership a littl
p over two thousand acres, some OF
s improved and in wheat.
d Before leaving Indiana we agree
that il the opportunities were as gree
e as they were represented to be, tina
y We would buy, and own in partne
p ship body of land. and leave one {
our number to look after and operat
IS it. This We accordingly did.
b. Just before time to thresh l r.
m ceived letter from him. What sha
a. we do?" said he; I've got to bull
granaries. OThere's so much whes
h that the railways are just swampe'
e, We can't get cars and the elevator
Of are all full / never saw anythin
Of like it,. In reply we wrote. Good IL
Dr. you. Go ahead and build; your stor
sounds better than the letters we use
to get from our friends in Kanss
when they bewailed the fact that tt
AZ hard wheat had been destroyed by II
ie chinch bugs and the corn by n