The Winchester news. [volume] (Winchester, Ky.) 1908-19??, 1908-12-03
WESTERN CANADA AS SEEN BY
A NOTED WRITER.

Emerson Hough, the celebrated
novelist, who made a somewhat ex-
tended trip through Western Canada,
during the past summer, grows en-
thusiastic in his description of "The
Last Best West" which comprises
the Provinces of Manitoba, Saskat-
chewan and Alberta, as all other
writers who have ever visited that
great country. To extract from what
he has said we find the following:
"That black strip across the land
scape-it was not the shadow of
passing cloud, but the record of a
plough These yellow gray bands
were the fields of stubble already
reaped. These other bands of green,
of pale yellow, of deep bright yellow
they were the fields Of wheat,
among which the binders were yet to
do their work! The centuries old
soil was finding its first upturned ex-
Iposure to the sun. Surely the plough
had come! There is no more thrill
ing wilderness just passing into the
first loose fingers of civilized mans
Occupation.
'H1ere was the wheat, crowding up
l he trail, high as the wagon seat
al e drove through. AT the edge Of
ofA 'umbling COW mans unowned
buff pg occupied range, we reached
do and plucked off ripe wheat in
han Il, crumpling out into the palm
the full ears ftriple-rowed kernels,
magnificent grain, the food which the
world must have-that grain upon
which the whole civilization of the
earth seems SO strangely to depend ;
for, when the wheat has come, civili-
cation has taken hold of the land
never again to loose its grasp. One
who loves the open air and the wild
world cannot suppress sigh of re-
greet at first thought of the PASSING
plains, at the thought of the dead
romance of the rancher; but, none
the less, there must come the sOberer
thought that the wilderness of this
world, as well as the scant fields of
the older world, belong to the world
and the worlds peoples.
Extended personal INQUIRY in the
course of a long journey failed to
discover one farmer who was home
sick or disconnected, or who de-
clared that he was going back to
Old England or to the States With
out exception they declared that they
were not only contented, but pros
porous. In most cases their one OF
two crops had given them their lands
and their first farmstead buildings of
rude comfort, at least, fully paid for;
and this land was their own. No
basement life for these settlers, nor
for their children, nor their chill
dren's children; no rack rents, nc
struggle with a worn, exhausted soil
no cap-touching to. a so-called su
perior class. Here was a different
field for humanity. Is there any diff
ficulty in predicting the difference be-
tween the product of such fields and
and those Of the 'pent and huddled
East?'
at was a fascinating sight. this
middle land between the old and the
new. Most fascinating of al was
the air of hope and confidence. Some
thing set the blood tngling in the
veins No one here spoke Of despair
or Encouragement. These men made
no repining at their lots as frontier
farmers. Their sole and engrossing
concern was the question Of means
of getting out their wheat to the
markets-for even in Western Can
ada farming has run in advance of
transportation.
''In such regions as this, one still
travels as one likes across country,
paying no attention to roads; al
though now and again one comes up
on roads rudely ploughed along the
section lines, in some case, near the
railroads, fairly well worked. The
time Of the main Travelled road is
passing rapidly, even in Canada.
Soon the fences will come along the
highways, and all travel will follow
the lines bounding artificial rectan-
giles. Exulting in our liberty, for the
most mart our party continued to
travel direct toward a destination.
We still held to the prairies; and
still on every side of us was wheat,
wheat. wheatp'