The Green Forest tribune., 1908-09-04

this is Alberta's banner year in grain production, as it is Saskatchewan and Manitoba's, and from figures al ready in it is estimated that Alberta's wheat will yield on an average of THIR- TY-FIYE BUSHELS TO THE ACRE. Ill many parts of the province returns vii! show yield of as high as FIFTY bushels to the acre and it is freely predicted by many that when the of ficial figures are in yield of at least forty-tye instead of thirty-five bushels to the acre will be shown.
 At the time of my last journey through the Canadian West, when my purpose was largely to secure statis- tical matter for book use, I solicited letters from American settlers in all parts of the three provinces, and most of these make most interesting read ing. The letter was written by A. Kal- tenbrunner, whose postoffice address is Regina, Saskatchewan.
 "A few years ago. he says, q took up homestead for myself and also one for my son. The half section which We own is between Rouleap and Drinkwater, adjoining the Moosejaw creek, and is a low, level and heavy land. Last year We put in 100 acres of wheat which went 25 bushels to the acre. Every bushel of it was No l. That means the best wheat that can be raised on earth-worth 90 cents bushel at the nearest elevators. We also threshed 5000 bushels of first class oats out of 160 acres. Eighty acres was fall blowing AND YIELDED NINETY BUSHELS TO THE ACRE. We got 53 cents a bushel clear. All our grain was cut in the last week of the month of August We will make more money out of our crops this year than last. For myself, 1 feel com pelled to say that Western Canada crops cannot be checked, even by un- usual conditions"
 An itemized account shows Q single years earnings of this settler and his son to be as follows:
 2,500 bushels of wheat at 90 cents
 bushel S2,250 5000 bushels of oats at 5 cents
 a bushel..................... 4,77G
 Total ................=. f,020
 It will be seen by the above that this mans oat crop was worth twice as much as his wheat crop. While the provinces of western Canada will for all time to come be the worlds greatest wheat growing regions, oats are running the former grain a close race for supremacy. The soil and eli. matic conditions ill Manitoba Sas- katchewan and Alberta are particular ly favorable to the production of oats, and this grain, like the wheat, runs a far greater crop to the acre than in even the best grain producing states of the union. Ninety bushels to the acre is not an unusual yield, whole homesteads frequently running this average. And this is not the only ad- vantage Western Canada oats have over those of the United States, for in weight they run between forty and fifty pounds to the bushel. while No. l wheat goes to sixty-two pour as to the busheI In fact. so heavy is Canadian grain of all kinds, and espe- eially the wheat. that throughout the west one will see cars with great placards upon them. which read:
 This car is not to be filled to ca pacity with Alberta wheat"
 When l made my first trip through the Canadian West few years ago I found thousands of settlers living in rude shacks, tent shelters and homes of logs and clay. Today one will find these old "homes' scattered from Manitoba to the Rockies, but they are no longer used by human tenants Modern homes have taken their place for it has come to be a common say ing in these great grain regions that, 'tThe first year a settler is in the land he earns a living; the second he has money enough to build himself mod ern home and barns; the third he is independent" And as extreme as this statement may seem to those hun- dreds of thousands of American farm CTS who strive for a meager existence, it is absolutely true. I am an Ameri- can, as patriotic, I believe, as most of our people-but even at that l cannot but wish that these people, whose lives are such an endless and unhappy grind, might know of the new life that is awaiting them in this last great west-this land of greater hope" where the farmer is king, and where the wealth all rests in his hands. As one American farmer said to me, Tt is hard to pull up stakes and move a couple of thousand miles," And so it is-or at least it appears to be. But In a month it can be done And the first year, when the new settler reaps a greater harvest than he has ever possessed before, he will rise with 100000 others of his people in Western Canada and thank the gov ernment that has given him, free of cost, new life, new home, and new hopes-whieh has made of him, in fact, "A man among men, possessor of wealth among his people,"