The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1909-05-15

larger than the United States. The1r
numbers, limited though they be, are
imbued with an ambition proportion
ate to the extent of their territory
and the richness of it's resources.
Their ambition is shown in the large
ness of their enterprises. They built
the first and only, complete American
trans-continental railway, and are in
the midst of building two others,
while it is Canadian sagacity that is
managing the largest irrigation pro-
ject on our continent This irrigation
system, which is being constructed
by the Canadian Pacific Railway in
southern Alberta, will cover tract
as large as all the United States
government projects combined. 1t is
one of the striking manifestations of
awakened spirit which is transform
ing our northern neighbor.
The final notice, modest one, that
100000 acres of the block were open
to settlement was issued last April.
Two million acres more will follow as
soon as the engineers shall have ex-
tended the canals to serve them. II
this announcement had been made con-
corning lands in Montana or any of
the Western states, the response would
have been a rush and boom, or an
over-subscribed sale by allotment, with
the usual crowding into occupation
and the growth of canvas towns over
night. The reason why there are no
such things in this case is that the
case itself would not permit them
The lands are being taken fast enough,
but the whole condition precludes
haste On the other hand it assures
permanence and prosperity. The far
more serious delays and risks attend
ant upon boom settlements are shut
out altogether, and the incomers are
able to enter upon a fixed and estab-
lished mode of farming and living as
soon as they take actual possession
They are crowding in fast enough now,
and will come in faster as the months
go by.
The reservation extends in the form
of a stubby bow, southeast from Cal
gary. 1t is $50 miles long and forty
miles wide, with a general eastward
slope of seven feet in the mile. The
Canadian Pacific main line traverses
it from end to end.
The water is drawn from the Bow
river at a point two miles below Cal
gary and distributed through system
of main and branch canals that al
ready has a total of about 1000 miles
and will have somewhat over 5000
when completed. From these canals
the water is conducted directly to the
fields, in bitches dug by the farmers
themselves. The Bow river, like all
other natural water in the Dominion
is Crown property and inalienable.
The lands until recently belonged to
the Dominion of Canada. 1t passed to
the Canadian Pacific Railway Company
as part of it's land grant subsidy,
through an agreement under which
the company was to construct an irri-
cation system, and the government
was to furnish water at nominal
rate. Up to the time of that agree
ment none of it could be had at any
price; nor was any of it open to sale
until the company had established it's
plant inaugurated it's system, and
made ready for settlement on very
broad scale.
Alberta is not arid The average
annual rainfall of about twenty inches
is sufficient for successful farming
by the old ordinary method. 1t is not
for lack of water enough to make
things grow, but to show what a we'll
planned and we'll controlled artificial
supply of water will do to make things
grow, and all things grow better, and
to show, moreover, how the real
wealth of an acre of soil may be
brought out, that this enterprise has
been established.
Irrigation is by no means new, nor
confined to arid regions, or places
where the rainfall is light. Primitive
and prehistorical peoples practiced it
with a wisdom our later centuries
would seem to have forgotten. The
common idea that it is useful only in
desert countries may be referred to
the publicity of late years given to