Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1910-01-13

country; they know how to govern;
we know how to work"
Another farmer, from Minnesota,
who settled in Central Saskatchewan
some years ago, has the following to
say about the country:
My wife and 1 have done well
enough since We came from the States;
we can live, anyway. We came in the
spring Of 1901, with the first carload
of settlers effects unIoaded in these
parts, and built the first shanty be-
tween Saskatoon and Lumsden. We
/ brought with our car of settlers eff
fects the sum Of 1900 in cash, to-
day we are worth $4,000. We proved
up one Of the finest farms in Western
Canada, and bought 800 acres at SO
| per acre. We took good crops off the
land for four years, at the end Of
which we had $4,000 worth Of i'm
proVements in the way Of buildings,
ETC., and had planted three acres OF
trees. Two years ago we got such
good offer that we sold our land at S45
per acre. From the above you will
see that we have not done badly since
our arrival"
Prof. Thomas Shaw, of st. Paul,
Minnesota, with a number Of other
well known editors of American farm
journals, toured Western Canada re-
Gently, and in an interview at Winni-
| peg said, in part:
With regard to the settlement of
| the West l should say that it is only
well begun. l have estimated that
| in Manitoba one-tenth of the land
had been broken, in Saskatchewan
one-thirtieth, and in Alberta, one-hun-
dred and seventy-ffth. I am satisfied
that in all three provinces grain can
be grown successfully up to the six
tieth parallel, and in the years to
come your vacant lands will be taken
at a rate of which you have at present
no conception. We have enough people
in the United States alone, who want
homes, to take up this land.
What you must do in Western Can
| ada is to raise more live stock When
you are doing what you ought to do
in this regard the land which is now
selling for $40 an acre will be worth
from $50 to 500 per acre. 1t is as
good land as that which is selling for
more than $500 per acre in the corn
| belt.
l would sooner raise cattle in West
ern Canada than in the corn belt of
| the United States. You can get your
| food cheaper and the climate is bet.
| ter for the purpose. We have a bet
| ter market, but your market will i'm
prove faster than your farmers will
| produce the supplies. Winter wheat
| can be grown in one-half of the coun.
| try through which [ have passed, and
| alfalfa and one of the varieties of
| clover in three-fourths of it. The
| farmers do not believe this, but it is
true"
Keeping pace with wheat production,
the growth of railways has been quite
| as wonderful, and the whole country,
| from Winnipeg to the Rocky Noun
| tains, will soon be a network of
| trunk and branch lines. Three great
transcontinental lines are pushing con-
| struction in every direction, and at
each siding the grain elevator is to be
| found. Manitoba being the first set.
| tied province, has now an elevator ca
| pacity of upwards of 25,0O0,000 bush
els; Saskatchewan, 20,000,OO0, and AL
berta about 100000, while the ca
pacity of elevators at Fort William
and Port Arthur on the Great Lakes,
is upwards of 100000 more
Within the provinces of Manitoba.
Saskatchewan and Alberta there are
flour and oatmeal mills with a com
bined capacity of $4,000 barrels per
day, and situated along some famous
water powers in New Ontario, there
are larger mills than will be found
anywhere in the prairie provinces.
Last year the wheat crop totalled
| over 100,000,000 bushels. This year
the crop will yield 30,0OO,OOO more
A recent summary shows that on the
1st of January, 1909, the surveyed
lands of the three western provinces
| totalled 134,000,000 acres, of which
about 100000 have been given as
| subsidies to railways, 100000 dis
! posed of in other ways, and 3S,000,000
given by the Canadian government as
free .homesteads, being $4,000 home
| steads of 100 acres each. Of this
| enormous territory, there is probably
under crop at the present time less
than 100000 acres; what the re-
| suits will be when wide awake set
tiers have taken advantage of Canada's
offer and are cuItivating the fertile