The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-03-22
BACK TO FARMo
 MOVEMENT
ILLINOIS CONTRIBUTED $22,5OO,- 900 TO TOTAL ssSo.OOo,Ooo
 TAKEN IN EXCAVATIONS.
Settlement Increased by 45O. O.OOO. 900 Acres and New Land will Increase by s.Ooo.0oO Bushels the Crop of 191o-In United States Trend is Toward Irrigated Areas.

by s.OOo.OoO Bushels the Crop of 191o-In United States Trend is
 Toward Irrigated Areas.
 Chicago, March 22.-Fifteen thou
 sand residents of Chicago and Illinois, taking a capital of $22, ,500,O00, joined
 the s.back to the soil'' movement in the Immigration year. which ended
 March l. About one half of them went into Western Canada. Estimates for the entire country, compiled from governmental and private sources, show that 25o,0oO persons took part in
 the migration. Of these nearly half,
 or 100000 settled in Canada, and the
 other 150, 900 in various parts of this
 country, on public and private irriga-
 ton tracts in the South and West.
 March, the end of the farm settle
 ment year, also marks the crest of
 the movement for the succeeding year, and the next twelve months promise
 to show more activity than the past year. The amount of individual capi-
 tai involved. in this tremendous mi $35O, ,0o6 o0o. William Pearson of Win nipeg, who colonized the Last Noun tain Valley, estimates the average amount per person brought into Wes7 tern Canada by immigrants from the United States at $1,000; or a total of $10O, ,000,o00 for the year. The 15000C who settled on farms in the United States had an average of $2,O00 each a total of $200,oO 900. C.. J. Broughs ton, the Canadian Government agent in Chicago, has estimated that 4,0Oo year to take up public lands ssThrough the United States ad- ded MT. Broughton, sfthe reports which have come to us from the three thou sand government agents and sub agents point to a larger emigration in the next twelve months than we fact that in the last twelve months 10, 900 American homesteaders alone, with their homesteads and preemptions have taken up 2,400,O00 acres of free Western Canadian lands. Next year if they place under wheat only 30 acres on each of their homesteads and pre- emptions, it will give 45O,O00 addition al acres under wheat; and 1T the yield next year averag IS bushels to l the acre, as it did last year, these 1O,- GOO American Homesteaders alone will l produce 8,100,o00 bushels. This, of l course, is entirely apart from the ad- acreage that will be seeded by | buyers of privately owned lands and l by those settlers who have been in l the country some time"
 As MT Broughton's figures show, | most of the American settlers do not | take up free honesteads, but rather purchase and settle upon privately | owned lands along the Canadian l Northern and other railroads, purchas- | ing from owners Of great empires who l
 
 dreds of thousands of acres. The | trend of the farm movement in the | United States, according to c. l.. | of the United States Re Service, seems to be toward i irrigated lands, many of the farmers in the older states selling their prop | erty to ..new farmers and investing | in irrigated land further west. His statement is upheld by the most of the large land companies there. On the other hand, this irrigation move nent'' has rather tended to help than to retard the migration to the rain land" of Western Canada. ''The in lux of American settlers into the Last Mountain Valley in Saskatchewan says MT. Pearson, t'is steadily increas- ng, That district has seen a trans formation; a great region which few years ago was virgin prairie now s served by seven railways and the grain elevators are monster ones.
 Charles L. Waite,, until recently in ,h,a rge in Chicago of Uncle Sans s set Iement work, has said that work has oeen hampered because of delays in completion of irrigation projects so he land could be settled upon. How sver," says MT. Waite, t'this has not Persons who have not low greatly wrought up the American IS if every other person is possessed with the idea that he must own piece if farm land. Private and public land
 CTEn @0Nl