Mexico Missouri message., 1913-03-06
WESTERN CANADA'S
PHENOMENAL
DEVELOPMENT
ITS PERMANENcY VERY LITTLE
QUESTIONED.

There have been booms IN almost |
every civilized country and they were
looked upon as such, and in the course |
Of time the bubble was pricked and
they burst. But in no country has the |
development been as great nor as |
rapid. whether in city or in country, |
as In Western Canada. There may |
sometimes be found one who will say |
Can it last?" Winnipeg, today, stands
where Chicago stands as far as be-
ing the bese Of the great commercial
and agricultural country lying =
thousand miles back OF it. 1t has n
advantage that Chicago did not have,
for no country in the worlds history
has attracted to it's borders a larger
number of settlers in SO short time,
or has attracted so much wealth in a
period of equal length, as have the
Canadian prairies. Never before has
pioneering been accomplished under
conditions so favorable as those that
exist in Western Canada today
The provinces of Manitoba, Sas-
katchewan, and Alberta have the
largest area of desirable lands on the
North American Continent, and their
cultivation has just begun.
Even with a two hundred million
bushel wheat crop less than eight per
cent. of the land is under the plough,
four per cent. being in wheat. Less
than FIVE years ago the wheat crop
was only seventy-one million bushels.
II is a simple calculation to estimate
that IL four per cent. of the available
cultivable area produces something
| over two hundred million bushels,
what will forty-four per cent. produce?
| And then look at the immigration that
is coming into the country. In 1901
it was 49,149; 1900 being from the
| United States. In. 1906 1t was 1S9O64,
of which $1,000 were Americans, and
| in 1912 it was about 100000, of which
| about 200 900 are Americans. In the
three years prior to 1912, there were
| 35S,S59 persons who declared them
selves for Canada, who brought into
| Canada in cash, bank drafts, stock
implements and effects over s350,000,.
coo. Why have they gone to Canada?
The American farmer is man Of
shrewd business instincts, and when
he finds that he can sell his own farm
at from 800 to 5000 per acre and move
into Canada and homestead 160 acres
for himself, and similarly for all his
sons who are adult and OF age, upon
lands as rich and fertile as those he
had left, and producing, indeed, sew
eral bushels to the acre in excess oi
anything he has ever known, it vii
take more than an ordinary effort te
prevent him from making the change
He can also purchase good lands a
from $12 to S25 per acre.
And, then, too there Is the Ameri
can capital following the capital o
Drawn. muscle and sinew, following !
so as to keep in touch with the indus
trious farmer with which he has hat
dealings for years back. This capita
and the capital of farming experience
is no small matter in the building VI
of country.
VIII Western Canada's development
continue? Why not? The total are;
of land reported as available for cul
tivation is estimated as 218,000,O0'
acres; only fifteen per cent. Of this II
under cultivation. Nothing is said o
the great mineral and forest wealth
of which but little has yet beel
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