The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1913-03-15
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 base of the great commercial
and agricultural country lying a
thousand miles back of it. It has an
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 a 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.
It is a simple calculation to estimate
that if 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 it was 189, 064.
of which $1,000 were Americans, and
in 1912 it was about 100000, of which
about 100000 are Americans. In the
three years prior to 1912, there were
$685. 59 persons who declared them
selves for Canada, who brought into
Canada in cash, bank drafts, stock,
implements and effects over $3.50, 000,
600. Why have they gone to Canada?
The American farmer is a 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 1anaOd ana homestead lou 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 of
anything he has ever known, it will
take more than an ordinary effort to
prevent him from making the change
He can also purchase good lands at
from S12 to S25 per acre.
And, then, too, there is the Amer1-
can capital following the capital OF
Drawn, muscle and sinew, following it
so as to keep in touch with the indus
trious farmer with which he has had
dealings for years back. This capital
and the capital of farming experience
is no small matter in the building up
of country.
VIII Western Canada's development
continue? Why not? The total area
Of land reported as available for cul-
tivation is estimated as 218,000,00O
acres; only fifteen per cent. of this is
under cultivation. Nothing is said of
the great mineral and forest wealth,
Of which but little has yet been
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