The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1914-10-23
CANADA OPENS
new LANDS
Five Million Acres Being
Surveyed for Settlers.
Railroads Helping In Movemen
and Vast Wheat Fields
Will Appear.

million acres of government land in
the western province of Canada, now
being surveyed by the Department of
! the Interior, will be opened for
! homesteading purposes in short
I time. This work is being done in
widely separate districts, from
! Northern Manitoba to the valleys in
| British Columbia. Twelve hundred
men and an equal number of horses
are required to carry on the work of
meeting the demands of the incom-
! ing homeseek ers. The frontier is be-
| ing pushed north and westward from
| the great lakes. Each season the
! farmer is encroaching on the fur
trappers' domain and often the race
is between the surveyor and the
settler.
The chief scene of activity in the
province of Alberta is in the Peace
River district, north of Edmonton,
where forty-five townships are being
subdivided into quarter sections of
! 100 acres each.
This will provide 6400 home
steads, or block of land more than
forty miles square. In "the Peace
River block" a tract Of 100000
acres, surveys are being made in
the vicinity of Fort st. John and
Hudson's Hope, 600 miles by road
from Edmonton. This land was con-
veyed to the dominion by the pro-
vince of British Columbia.
Another surveyor is subdividing
lands in the vicinity of North Yer
million, on the Peace River, 700
miles distant by road from Edmon-
ton. At this place wheat has been
successfully grown for years, and the
Hudson's Bay Company has a large
and well equipped grist mill manu-
featuring flour by modern processes
to supply its trading posts in the far
north.
The Peace River provides a natur-
al means of communication in the
district. The supervising surveyor at
North Vermilion transported his
party of men and horses by means of
scows from Peace River Crossing, a
distance of ESQ miles, the trip &C.
cupying six days. Another party, en-
gagged beyond the northern boundary
of Alberta, is making settlement sur
veys at Fort Providence and other
points along the Mackenzie
But the homeseeker does not have
to enter the wilds of the north coun-
try to find suitable land for farming
and stock growing. There are several
million acres OF fertile lands within
a radius of 100 to $50 miles OF Ed
monitor, which is an important rail-
way center of the Canadian North
ern and Grand Trunk Pacific rail
ways, and Quitting point for the up
per districts in Alberta and north
eastern British Columbia. In addi-
ton, several million acres of land
will be opened to settlement with
the completion of the Alberta and
Great Waterways Railroad, which
the Provincial Government is build
ing from Edmonton to Fort McMur-
ray, a distance of 2S9 miles. Ninety
five miles of grade has been COM
pleted and twenty-five miles of steel
is laid.
The Edmonton, Dunvegan and
British Columbia Railway, of which
j. ID. Macarthur is president and
builder. also will open a vast area
of land north and west of Edmonton.
One hundred and siXty-nine miles OF
the line is now in operation and
about 100 miles additional will be
completed before the close of the
season. The Alberta Central Railway
is pushing its line from Round Lake
to Peace River Crossing. While in
Edmonton recently Mr.. Macarthur
said the European war would have
no effect upon construction work. He
has 1900 men and 500 teams on the
lines.
When these lines are completed il
will be possible to take out millions
of tons of asphalt, sandstone, gravel
gypsum and base minerals and a
large amount of timber and pulp
wood. A number of rigs are at work
sinking oil and gas wells. The rivers
contain. sufficient potential electric
power to drive every wheel i'm West
ern Canada. The lakes contain fish
in commercial quantities and the
land is adapted to all forms of mixed
farming.
The Edmonton Industrial Associa-
ton, headed by w. j. Magrath, has a
large committee at work gathering
data of lands available in Central