Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1915-05-06
An indiana MAN TELLS
Of WESTERN CANADA
He Is Perfectly Satisfied, and
Tells of His Neighbors Who
Have Done Well.

Walter Harris, formerly lived near
Julietta in Warren township, Indiana
He now lives at Hussar, Alberta In
writing to his home paper in Indiana,
he says that the failure is the man
VINO always bIames the country. He
fails 20 see his own mistakes, has
missed his calling and is not fitted
for farming. The two seasons Just
past have been entirely different In
1913 plenty of rain came in June and
a good crop followed, but the fall was
dry and but little snow in the winter
followed by a very dry summer, and a
short crop. Only those that had
farmed their land properly were able
to meet expenses.
For example, last year the Crow
foot Farming Company, south of
here, threshed from 1850 acres 38,-
600 bushels Of wheat One-half section
made 26 bushels, the poorest of all.
This year on 1850 acres they threshed
nearly $4,000 bushels. Last years
crop sold at rs cents from their own
elevator. What they have sold of
this years crop brought s100 at
threshing time. Eight thousand bush
els unsold would bring now around
s1.25. The manager and part owner
was raised in Ohio and farmed in
Washington several years. He and
his wife spent last winter IN Ohio.
She told me few days ago that the
climate here was much better than
Ohio.
A man by the name of George Clark
threshed rs bushels of oats, As bush
els of barley and 35 bushels of wheat
to the acre. He had $4,000 bushels of
old oats as we'll as wheat and barley
in his granaries that have almost
doubled in price. He came from
Washington, where he sold a large
body of land around $500 that he
bought around $500 per acre. He then
refers to a failure. A large company
in the eastern states, owning large
farm near Hussar pays its manager
$4,000 a year. The farm has not
been a success. Probably the man
ayers fault. Mr.. Harris says condi-
tons are not as good as could be
wished for, but on the ending of the
war good crops, with war prices, will
certainly change conditions, and it
seems to me that the one who owns
land that will raise 100 bushels of
oats, Is bushels of barley or 40 bush
els of wheat is the one who laughs
last"
The above yields may seem exag-
gerations to many, and are far above
the average, but you should remember
that the man who fails is counted in
to make the average, and there are
instances on record here that would
far exceed the above figures.
Nor is grain the only profitable
thing that can be raised here. There
are many fine horse ranches, some of
them stocked with cayuses and bred
to thoroughbreds, and others import
ed from the old countries. They run
on the range nearly all the year. The
owners put up wild hay to feed them
if the snow should get too deep for
them to get the dead grass There
are several hundred in sight of here
most of the time. There are several
cattle ranches north of here that have
from 500 to 1000 head of cattle One
man 1 know sold $4,000 worth of fat
cattle this fall. He winters his cat
tie on farms where they have lots of
straw and water paying Is cents a
month per head, or if there is enough
straw to winter 400 or 500 head they
buy the straw and water and have a
man to look after the cattle.-Adyer-
tisement.