The Benson signal., 1916-07-15
WESTERN CANADA AND
THE LAND.HUNGRY
II Is Essentially an Agricultural
Country.

Western Canada is the Mecca Of the
land-hungry man who wishes to earn
u good living from the soil and save up
money to take care of him in his old
age without paying fancy price for
the privilege.
Western Canada is the great wheat
producing section of the North Amer
ican continent, with an average pro-
duction of more than 80 bushels to the
acre as compared with an average Of
II bushels to the acre in the States.
Wheat raising can hardly be made
profitable on land that costs from $50
an acre up unless such land will pro-
duce much higher than II bushel
average, or unless the price of the
cereal reaches an excessive figure.
The initial investment of $50 an acre
is more than the average man can af-
ford to make if he expects to raise
wheat and to make success of it.
A good homestead of 100 acres can
still be secured free in Western Can
ada and additional land admirably
suited to the raising of wheat can be
secured at so low a cost per acre that
it can be made extremely profitable.
No other part of the world offers
such tremendous opportunities at the
present time to the ambitious young
farmer as the three great provinces of
Western Canada.
1t is worth the while of the land
hungry man to cease his depressing
search for local cheap land or for
land that is not entirely worked out by
long cropping and to look outside his
own district. Western Canada is a
country that should receive the con-
sideration of all such men. The West
ern Provinces of Manitoba, Saskatche-
wan and Alberta are essentially agri-
cultural territory.
Out of 47S million acres there are
$50 million acres of first-class agricul-
tural land actually available for de-
velopment-a block three and half
times as large as the total land area of
Minnesota, and equal to the combined
land areas of Minnesota, Iowa, Wis
cOnsin, Illinois and Indiana.
| five states mentioned is fifteen million
people, the population of Western
Canada is only about one and three
quarter millions.
1t has been said that the average
yield per acre of wheat in the United
States last year was II bushels. This.
average does not, of course, represent
the efficiency which may have been
reached by individual farmers or by
individual states. However, place
against this figure the fact that the
1915 Western Canadian average-the
average from nearly twelve million
acres-was over 30 bushels. In the
case of the Province Of Alberta. the
| average reached 1884 bushels per acre.
There are already large number of
American farmers in Western Canada,
so that the newcomer could never
overlooking the fact that the same
language is SpOken-feel himself in an
alien country. There seems, in fact,
tendency to establish little colonies
composed of those coming from the
same sections. The characteristics IF
the country, and the climate and
season, are very much the same as in
Minnesota or North Dakota. Social
conditions bear family resemblance.
Education is free, and is good ; it's cost
being betrayed partly by taxation,
partly by grants from the Canadian
Government, from the sales of school
lands of which, when the country was
first surveyed, two sections in every
township were allocated. Taxation in
every rural district, in many towns and
cities, is based practically on land
values alone, improvements of all kinds
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