The Benson signal., 1919-04-05
LAND Value FIXED
Depends Altogether on Power of
Giving Wealth.
That Is Why the Fertile Acres Of West.
ern Canada, With Adjacent Mar
kets, Are So Attractive
to Settlers.

Throughout every portion of the
Western Empire lands that are capable
Of producing are in great demand.
agricultural wealth, land prices have
increased within the past three or
four years to a degree that ten years
ago would not have been thought to
be possible. Land that sought buyers
at $1O0 an acre five years ago is
changing hands at 5000 an acre. The
secret of this does not lie altogether
in the higher prices of farm products
FOR the expense of production has in
creased proportionately. The better
methods of farming have had a good
deal to do with it, and the knowledge
that demands for farm products will
be sufficiently great for a good many
years to come to insure continuation
of the high prices that prevail at
present. Then, again, improved ma
chinery, the tractor and other means
Of economic power will tend to lessen
the cost.
Governing land values, too, are cli-
mates, soil, moisture, settlement. rail-
roads, markets. Without markets, no
matter how much the other factors en-
ter into it, the land is merely of
speculative value.
1t is not more than a third Of a
century since ninety per cent of
the land in Western Canada, now oc-
cupied and TILED, and producing
enough in one year to give profit
Of from twenty-five to thirty dollars
per acre, was unoccupied or used as
grazing land, and worth very little.
These lands today are valuable, and
are being sought by settlers who real
lie their present and future value.
There is no portion of the world that
Is attracting the same attention. The
soil may have improved in the past
centuries with the fertilizing given it
BY nature; the climate has not
changed, and the moisture may be
considered the same. These are three
Of the essentials Of good land. What
they lacked third of century ago
was markets. fourth essential.
These they have now. Thus provided,
1t is not to be wondered at that these
millions of acres with their great
wealth, which have so long been awaits
ing the awakening touch of mankind,
are now to be found adding to the
available wealth of the world. With
the advent Of railroads, throwing their
great trunks Of steel across the con-
hnent and over the surface of these
boundless plains, spreading out their
tentacles to remoter parts, the world
at large has begun to realize that here
was a country possessing all the nat
ural advantages claimed by older COM
munities; that land here just as good
or better, acre for acre, as their own
could be had for almost the asking.
With the realization of the fore
going facts came the people, who
found that a railway had preceded
them and markets already existed for
anything that they might care to
raise. These markets have greatly
expanded and, are capable Of still
greater expansion, and assure to the
ngriculturist the prevailing prices of
the world. An assured market means
added value to every acre of land in
Western Canada, and the near future
will see lands that are now selling
at exceptionally low prices begin to
increase in value, just as they have in
Eastern Canada and the United States.
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