The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-10-18
SOUTH'S FARMS SHOULD PROVE
 PIONEER LURE
By JAMES CRUIKSHANK, International News Service Staff
 Correspondent.

Wilmington, N. C., Oct.1S.-"Nearly 10000 American farmers have pur- chased 3,OO0,OO0 Canadian acres this Summer. They are transplating their food-proddcing energies to Canada, to the Dominion's profit and to Uncle Sam's loss. Land in Canada is cheap. The time is coming when it won't be cheap. Acreage will cost as much there as here. And what then is the farmer going to do? Where is the going? The rest of the world except ing Siberia and the Sahara already is crowded"
 The above paragraph is from an editorial in a Minneapolis newspaper, a community which feels the drain of rural northwest United States more than most parts of this country, for it is from the West the chief exodus of American farmers across the Can adian border is taking place.
 The Minneapolis newspaper in its last sentence is entirely wrong. The world is not overcrowded with the exception of Siberia and the Sahara. The South has vacant land, lot of 1t, cannot be raised in Western Canada except in hothouses. The writer knows about land values in Western Canada from first hand experience. First-clasS, well-improyed farms ad- joining the chief cities of the Canad- | ian Western provinces cost from $1OO to $125 an acre. but at such figure | excellent houses, barns. granaries, w l included. Land which has not been 1 improved or wild" land as it is known in the Canadian West, can, be bought for from $20 to $75 an acre, | ters.
 Canadian Handicaps.
 | The price may seem cheap to some, | but consider what the land can raise. | Wheat is the main crop, with oats, | barley and flax next in order Twenty | bushels of wheat is reckoned a very 1 fair yield, indeed. Prior to the war | that returned about $15 to $20 an acre. ! same gross return. Western Canada
 also raises livestock, but feed must be
 put up in the Summer to Winter the | stock through a period of six months 1 when the ground is covered with l snow. There is not a mile of hard
 surfaced road in the Western prov inces outside of the limits of some of the principal cities. The farmers have 1 made money in Western Canada be- cause most of those who are pros porous now bought land at around $4
 to S10 an acre, prior to 1908, are i wealthy today, because their lands have greatly increased in value.
 Consider the great difference in the possible returns from farm in West ern Canada and one in the South | Less than a 320-acre farm is almost | useless in the Western grain belt, be-
 cause only two crops of grain can be successfully raised without Summer following.
 Some Canadian Costs.
 II To acquire a farm of 32O acres ir
 the Western wheat belt of wild land
 remote from a settlement only to Dc
 reached by miserable prarle trails
 will cost at least $6.400. To buy foul
 horses. and a less number is useless because the season is short and the field work must. be done on big scale costs another $500. Farm implement. and buildings at the lowest estimate , will take another s2,000, or total O.
 S920O in order for the farmer to b' , in shape to start to work. Then ht blows his virgin prairie in Aprile ol