Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 209, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 September 1914 — CANADA AS FOUND BY FORMER RESIDENT [ARTICLE]

CANADA AS FOUND BY FORMER RESIDENT

Not a Dry, Arid Region, But a Country of Progress and Opportunity.

Langdon, Alberta, Can,, Aug. 28 Editors Republican: Will you kindly allow me enough space to reply briefly to ap article published in the Jasper County Democrat, dealing with the recent visit of Ed and Wile Duvall to Alberta’, and giving the impression they formed of th is country op a hurried trip through' a very small portion of it.

As I have been»a resident of Alberta for the past eight years, I feel that I. should be qualified tq teU something of the actual conditions here. I have not only been a repl dent here,..but an active, working farmer, living on my land and cropping from 1,000 to 2,000 acres of land every year. So my observations have not been made in a flying trip along one railway line and on out of the country the quickest Way possible. > . To* begin with, the Canadian Northern railway on which the Duvall’s traveled from Calgary to Richdale, follows down Servicebenry creek and Rosebud river, and is in a deep canyon most of the way, so tourists can see but very little of the farming districts tributary to the line. For the information of the Duvalls and thC Jasper County Democrat’ I will say that Inverlake station, a Shipping point withput an elevator, on the Canadian Pacific railway, near where the ’Canadian Northern crosses, last ytfaf shipped 65 ears of oats and barley. Dalroy, another point near, without an Elevator, shipped over 80 ears. My own village of Langdon shipped over 230 cars and has three active elevators.

As to dry weather, it is but natural that we should have an occasional dry year in a prairie country. No prairie country escapes. But I will truthfully say thiUt even in our dryest years, of which we have had but two since I have been in the country, those farmers who summer fallowed and worked their land well, have always grown a good crop. Even this year, one of the two dry seasons I have experienced, we have excellent crops bn summer-fallow land and right in the Richdale district, where the Duvalls went, there are crops of spring wheat vfhich will yield 22 to 28 bushels, and oats that will yield 50 bushels per acre. I will admit that on land just, across the road where the farming methods wqre not right apd the- kind Was “scratched in”, as we call it, the crop is a failure. But it is not the fault of the country nor the climate. It must be laid at the door of poor farming methods, slip-shod farmers and a desire to get-rich-quick. As to hailstorms, any thoughful man knows that in every prairie, country in the world there are occasional hail storms covering narrow strips of- country and doing more or.less damage to individual crops, but in spite of these occasional storms the Dakotas, lowa, Nebraska and other western states have grown into thriving, prosperous communities. In the Edmonton district, where the Duvalls saw such havoc from "frost,” are some of the finest stock farms, dairies and mixed farming propositions on the American continent. And many of these excellent properties have been actually builded up from the raw land by men who had nothing to start with. They have produced It all from the country and they aj*e properties of which any country may well be proud. Do your readers imagine that capitalists build elevators where grain never grows? Do railroad companies build hundreds of miles of main and branch lines through desert countries, just for the, funof it? '

I may say that the Canadian Northern has just completed the line on which the Duvalls traveled east from Calgary and th’ B flrst season of its operation every small village along the line has from one to four elevators. Craig/nyle, Hanna, Youngstown, Chinook, Cereal, Oyen, Alsack, all of these small towns have elevators and grain loading platforms and are all thriving villages, for their age. And in every settlement adjacent to these towns are excellent crops this year, where the land has been properly cultivated. And, also, in every one of these districts are unsuccessful farmers whose methods have not been right and who are trying to get out of the country. Hoping that thesb few facts may convince your readers that Western Canada is not altogether a desert, and that people are Mving happily and« prospering here, I am Ytrara truly, < F, M. LEWIS. P. S. Rensselaer hiring my childhood home and being acquainted with Mr. Wile Duval}, I feel as if I should add a few lines to my husband’s letter and answer a few things he has neglected. First, of schoolsoFe have the best. AIF teachers have to have a normal school training before they areveligible to teach. Churches In all the small towns are well supplied, Langdon having four modem buildings, all being buflt within eight years. It also lias a modem eightroom school building, with all grades khd high school advantages.