Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 251, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 November 1917 — IMPROVEMENTS ARE NOT TAXED [ARTICLE]

IMPROVEMENTS ARE NOT TAXED

Western Canada Does Not Tax Stock or Improvements but Collects Tax From Land Speculators. I Owners o£ uncultivated lands in Western Canada are loud In their protests against an extra tax on their lands because they are not under cu - tivatlon. Western Canada, through Its provincial governments, Is endeavoring to force the speculative land owner to either sell his land to a settler or to cultivate it himself. At present a surtax of a few cents an acre is levied against all wild land, so that the owner of land held in its natural state, without improvements, is contributing more taxes to the government than the owner of a farm that is cultivated and even Improved with buildings and stock to the value of thousands of dollars. In order to encourage the farmer to Improve and to go Into stock raising, he is not chargeci one cent of taxes on any of his improvements, implements or stock of any kind. As a result of this surtax on un- , cultivated or speculatively held lands, the owners are now trying to sell them to actual settlers, and, in nearly every instance, have been offering on very easy terms of payment, usually a quarter down, and the balance extending over a term of years at prices muni lower than their productive value would warrant. A world-wide shortage in farm stuffs has given a new value to alt agriculTural products and the margin of profit today is greater than ever in the past. It is true labor and Implements have Increased in price, but It Is now possible to secure 50% profit in farming, and higher. Possibly not on the SIOO to S2OO an acre farm lands but on land that can now. under existing conditions, be purchased at from sls to S3O per acre. Western Canadian farm lands are as productive as any in the 'world and can be as economically farmed. Wheat yields of from 30 to 50 bushels per acre have been common in Western Canada during the past

few years, and the farmers have been too busy farming all they can so as to sell as much wheat as possible at $2.00 to do any talking or writing. It is doubtful if there ever was such an opportunity to make big profits in farming. The value of each year’s crop has been in hundreds of cases more than the market value of the land it was grown on. It is unreasonable to suppose such a condition will last long, as the land now being forced onto the market by surtax on speculative owners will soon become absorbed by those who hate learned of these highly profitable wheat lands. The news is spreading gradually throughout the high priced land districts in the United States, where there is a renewed awakening to the realization that the maximum profit in farming is not being obtained when it is possible to secure from forty to seventy per cent return on the investment in Western Canada. Many who have been planning to visit Western Canadafor the purpose of personally investigating conditions are leaving this month, when the good weather can he enjoyed. As threshing operatlons and marketing of grain is under way, no better time could be selected to secure first hand and reliable information from the farmers themselves. The winter months afford ample time for completing moving arrangements, to allow the settler to take up residence in early spring, so as to get something done next year and to make a start on the big and profitable farming operations in Western Canada.— Advertisement.