Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 54, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 February 1904 — In a Prairie Land. [ARTICLE]

In a Prairie Land.

(Editorial correspondence.) „ Moose Jaw, Assinibola. (Farmers’ Review, Chicago, July 22, 1903.) Most of the prairies in the United States have ceased to exist. Man has broken them up with ,orchards, forests and farm buildings. But in Western Canada the prairies still stretch grandly from horizon to horizon as yet unmafred by the hand of man, save where the Iron road has beon laid. To a city man there is something deliciously restful about the vast grassy solitudes. Numerous clumps of trees mark the course of the Assiniboine River, which keeps in sight of the railroad for som? distance. < “Grass Is one of the niotable things about all the landscape of Western Canada. It is a remarkable fact that the entire length of the Canadian Pacific Railway from Its eastern terminus to the Rocky Mountains is over plains where grass grows. The sage brush appears at some points, but never to the exclusion of grass. There is thus not a mile of this country that cannot he used for some agricultural purpose—either for tilling or ranching. “Moose Jaw is a town of over 2,000 inhabitants and one of the most important places In Asslnlhoia, being the center of a very good farming country and a great grain and stock shipping point. “Near Moose Jaw agriculture and ranching go hand in hqnd; for near the town was seen a herd of beef cattle several hundred In number. Or another side was seen a good sized herd of dairy cows, the property of the citizens in the town. “In riding over the prairies we saw many good fields of alfalfa. The great need of the country Is timber, which grows readily where planted, ns was demonstrated by the shelter belts on some of the farms and the trees on tiie residence lots in the town. “Stories were told the writer of men who last year cleared from their wheat crop more than the land on which It was grown originally cost them. This Is easy to believe in view of the large crop and tyigh price for wheat last year.”—Henry F. Thurston. By sending your address to any agent of the Canadian Government you will have mailed to you a copy of nn Atlas, railway rates, etc., giving fullest information regarding Western Canada.