Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 38, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 March 1906 — IMPRESSED WITH WESTERN CANADA. [ARTICLE]

IMPRESSED WITH WESTERN CANADA.

Saya Our Prairies Will Be Filled Up In Ten Tearai '' L. A. Stockwell, of Indianapolis, a United States land man, who made an , extensive tour of inspection In the West, wrote the following article, under date of Jan. 8, for an Indiana publicatlrm: ■ / , ■ “States.”—ln this letter I propose to show by extracts from my note book that thousands who have come up here from the “States” have succeeded far beyond theit most sanguine expectations. Mr. N. E. Beaumunk, of Brazil, Ind., was earning SIOO per mouth with a coal company. At about the age of 40 he had saved about $3,000. Four years ago he lauded near Hanley, Sask. He now owns 450 acres of land. Last fall (1905) he threshed 4,700 br.shels of wheat and 3,100 bushels of barley oats. His wheat alone brought him over $4,000, which would have paid for the acres that it grew on. He is to-day worth $15,000. This Is Making; Money Fast. In February, 1902, J. G. Smith & Bro. were weavers in a big cotton mill in Lancashire, England. Coining here, they arrived in Wapella. Sask., with only $750 between thewn. They were so “green” and inexperienced that all they could earn the first summer was $6.00 per month, and the flrat winter they had to work for their board. The next year, 1903, they took homesteads, and. by working for neighbors they got a few acres broken out, upon wfilch the next year they raised a few hundred bushels of wheat and oats. They also bought a team and broke out about sixty acres more. In 1905 they threshed 1.700 bushels of wheat from it, and 1,30(5 bushels of oats. Their success being then assured, they borrowed some money, buljt a good house, barn and implement shed, and bought a cream seimrator, etc. They now have a dozen cows, some full-blooded pigs and chickens. good teams and Implements to match, and are on the high road to prosperity. Here--are three cases selected from my note book from among a score of others. One a mine boss, one a farmer, and one a factory operator. With each of them I took tea and listened to their story. ‘.‘l hoped to better my condition,” said one. “I thought in time I might make a home,” said another. “I had high expectations,” said the other, and all said that "I never dreamed it possible to succeed as I have.” Like Arabian Nights. Everywhere, on the trains, at the hotels and in family, I have been told of successes that reminded me more of the stories in the Arabian Nights than of this matter-of-fact, workaday world. Yields of wheat from 35 to 53 bushels per acre, and of oats of froin 60 to 100 bushels, are numerous in every locality and well authenticated. At Moose Jaw, Lethbridge, Calgary, Edmonton. Regina. Brandon, Hanley and many intermediate places I saw cattle and young horses fat as your grain-fed animals of the “States” that bad never tasted grain, and whose cost to their owners was almost nothing. At Moosomin I saw a train load of 1,400 steers cn route to England, that were shaky fat. raised as above stated. If the older generation of fanners in Indiana, who have sjient their lives in a contort with lags and stumps, as did their fathers before them, could see these broad prairies dotted with comfortable homes, large red barns, and straw piles innumerable, and the thriving towns, with • their towering elevators jammed to the roof with “No. 1 hard,” and then re-

member that four or five years ago these plains were tenantless but for the badger and coyote, they would marvel at the transformation. Then if they followed the crowds ns they emerged from the trains aud hurried to the land offices, standing in line until tlieir respective turns to be waited on came, and saw with what rapidity these lands are being taken, they would certainly catch the “disease” and want some of It too. If these lands are beautiful, in midwinter with their long stretches of yellow stubble standing lilgli above the snow, what must they be in summer time when covered with growing or ripening grain? Speaking of winter reminds me that our Hoosier friends shrug their shoulders when they read In the Chicago and Minneapolis dailies of* the temperature up here. The Canadian literature, with its pictures, half tones and statistics, gives a good Idea of her resources, but thirty or forty degrees below zero sounds dangerous to a Hoosier, who nearly freezes in a temperature of five above, especially when accompanied by a wind, as it often is; but the fact is, when It is very cold here it is still, and the air being dry the cold is not felt as it is in our lower latitudes, where there Is more humidity In the atmosphere. I am 56, and I never saw a finer winter than the one lam spending up here. I arrived in Winnipeg Nov. 0, and have not bnd the itottoms of my overshoes wet since I entered Canada. Under a cloudless sky I have ridden in sleighs nearly a thousand miles, averaging a drive every other day. Stonemasons have not lost a week’s time so far this winter. Building of all kinds goes right abend in every .city and hamlet, ns though winter were never heard of. Information concerning homestead lands in Western Canada can be had from any authorized Canadian Government Agent, whose advertisement appears elsewhere In this paper.