Confiding to his better half what they will do with the proceeds of their crop of wheat, which yielded 41½ bushels per acre.
THOUSANDS OF AVAILABLE HOMESTEADS.—The desire of the American people to procure land is strong. Agricultural lands of proved value have so advanced in price that for the man with moderate means, who wishes to farm, finding a suitable location has become a serious question. Fortunately, in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, there are yet thousands of free homesteads of 160 acres each, which may be had by the simple means of filing, paying a ten-dollar entrance fee, and living on the land for six months each year for three years. No long, preliminary journey, tedious, expensive, and hazardous, is necessary. This homesteading has been going on in Canada for several years, and hundreds of thousands of claims have been taken up, but much good land still is unoccupied. Many consider the remaining claims among the best. They comprise lands in the park districts of each of the three provinces, where natural groves give a beauty to the landscape. Here wheat, oats, barley, and flax can be grown successfully, and the districts are admirably adapted to mixed farming. Cattle fatten on the nutritious grasses; dairying can be carried on successfully; timber for building is within reach, and water easy to procure.
In addition to the free grant lands, there are lands which may be purchased from railways and private companies and individuals. These lands have not increased in price as their productivity and location might warrant, and may still be had for reasonably low sums and on easy terms.
Nowhere else in the world are there such splendid opportunities for indulgence in the land-passion as in Western Canada. Millions of rich acres beckon for occupation and cultivation. Varying soil and climate are suited to contrary requirements—grazing lands for the stock breeder; deep-tilling soils for the market gardener; rolling, partly wooded districts for the mixed-farming advocate; level prairie for the grain farmer; bench lands and hillsides for the cultivator of fruits.
ANOTHER GOOD YEAR IN WESTERN CANADA
Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta Have Splendid Crops.
The grain crop of 1913 was harvested and threshed in perfect condition. Excepting flax, the average yield was excellent; wheat almost universally graded near the top. Wheat from many fields averaged forty bushels per acre, weighing sixty-five pounds to the measured bushel. Oats ran from fifty to one hundred and fifteen bushels to the acre, and barley kept up the reputation of Western Canada as a producer of that cereal. In many sections the yield of flax exceeded earlier expectations, although in places, winds which blew off the boll caused some loss. Hundreds of farmers of small means who have been in the country only three or four years, paid up all their indebtedness out of the crop of 1913 and put aside something for farm and home improvements. Not only for the farmer with limited means and small acreage has the year been prosperous; the man able to conduct farming on a large scale has been equally successful—and for such, Western Canada offers many opportunities.
A farmer in southern Alberta raised 350,000 bushels of grain last year, and made a fortune out of it. In Saskatchewan and in Manitoba is heard the same story of the successful working of large areas.