“Each class is supplied with board, lodging and washing free.

“Families, as a rule, are provided with cottages and such extras as milk, firewood and vegetables in season. They are expected to board themselves and sometimes the hired men, but getting payment for the latter. The man accustomed to farm work receives from £50 to £70 per year. Where the wife assists the farmer in housework, milking, &c., she is paid in proportion to her services. Part experienced and inexperienced married couples are paid according to the scale. Children are often more of an asset than a liability, and receive payment when able to render any assistance in the work of the farm.”

Per month.
Female domestics(General servants)£2 to £3
” ”(Cooks)£2 9s. to £5
” ”(Housemaids)£2 1s. to £3
” ”(Tablemaids)£2 9s. to £4

The man who should take up a homestead, prepared to rough it for a year or two, is the young, unmarried man, steady, determined, with a strong inclination for the life on the land. To him, even if he goes out penniless, the Provincial Governments offer the position of a farmer on his own land—land for which he need not pay a penny piece. He has only to conform to certain regulations as to living on the land for part of the year, building some sort of a shanty in which he can sleep, and bringing a stipulated number of acres under cultivation, and at the end of three years the land becomes his freehold. In addition to that there are many districts in which, having secured the freehold of his homestead, the homesteader is permitted to pre-empt a second 160 acres at the nominal price of $3 an acre. For the benefit of such a man I quote a synopsis of the Canadian North-West Land Regulations, for which I am indebted to a pamphlet issued by the Grand Trunk Railway:

“1. Any person who is the sole head of a family, or any male over eighteen years old, may homestead a quarter section (160 acres, more or less) of available Dominion land in Manitoba, Saskatchewan or Alberta. The applicant, who must be a British subject or declare his intention of becoming one, must appear in person at the Dominion Lands Agency or Sub-Agency for the district. Entry by proxy may be made at any agency, by father, mother, son, daughter, brother or sister of intending homesteader, when duly authorised on proper form.

“2. A widow having minor children of her own dependent upon her for support is permitted to make homestead entry as the sole head of a family.

“Duties.—Six months’ residence upon and cultivation of the land in each of three years. A homesteader may live within nine miles of his homestead on a farm of at least 80 acres solely owned and occupied by him or by his father, mother, son, daughter, brother or sister.

“3. In certain districts a homesteader in good standing may pre-empt a quarter-section alongside his homestead. Price $3 per acre. Duties.—Must reside six months in each of six years from date of homestead entry (including the time required to earn homestead patent) and cultivate 50 acres more than required on his homestead, which cultivation may be on both his homestead and pre-emption or either.

“4. A homesteader who has exhausted his homestead right by already homesteading and cannot obtain a pre-emption may acquire a homestead by purchase in certain districts. Price $3 per acre. Such homesteads may be acquired on any available lands on either odd or even numbered sections south of township 45, east of the railway from Calgary to Edmonton, and the west line of range 26, and west of the third meridian. Duties.—Must reside six months in each of three years, cultivate 50 acres, and erect a house worth $300.

“The entry fee for a homestead is ten ($10) dollars.