“Low rates for settlers’ effects apply from Eastern Canada and many United States points to Winnipeg and West.”
The best thing an unmarried man settler can do is to go out with one or more settlers similar to himself who shall take up neighbouring homesteads. If they go out from the same village or district they will immediately form a congenial society and will have the common interest of old acquaintance and of common knowledge of the people among whom they have been brought up. A great number of homesteads have been taken up by such companions, who, when they have “made good,” have sent for their brothers and friends to come and do likewise, with the result that a neighbourhood becomes in a sense a replica, as far as the settlers are concerned, of the familiar village or country-side out of which they have gone.
As has been said, if they are the right sort of men, they will find it quite easy to get the first 30 acres, which is a condition of taking the homestead, ploughed for them, either by a neighbouring farmer or by the Farmers’ Association of the district. Such homesteaders usually work for a neighbouring farmer during their first year, saving money, learning the business, and putting in odd time on their own land. The requisite first home, which is also a condition of the tenure, may be simply a few rough boards knocked together or a turf hut. This is the familiar “shack.” The shack serves very well for a single young fellow whose necessities are reduced to the barest minimum. If he is an adventurous spirit with a dash of humour he relishes his life, and if he has two or three companions settling at the same time as himself on neighbouring homesteads they will work together and tide each other over the roughing period. The shack at the end of the second year will give place to a wooden house—small it may be, just a combined living-room and kitchen, a washing-up place and one or a couple of bed-rooms, but if there is a “girl he has left behind him” this will be sufficient to warrant sending out for her, and a sensible practical wife is a very valuable asset to the homestead if she is prepared to accept the conditions. Some of the largest farmers in the Far West began in this way less than a dozen years ago. They have added “quarter section” to “quarter section” to the original homestead, until now they may be farming a square mile or a square mile and a half and making money enough every year to allow them to spend three months in the Eastern Provinces or to visit the Old Country, putting up at the best hotels, and spending money with a free hand.
I come now to the farmer’s son or to the enterprising young fellow with a bit of money, say £100 to £500, at his disposal. As I have said, if he is a wise man, he will start as a farm hand and get his experience in the only certain way before he disposes of his money in taking a ready-made farm, or even in taking a homestead and spending his money on the machinery and stock required to work it. The Canadian Pacific Railway, the Grand Trunk Pacific, the Hudson’s Bay Company, and a number of land companies offer ready-made farms of various sizes under the most attractive conditions. The land has been broken, a house has been built upon it. It has been fenced and irrigated, if irrigation is necessary. The man can step on to the farm, occupy the house and immediately commence operations, making the profit of the harvest the very first year. Suppose a man with a bit of money wants to buy a farm ready for cultivation. Mr. E. S. Bayard, editor of The National Stockman and Farmer, Pittsburg, Penn., a famous American breeder of prize cattle, who studied the question along the line of the Grand Trunk Pacific, says:—
“Much of the farm land is now selling at from $15 to $25 per acre. Lands can be found, well-improved and favourably located, which sell from $40 to $60 per acre. And homestead lands can also be found within reasonable distance from the Winnipeg-Edmonton line of the Grand Trunk Pacific and the branch lines of this road. In the spring of 1911, there were still available for homestead some 8,000 farms of 160 acres each. Many of these were settled on during the spring and summer of 1911.
“One method of selling land in this new country is the payment of a certain amount per acre down and the balance of the purchase price is extended over a period of years. One typical illustration is cited. A farm of 320 acres, unimproved, was purchased with a payment of $3 per acre down, or $960. For breaking and discing the land the cost was $5 per acre, or $1,600. That is what it costs when the buyer hires it done. The second payment and interest amounted to $1,170, and the buildings complete are estimated to cost about $2,000. This made a total outlay the first year of $5,730. Over against this the first year 300 acres of wheat yielded thirty bushels to the acre, or 9,000 bushels at 60 cents per bushel, or $5,400. And 20 acres of oats produced 70 bushels to the acre, or 1,400 bushels at 25 cents per bushel, amounting to $350, or a total from the farm of $5,750. Thus the farm the first year more than paid for its original cost and the profits the second year more than paid for the improvements and all other expenses, leaving a goodly profit.
“Thus it is that the low prices asked for this productive land are one of the conditions which strike a man from the States most forcibly. He comes from a region where the farm lands sell from $100 to $200 per acre, well improved, productive and favourably located to be sure, but to find such a vast area of wonderfully productive land, with good markets available and prices as high on the average as in the States, is positive proof that there are big opportunities for money-making in Canada.
“These lands are advancing in value quite naturally. With the tremendous immigration into Western Canada, the great railroad development and the money which is being invested in this new country, the vast prairie region is developing not alone rapidly but substantially. This of course means increased land values, and when it is remembered that the land is now very low in price, it is readily seen that there is every reason why it will advance steadily from year to year.”
Having got his land the farmer will, of course, require machinery, stock, seed, &c., to work it. If he has, say, £200, he can purchase a farm quite as large as he will be able to manage at first on the instalment plan, the payments to cover, say, a period of five to ten years. He may have to learn the art of doing without a good many things to which he has been accustomed during the first year or so, but if he reduces his wants, uses “elbow grease,” and is not ashamed to earn a hundred or couple of hundred dollars by working for established farmers, he will win through, and after the first year he will see daylight and be the stronger man for the endurance of a little hardship. I quote an expert estimate of the minimum amount required to start farming right away with the best prospects:—
| $ | ||
| 1 team of horses | 350 | |
| 1 set harness | 32 | |
| 1 farm waggon | 75 | |
| 1 sleigh | 25 | |
| 1 breaking plough | 25 | |
| 1 stubble plough | 18 | |
| 1 3-section harrow | 15 | |
| 1 disc harrow | 25 | |
| 1 seeder | 85 | |
| 1 mowing machine | 50 | |
| 1 harvester | 135 to 155 | |
| Other implements and tools | 50 | |
| 4 good cows at $40 | 160 | |
| 4 good pigs at $15 | 60 | |
| 4 good sheep at $5 | 20 | |
| Poultry | 10 | |
| ------ | ||
| Total $1,155 | ||
| ------ | ||
| = £235 | ||
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