CHAPTER V
SETTLING ON THE LAND
The largest proportion of emigrants to Canada go with the intention of settling on the land. The villages of England, Scotland, and Wales are sending out tens of thousands of labourers’ and farmers’ sons dreaming golden dreams of success in the mixed farming of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario, in the wheat growing and cattle raising of the Prairie Provinces, or in the fruit farming of British Columbia. They have been brought up in British methods of agriculture in a country where land is monopolised by the few, is rented by the cultivators, is subject to heavy taxation, and in which the drain upon the land for centuries has been so heavy that the soil has to be continually enriched with expensive fertilisers, and even then there must be rotation of crops. British agriculture is a most hazardous speculation in view of the uncertainty of our seasons, the increasing importation of foreign supplies, the fluctuation of prices, the nature of the soil, our climatic conditions, and our methods of agriculture. Of late years the tendency has been towards intensive cultivation and cultivation of early crops and fruit and vegetables under glass. We are naturally a conservative-minded people, and nobody is so conservative as the man bred on the land. The first thing to be impressed upon the British emigrant deciding to settle on the land in Canada is that he should keep on assuring himself that he knows nothing about farming at all, that when he reaches Canada he will have everything to learn and a very great deal to unlearn. This is a primary and essential condition of success. I was told many stories of immigrants from the Old Country who have arrived full of assurance, prepared to “knock spots” off the Canadians with their primitive methods of agriculture. They took a farm, they refused to ask or to take advice, and at the end of the first year they were poorer and sadder but wiser men. A good many of this type dropped farming altogether when their small stock of money was exhausted, and they were at their wits’ end to know how to carry on. They got a job on the railway, in a business house, or in some other occupation and had time to think about their mistakes, and if their desire was to resume farming they resumed it when they had saved a little money with the profitable wisdom of their past experience.
Canada is a land of inconceivable distances. This alone means much modification of English methods of marketing produce, and every wise farmer knows that skilful marketing is as essential as skilful growing. The English farmer hates nothing more than co-operation with other farmers. Almost every attempt to induce the English farmer to co-operate has failed in the face of his invincible objection to “allow anybody to come round ordering him what to grow and how to grow it,” what breeds of cattle, sheep, pigs, and poultry he should raise and how he should feed them, when and how he should milk his cows and so on. His father and grandfather made their own butter and cheese in their own way, and he is going to make his in his way—he will be hanged if he will send his milk to a co-operative dairy for the butter and cheese to be made by these new-fangled methods. The Canadian farmer realises that apart from a considerable co-operation he is going to fail. He belongs to a little district commonwealth of farmers and is prepared to fall in with the commonwealth view of things.
Then the climate of Canada completely nonplusses the Britisher until he has learned to understand it. What are you to make of a temperature of forty below zero in winter and a foot and a half of snow frozen to the solidity of marble on the ground for three months at a time? And what are you to think of summer heat waves with the temperature mounting up beyond a hundred in the shade until you feel as if you were in a baker’s oven; and on the prairie, from 1,500 to 4,000 feet above sea level, the atmosphere for long periods is so dry that the surface soil is like dust and you have such incidents as hail-storms with stones from the size of a pea to the size of an egg, and “electrical storms” with an occasional cyclone thrown in? The agriculture of the prairie is “dry agriculture,” which is a science in itself. Canadian farmers accustomed to the conditions know how to deal with the conditions and make profits at which the British farmer’s mouth would water, and all they have to pay out of the profits beyond the cost of the growing is the cost of sending the produce to the nearest elevator or railway siding. Rent and rates do not worry them. The seasons are remarkably alike. Once in a dozen years, there may be a too dry or too wet summer with serious consequences to the quantity and quality of the corn they raise. There is practically little fluctuation in prices to worry them, for the more corn Canada produces the greater appears to be the world demand, and prices are much more likely to advance than to recede.
Let it be repeated, then, that the British labourer or farmer’s son or townsman impatient to adopt the simple life had better go out with a perfectly open mind, prepared to learn from those who know. I had many talks with farmers, business men who know the conditions of the country, and with the Ministers and Assistant Ministers of Agriculture of two of the Prairie Provinces. I wanted them to give me the best advice that I could pass on to different types of men thinking of emigrating from the Old Country and settling on the land in Canada. They were unanimous that the only wise course to adopt, whether the man were at home a wage-earning labourer or a farmer’s son whose father could give him a little capital, was to take the position of a farm hand under a Canadian farmer for at least a year. This would give him an insight into the conditions, and there need be no sense of humiliation, even to the son of a prosperous farmer at home, in taking the position of farm hand. The distinction between classes in Canada is almost obliterated. Most of the well-to-do farmers themselves started as farm hands. The independence of the working man is so developed that he thinks himself as good as the man who employs him. It is not considered a privilege conferred upon a farm hand to employ him, a privilege so great that he should regard his employer as an awful being holding his men’s fate in his hands. I heard of University men, young barristers, young journalists, young doctors, who had got tired of waiting at home for an opportunity that was slow to come, or who found themselves of too energetic and restless a temper to settle down under the conditions of British life, who had gone out to Canada and hired themselves to farmers in Ontario or the Prairie Provinces and were soon working on the land as to the manner born. It is the man with this willingness to learn and adapt himself to the conditions of work cheerfully, not counting the hours or the strenuousness of his labour in busy times, who is bound to get on as a settler on the land in Canada.
Let me take first the prospects of an English farm labourer. Of course, if he is a haunter of the public-house, if he only works because he must, if he has in him the soul of a slave, if he is a born shirker, he is not likely to do in Canada unless a moral transformation should take place and change him to a new man altogether. The ideal labourer emigrant is the man who works in his own garden and in his allotment in his own time, who lives a decent life, keeps away from the drink, and out of his wages and what he grows in his garden and allotment contrives all the while to be putting a little by. Such a man, revelling in work, with a fair amount of intelligence and some ambition, can scarcely fail in Canada. He is the man who will be received and welcomed with open arms by the farmers competing with each other for competent, willing labour. I was told in the Ministries of Agriculture at Winnipeg and Regina that lists are kept of hundreds of farmers who are applying for such men and are willing to guarantee them work during the six months between sowing time and the gathering in of the harvest. The Ministries of Agriculture are more than willing to assist such men in every way to find suitable situations. Many of the farmers are prepared to advance the passage money to really good men willing to sign on for the season. They are boarded and fed and receive a wage equal to £4 or £5 a month.
The difficulty, of course, will be with the married man, having a wife and children. It would be best for him to make arrangements to leave the wife and children at home for a year if he can possibly manage it. By the end of a year, if he is the right sort of fellow, he will see his way and perhaps be able either to take a homestead or to enter on an arrangement for a year or two of continuous employment and to make a home for the wife and children. Such a man, with the money he may save in a couple of years, would find it quite easy, if he does not desire to take a homestead which may be in a lonely district and may mean considerable hardship for two or three years, to take on easy instalment terms a ready-made farm within an area that affords a certain amount of society. It is the woman rather than the man who finds the loneliness of the homestead on the fresh-broken prairie almost unbearable. She cannot live without the company-keeping and social gossip of the village. The man is busy on the land; he has the inspiring sense that his foot is on the ladder of success; he dreams of going on from little to more, and from more to much, and of ultimately becoming a very substantial man. It is not always so with the woman. She finds it far more difficult to reconcile herself to the lonely conditions. Of course, if she is the right sort of woman to be a farmer’s wife, and can find her interest in raising chickens and such occupations, she will, after settling down, be happy enough; but there is always the risk, and if the man can possibly secure a ready-made farm he considerably reduces the risk of the woman’s moping and wanting to return to the familiar village in the Old Country again, even though it may mean returning to 15_s._ a week and no prospect but the old age 5_s._ a week at seventy.
The Provincial Governments, agricultural associations, and a number of financial corporations are very willing to give every assistance to a _bona-fide_ settler on the land. When he has established the fact that he is a safe man to trust, he may get his stock and implements on credit, and the land will be broken at a nominal charge to lessen the burden of his first effort.
A Canadian writer says he knows of specific cases in which English immigrant buyers paid $30 and $15 an acre respectively for farms.
“One case was a very choice piece of land near to the social and educational advantages of a large town, and another enjoyed the same favourable position but was not quite such good land throughout, but had the very best grazing where it could not be used for cereals or root crops. In the one case the payments ($30 an acre) were completed in seven years, and in the other ($15) five years were found sufficient to acquire a clean bill of the rights to the property, and both men are wealthy citizens to-day. This does give assurance that is certainly needed in the face of the misrepresentative and conflicting statements which have been circulated in the Motherland, where it is impossible to verify on the spot one account or another. It provides an opening at once for the family or for the young couple without children, who are rightly advised that they should not take up a homestead at a point far distant from social life, at least until they have had experience, which they can only acquire by living in close touch with neighbours who are farming to some purpose.
“Candidly, the homesteads now available, and until the railway system has been further developed, are too far away from the railway track. But it is only a question of a few years of legitimate development until these points have been opened up, where some of the finest land on the continent will be brought within easy reach of the world’s markets. In the meantime, and while the new-comer is gaining experience and paying by his labour for a piece of land that can never depreciate in value, he is not precluded from selecting and acquiring his homestead. But the writer cannot advise penniless individuals to come out in the hope of taking up homestead duties at a remote point from the railway with the expectation of making good on it right away. The man with a bit of capital cannot fail to employ it to far better purpose in Canada than he is ever likely to use it at home. He need not ‘risk’ it until he has had every opportunity to test his investments on the spot. It is broadly on the land, the value of which by the legitimate process continues to increase with every season in which it has come under the hand of the cultivator. In the more thickly populated centres land values have increased enormously within the short period of five years; many of these, no doubt, have been rushed up to a fictitious figure by real estate jobbers, but where large manufacturing and wholesale houses have been compelled to establish themselves in response to a demand that is almost unprecedented in its all but instantaneous growth, these values are at once legitimate and permanent.”
From a very informative booklet issued in connection with the “International Dry Farming Congress” at Lethbridge, Alberta, in October, 1912, I extract these interesting particulars about the conditions of prairie settlement and farming:—
“Settlement progresses so rapidly that pioneering is shorn of its desolation. It is no uncommon event to find a whole township or an entire district taken up in a single summer. The pioneer will always have neighbours in his new Alberta home. Roads and schools follow in due course. Recent legislation has established a system of local government which affords all the machinery necessary to a local community to carry out public improvements. Commercial life develops very rapidly. The settlement of a district is invariably followed by the extension of the telephone and the railway.
“Land is cleared and prepared for cultivation at comparatively small cost. In the southern part of the province no clearing is necessary. In the central and northern part, where there is considerable scrub and timber, the cost of preparing the land for crops is higher and will vary from $5 to $10 per acre. The trees are nearly all surface rooted, and in a few years the most thickly wooded farm will be as free from roots as a market garden. Raw homesteads in a year or two become profitable farms. Towns spring up along the railway as if by magic, and the erstwhile wilderness is transformed into a populous and prosperous community.
“From the earliest times explorers have expressed the greatest hope in the future of Alberta. It was the home of the most powerful and civilized Indian tribes of the whole North-West. Its luxuriant pastures supported vast herds of antelope, deer and buffalo, while its mountains, lakes and canyons comprised the richest territory exploited by the fur companies.
“Ninety-six different varieties of wild grasses have been identified, of which forty-six make excellent hay. Of the sedges and rushes there are at least ninety-four varieties, many of which make good hay, and all make splendid pasture during the spring and the early part of the summer. The sedges grow on the lower lands and marshes, and are diligently sought for by stock in the early spring, and during those seasons when the upland grasses harden. Cultivated grasses also do well, timothy, alfalfa, western rye grass, and blue grass having been introduced and all proving very successful.
“The establishment of agriculture depends upon many natural resources, such as extent of fertile soil, rainfall, and energy of the people. All these elements are compounded in the case of Alberta. The soil is deep and black, composed of a covering of vegetable humus which sits undisturbed since it was laid down many centuries ago. The chief nutriments are nitrogen, potash and phosphoric acid, but what is of principal importance is the lime contained in the soil whereby the nitrogen is set free and ready to be absorbed by vegetable organism. The richness of the soil is illustrated in the number of grains in the cluster found in the heads of the wheat plant. Three, four and five grains occur in each spikelet, a fact which explains the large average yield of the Alberta wheat fields.
“The rainfall is sufficient to nourish crops, and the climate is dry and equable for long seasons. The rainy season coincides with the growing season. There is abundance of rain and heat during June and July. As the weather cools the rainy season ceases, the air becomes dry, hardening the grain and giving it a colour and hardness which accounts for the splendid quality of Canadian wheat. Even the frost of winter exerts a beneficial influence, as it pulverizes the ground and puts it in ideal condition for the rains of the following season. A prominent scientific authority says: As long as the West is blessed with winter frosts and summer rains, teeming crops will be the product of her soils.’”
On the question of wages a publication of the Ontario Government says—and the wages will not vary much from this rule in the Prairie Provinces:—
“The standard of wages at present for a twelve months’ engagement is as follows:—
“_Experienced Men._—Farm labourers, well able to plough, to milk, and to do general farm-work, £4 to £5 and over per month.
“_Partly experienced._—Eighteen years of age and upwards, strong, well able to handle horses, £3 to £4 and over per month.
“_Inexperienced._—Eighteen years and upwards, strong, unused to any kind of farm work, £2 to £3 per month, according to ability.
“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 9_s._ to £5 ” ” (Housemaids) £2 1_s._ to £3 ” ” (Tablemaids) £2 9_s._ 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.
“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 ------
Let me close this chapter by quoting the stories told by some sample settlers from the Old Country who went out within the last seven years. I take them from a pamphlet issued from the office of the Dominion Ministry of the Interior.
Arthur Newman went out to Alberta in 1907 from New Shildon, County Durham, England, and at once took up a homestead. He writes:—
“My father and brothers came out and we were in partnership, but I pushed ahead, as we had some drawbacks like all homesteaders. We had everything to haul from Lloydminster, forty-two miles either way, but we have a town twelve miles from us now. We have about 100 acres in crop this year, 57 wheat, and about 43 oats, besides potatoes and a garden patch. If the season permits, we hope to break about 100 acres more. Our wheat turned out 35 bushels to the acre and the oats 70 bushels to the acre. This was our second year’s crop; our first was hailed out. Our stock is getting along finely. I lost a fine mare the first year, but am still ahead. We have four oxen, four fine mares in foal, about fifteen head of cattle, seven pigs, and about seventy hens. I might also say we have all the machinery that is wanted for the farm, &c., and all of it is paid for. So if our crops turn out well this year, we shall be all right and making fine success. I often have letters from friends at home asking me if I should not like to come back, and I always tell them just for a holiday but not to stay. This is the home I prefer.”
W. Hordern, a native of Leicester, who settled in Saskatchewan, writes:—
“I came out six years ago. The first three years were mostly spent in learning by defeats. We earned very little at first, and my capital of £400 disappeared after buying horses, &c., but I knew I was getting on the right line. Then, with a family of six young children, we made a comfortable living. Now I value my farm and stock little short of £2,000. I have six work horses and three others, fourteen head of cattle, twelve hogs, hens, and the full outfit of farm machinery, some in double sets, and three waggons. By last summer we had 150 acres broken and in crop. The total earnings were £460; total farm expenses were £140, leaving a clear income of £320.
“I am now fifty-five, and was far gone towards being a worn-out man before leaving Old England. The first year I broke 15 acres with a yoke of oxen; had a one-room house, 14 feet by 16 feet of bought prepared timber, cost £30, and dug a 23-foot well. Next year was in England eight months and did little good here. Third year my eldest boy took up the heavy work. I am practically a gentleman farmer in these days—ride around in a light four-wheeler and do the errands to town and about. My hobby is the school board, of which I am also the clerk and collector. My second lad helps in stable work and odd jobs, and a third lad assisted in the fall. Between them my lads earned £55 out, mostly helping other farmers, which I have included in the income.
“Last year we raised 239 bushels of linseed, 1,030 bushels oats, 12 acres barley, 1,818 bushels of wheat. After keeping enough for seed, sold the wheat for £300, freight cost £33 to Port Arthur, on Lake Superior. My threshing bill was £45, twine for tying up sheaves £6, rates, all told, £8 10s. My family have cost nothing yet in doctoring, and we all have good health. We produce, free of charge, our own butter, milk, fuel, water, stock and meat, and these items save us 25_s._ a week. I have carefully kept a record of every cent coming in and going out last year. My farm is now 415 acres. I bought 164 acres three years ago, which is now worth twice what I gave for it. My son has 200 acres also, worth £800, outside my own property.”
Joseph Williams, formerly of Abergele, came to Canada three years ago. After working in Eastern Canada for a while he went West. He writes:—
“I got a job at Yorkton which was the turning point to success. I may say here that when I arrived at Yorkton I had the enormous sum of 3 cents (1½_d._) in my pocket. Six months later I started business there, butchering, with my brother Arthur as a partner, and twelve months later sold out at a good sum, and to-day I am pleased to say I can sit and look at my crop growing, from which I hope to receive somewhere from $2,000 to $3,000 (£400 to £600) next fall, besides being the owner of three fine mares and foals, and all necessary farming implements.
“You can show this letter to all my old friends at Abergele, and if you like you can send it to the press, if you think it will benefit any young men or women who think of coming to Canada. I can say without the least hesitation that this is a much better country than the Old Country, and there is no reason whatever why a young man or woman could not succeed here.
“I may say that there is a Welsh colony here, with about 200 Welsh families, Welsh chapels, Sunday schools, and literary meetings, Welsh store-keepers and restaurants, and plenty of land for sale right in the centre of the colony. Anyone wishing to buy an improved farm can do so with a small cash deposit, and the balance in yearly crop payments; or there are homesteads, further West, in Alberta, which are available for entry.”
J. G. Lindsay, a Saskatchewan homesteader, writes:—
“I belonged to Stonehaven, Kincardineshire, Scotland, came out here in June, 1905. I used to work on a farm in Auchinblae district on Kennell and Chapelton farm; average wages about £10 to £20. I arrived at Indian Head, Saskatchewan, and worked on a threshing rig that year, receiving 7_s._ a day, and then came up here, took a homestead, and stayed here ever since. I landed out on my land with about $300, or £60, built a small shack, bought a team of horses, part on time, worked around here during ploughing for new settlers the first summer to pay for the horses. I now own five all paid for, all the necessary implements to work a farm. I have 100 acres ready for crop this spring. I could never have had an acre in Scotland in crop, let alone own the land, which is worth $20, or £4, an acre. I am seven miles from town and a new railroad from Saskatoon to Calgary. I would not take £700 for my rights to-day. I find there are many here just the same. I will put a word for my brother. He has done better than me. He came here with £20 and team of oxen; now he has five horses and 130 acres for crop this spring. We were well known in Rickarton, Stonehaven, as my father had a farm there. My opinion of this country is to all get hold of land, work hard for two or three years to start on, then all is right.”
Joseph Watson, who was head game-keeper and general manager to the late Sir James Musgrave, County Donegal, Ireland, came to Saskatchewan in 1905. He writes:—
“I arrived at File Hills in the end of March, 1905, and the first thing I did was to buy two good milk cows at the calving and a horse and mare. I then commenced to build a log house, 30 feet by 14 feet inside, and two stories high with a lean-to kitchen at back, and soon had a good comfortable dwelling. I then built stables for cattle.
“In the fall I bought ten of the best yearling heifers I could get and a few steers. The total outlay was about £140. From that number of stock I have now fifty head of cattle and five horses, and if all goes well I should have another twenty calves and two colts this spring. I think anyone should be satisfied with that increase.
“I milked all my best cows, and the proceeds of butter practically paid the household expenses for the last two years. Last year I made nearly £80 off butter, and I expect to make as much this year, and besides I hope to sell ten steers at an average price of £8 a head.
“I am well satisfied with the progress I have made, and I may say that I am now independent, as my income is now much greater than the expenditure. I have 160 acres of good grazing and hay land, and as practically none of the company lands are occupied, there is plenty of grazing for cattle on every side of me.
“I estimate the value of my farm, stock, buildings, &c., now to be $5,000. I have done no cropping except a few acres of oats for feed and the kitchen garden, but I intend to go in more for cropping in future. The soil is rich and grows heavy crops.
“The climate is very healthy. I have enjoyed better health since coming to Canada than I had for many years before leaving the Old Country.”
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