Missouri Valley Times

THE SCHOOLS OF WESTERN CANADA

In Some of the Cities and Towns the School Buildings Cannot Accommodate the Increasing Numbers.

One of the most important factors in the building of a new country is the attention that is paid by the authorities to the education of the rising generation. Fortunately for western Canada, the settlement of that new country began in such recent years that it was able to lay a foundation for this work, gained by the experience of older countries. In this way the very best is the result. Throughout the entire country are to be seen the most improved style of architecture in school buildings. The cities and towns vie with each other in the efforts to secure the best of accommodation and at the same time get architectural lines that would appeal. Sufficient to say that nowhere is there the greater attention paid to elementary and advanced education than in western Canada. A report just to hand shows that in Calgary, Alberta, there are eighty teachers employed, and the enrollment 4,225 pupils. In the Province of Alberta there was a total of 46,000 pupils attending schools in 1909. The total enrollment for the year in city, town and village Schools was 26,853, and the total in rural schools was 23,165. There are in the province 970 schools with 1,325 departments. At the close of 1909 there was a total of 1,096 school districts in the province. Great attention is paid also to agricultural education. The best uses of the soil and such other matters as tend to make the agriculture less of a drudge and more of a success are employed. When there is the combination of good soil, splendid climate and healthy and advanced ideas in the methods employed in agriculture, we see accomplished the results that have placed western Canada on its present high plane in the agricultural world. There is to be found men of high standing in literary spheres as well as in financial circles who are carrying on farming, not alone for the pleasure they derive but for the profit they secure.

Mr. Adler, a wide-awake business man of New York, has a ranch near Strathmore, Alberta. He is highly pleased with his success the past year. He says:

"On July 25th we estimated our crop at 6,000 bushels of wheat. A week later we increased our estimate to 12,000 bushels. A few days later we again increased our estimate, this time to 15,000 bushels. But after harvest in September we found we had 20,150 bushels. If that isn't a record, what is?" he asked.

"This crop was made with practically no moisture," he continued, "and we now have a better opinion of the fertility of Alberta lands than ever and value our lands higher than we ever did before."

Mr. Adler, who has been on the ranch for about a week, leaves for New York Saturday.

This gentleman is conducting a farm on a large scale, and has plenty of means to develop it, and his may not be taken as a fair case. There are, though, instances of thousands who have begun life on small farms in western Canada with but brains and the determination over and above the couple of hundred dollars in ready money that they possessed, and today are owners of large farms and handsome incomes, all the result of their efforts on land that was responsive to the touch of the hand that held the plow. Instances such as these can be quoted if you will communicate with the nearest Canadian government agent, who will also mail you free descriptive literature.