Eagle River Review

HARVESTER AT WORK
Uncounted Miles of Bountiful Crops Make Glad the Farmers of Western Canada.

YIELD WILL BE RECORD ONE

Practically Beyond Reach of Accident, the Fruit of the Fertile Fields Is Being Gathered—Elevators and Railroads Will Be Taxed to Their Capacity.

On a beautiful Saturday afternoon, four weeks ago, the writer started for a twenty-mile drive into the country, from one of the hundred or more new towns that have been well started during the past spring, in the Province of Saskatchewan, in Western Canada. Mile after mile, and mile after mile, was traversed through what was one continuous wheat field, the only relief to the scene being the roadways that led back into other settlements, where would have been repeated the same great vista of wheat.

What a wealth! Here were hundreds and thousands, and millions of bushels of what was declared to be a quality of grain equal to any that has ever been grown in the province. As we drove on and on I thought of those fellows down on the Board of Trade at Chicago, St. Louis, Minneapolis and Duluth. While they were exploiting each others' energies the farmer of Saskatchewan, Alberta and Manitoba was contemplating how much he would realize out of his crop, now past any danger of accident, over what his anticipations were two months ago.

One man said to me: "The profits of that field of wheat will give me sufficient money to purchase 320 acres of land, for which the railway company is asking $6,400, and pay it in cash." Another, with a field of flax—it was only 320 acres—said he could do the same and still have a balance in the bank. Flax produces wonderfully well, and the current price is about $2.50 per bushel. We then drove over into another township, getting further back from the railway and the main traveled road. Here we found ourselves in the center of a Swedish settlement. Those forming the settlement were originally from Nebraska. Invited to put up our horses and stay over for dinner, and a dinner that was enjoyed not only on account of the generous appetite created by the exhilarating drive, but also because of the clean linen, the well-prepared dishes of roast fowl, potatoes, cabbage, and a delightful dessert, some of the history of the settlement was learned. The host and hostess were modest in describing their own achievements, and equally modest as to those of their friends, but enough was learned to satisfy us that they had come there about three years ago, in moderate, almost poor, circumstances. Most of them had received their homesteads as a gift from the government, and by careful diligence had purchased and paid for adjoining land. They had plenty of cattle and horses, some sheep and hogs, and large well-kept gardens, showing an abundance of potatoes and cabbage and other vegetables. Their buildings were good. Schools were in the neighborhood and there was evidence of comfort everywhere.

On to the Park Country.
Reluctant to leave these interesting people, the horses thoroughly rested, were "hooked up" and driven on, under a sun still high in the heavens, with the horses pulling on the bit and traveling at a 2-mile an hour gait over a road that would put to shame many of the macadamized streets, we were whirled along a sinuous drive through the woods and then out in the park country.

Here was another scene of beauty, groves of poplar, herds of cattle, fenced fields of wheat and oats and barley and flax. Here was wealth, and happiness and surely contentment. The crops were magnificent. The settlers, most of them, by the way, from Iowa, had selected this location because of its beauty. Its entire charm was wholesome. Fuel was in abundance, the soil was the best, the shelter for the cattle afforded by the groves gave a splendid supply of food, while hay was easy to get. They liked it. Here was a sturdy farmer, with his three boys. He had formerly been a merchant in an Iowa town, his children had been given a college education and one of the boys was about to marry the accomplished daughter of a neighboring farmer.

Through Land of Wealth.
The invitation to remain to supper was accepted, but that given to remain over night was tabled. It was only a 25-mile drive into town over the best of roads, through such a splendid country, all one beautiful picture, and such an opportunity to use one's imagination in figuring up the amount of the wealth of the crop through which the trip into town took us, was not to be enjoyed every day. And away we started.

It was delightful. We drove and drove through avenues of wheat, which today, having yellowed with the beneficent sun, is being laid low by the reaper, stacked and threshed by the thousands of hands required to do it, and in great wagons is being taken to the elevator.

A night's ride by train took us through 225 miles of this great province of Saskatchewan—into the southwestern part—and from appearances it might have been as though a transfer had been made across a township. There were wheat fields, oat fields, barley fields and flax fields, and many more that could not be seen. Yet there they were, and during the night we had passed through a country similarly cultivated.

It will all secure a market and get its way to ocean or local mill by means of the great railways whose well-arranged systems are penetrating everywhere into the agricultural parts.

Prosperous Alberta.
We afterward went over into Alberta, and here again it was grain and cattle, cattle and grain, comfortable farm homes, splendidly built cities and towns, the best of churches and the most thoroughly equipped schools. While talking with a Southern Saskatchewan farmer he said that the land he was working, and for which he had been offered $60 an acre, had been purchased five years ago for $12 an acre, but he won't sell. He is making a good profit on his land at $60 an acre, and why should he sell? Farther north, land was selling at from $15 to $18 and $20 an acre. It was learned afterward that the soil was similar to that in the south, the price of which today is $60 an acre. The climate was similar and the markets as good. In fact the only difference was that today these northern lands occupy the same position that the more southerly ones did five years ago, and there are found many who say they will come into a price nearer their legitimate value of $50 or $60 an acre quite as quickly as the southerly lands. And I believe it.

Throughout all this great country, practically 500 by 800 miles square, there are still a great many homesteads which are given free to actual settlers. Many who have secured patents for their homesteads consider their land worth from $18 to $25 per acre.

Immense Crops Assured.
Throughout the southern portion of Alberta, a district that suffered more or less last year from drouth, there will be harvested this year one of the best crops of fall wheat, winter wheat, oats, flax and alfalfa that has ever been taken off these highly productive lands.

In Central Alberta, which comprises the district north of Calgary and east two hundred miles, through Camrose, Sedgewick, Castor, Red Deer, Wetaskiwin, Edmonton, Lacombe, Vegreville, Tofield, Vermillion and a score of other localities, where are settled large numbers of Americans, the wheat, oats and flax, three weeks ago, was standing strong and erect, large heads and promising from 30 to 35 bushels of wheat and as high as 100 bushels of oats on carefully tilled fields, while flax would probably yield from 15 to 18 bushels per acre.

In these parts the harvesters are busy today garnering this great crop and it will shortly be known whether the great anticipations are to be realized.

Throughout all parts of Saskatchewan, whether north, south, east or west, the same story was heard, and the evidence was seen of the splendid and bountiful crop.

Rich Yield in Manitoba.
In Manitoba it was the same. The fields of grain that were passed through in this province promised to give to the growers a bumper yield and as high as 35 bushels of wheat and 60 bushels of oats was freely discussed.

It would appear as if the expectation of an average of 25 bushels of wheat throughout the three provinces would be met.

In a few days the 40,000,000-bushel elevator capacity throughout the country will be taxed, the 25,000,000 bushels capacity at Fort William and Port Arthur will be taken up, and the railways and their equipment will be called upon for their best. Today the great, broad, yellow fields are industrial haunts, the self-binder is at work in its giant task of reducing into sheaves the standing grain, the harvesters are busy stacking and stacking, the threshing machines are being fed the sheaves, the large box wagons are taking it to the elevators, and no matter where you go it is the same story and a picture such as can only be seen in the great grain fields of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta.