Canada West Part 10

=Calgary= tells its own story in public buildings and in over one hundred wholesale establishments, 300 retail stores, 15 chartered banks, half a hundred manufacturing establishments, and a $150,000 normal school building. The princ.i.p.al streets are paved. There is munic.i.p.al ownership of sewer system, waterworks and electric light and street railway.

Directly bearing upon the future of Calgary is the irrigation project of the Bow River Valley, where 3 million acres are being colonized. One thousand two hundred miles of ca.n.a.ls and laterals are completed.

Population in 1911 was 43,736; now claimed 75,000. There are 36 schools, 146 teachers, and 7,000 pupils. The Canadian Pacific car shops here employ 3,000 men. It has the Canadian Pacific, Canadian Northern, and Grand Trunk Pacific.

=Lethbridge=, with a population of about 13,000, the centre of a splendid agricultural district, is also a prosperous coal-mining and commercial city. The output of the mines, which in 1912 was about 4,300 tons daily and necessitated a monthly pay roll of $145,000, finds a ready market in British Columbia, in Montana, and as far east as Winnipeg. A Government Experimental Farm is nearby. The several branches of railway diverging here make it an important railway centre. It will shortly have the Grand Trunk Pacific, and direct Canadian Pacific and Canadian Northern lines eastward. The munic.i.p.ally-owned street car system affords excellent service.

=Medicine Hat=, in the valley of the South Saskatchewan and the centre of a magnificent ranching and mixed-farming district, is a division point of the Canadian Pacific Railway, with extensive railway shops operated with natural gas for fuel. The light, heat, and power, derived from this gas are sold to manufacturers at 5 cents per thousand cubic feet, and for domestic purposes at 1 cent. The factories and industries now using natural gas pay out about 2-1/2 million dollars annually, which will be considerably augmented by factories in course of construction, and to be erected. When the new flouring mills are completed, Medicine Hat will be the largest milling centre on the continent. Population over 6,000.

=Macleod= is one of the oldest towns in the Province. With the rapid settlement of the surrounding agricultural land, this town is showing wonderful progress; during 1913 a large amount was spent in new buildings.

=Wetaskiwin= is a railway division point from which farms stretch in all directions. The city is beautifully located, and owns its electric light plant, waterworks, and sewerage system.

=Red Deer= is situated on the Canadian Pacific, half way between Calgary and Edmonton. It has a large sawmill, two brick-yards, concrete works, creameries, wheat elevators, and a sash-and-door factory. Coal and wood are plentiful and cheap. The district has never had a crop failure. It showed considerable business activity in 1913. Lines of railway extend westward.

=Lacombe=, on the direct line between Calgary and Edmonton, has a flour mill, foundry, planing mill, brick-yard, grain elevators, electric lights, and telephones. The surrounding country is noted for its pure-bred cattle and horses, and a Government Experimental Farm adjoins the town.

=Raymond= enjoys a rapid growth, and has one of the largest sugar factories in the west. Sugar beets are a great success here. Mr. Henry Holmes, who won the big wheat prize at the Dry Farming Congress held at Lethbridge in 1912 resides here.

Other prosperous towns are Claresholm, Didsbury, Fort Saskatchewan, High River, Innisfail, Olds, Okotoks, Pincher Creek, Ponoka, St. Albert, Vermilion, Vegreville, Carmangay, Stettler, Taber, Tofield, Camrose, Castor, Cardston, Ba.s.sano, Edson, Coronation, Empress, Magrath, Nanton, Strathmore, Gleichen, Leduc, Hardisty, Walsh, Daysland, Sedgewick, Gra.s.sy Lake and Wainwright. Much interest is being taken in Athabaska Landing, owing to its increasing agricultural settlement and the completion of the Canadian Northern.

CONDITIONS IN ALBERTA, 1913

=Agricultural Conditions.=--From the agricultural standpoint the season of 1913 was perfectly normal. Spring opened favourably for seeding operations and at no time from seeding to threshing did unfavourable conditions threaten a successful harvest. Copious rains in the growing period, and bright dry weather in the cutting and threshing period kept the farmer confident from the beginning. It was a season made, as it were, to the farmers' order. The quality of grain was extra good. Wheat weighed from 61-1/2 to 68 pounds to the bushel, oats 40 to 46, and barley 52 to 58.

Conditions were equally favourable to pasture and hay crops and live stock. The first and second cuttings of alfalfa were especially heavy and timothy made a good average yield. Abundant pasture continued throughout the season making both beef and dairy cattle profitable investments. Live stock, dairy products, poultry and eggs are worth four times the value of grain crops. The value of the former is nearly 120 millions, while the total value of the grain crop is about 30 millions.

The income from the former reached 40 million dollars last year, that from the latter about 25 million dollars.

=Public Works and Railways.=--About 600 miles of steel were laid last year, bringing the railway mileage of the province up to nearly 3,600 miles. Equal activity is a.s.sured for 1914. This year the Government made a step to provide transportation facilities for districts sidetracked by the railway companies. The means adopted is guaranteeing the interest on the securities of light railways up to one-half the estimated cost.

=Financial.=--The income of the farming community exceeds that of all former years. It is estimated that the product of this year that will be converted into cash for the liquidation of debts, is nearly 65 million dollars. The farmer is therefore in a position to pay his machinery debts, store debts, and other obligations. Consequently the farmers are optimistic and are planning extended operations for the coming season.

Measured by every economical standard, Alberta shows sound prosperity and justifies a continuance of the confidence of outside capitalists in her established business, and increased investments in the development of her vast resources of farms, mines and forests.

=Population and Live Stock.=--(Dominion Census Bureau):

1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 Population ...... ...... 374,663 ...... [2]500,000 Horses 263,713 294,225 407,153 451,573 484,809 Milch cows 116,371 124,470 147,687 157,922 168,376 Other cattle 910,547 926,937 592,163 587,307 610,917 Sheep 171,422 179,067 133,592 135,075 178,015 Swine 139,270 143,560 237,510 278,747 350,692

[2] Estimated.

[Ill.u.s.tration: One type of house built of logs in the park districts of Central Alberta.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Marketing the grain at one of the elevators that are essential at every station in Western Canada.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: CENTRAL ALBERTA

Surveyed lands shown in colour.

For Map of Southern Alberta see pages 26 and 27.]

BRITISH COLUMBIA

Stretching from the Rockies to the sea and from the United States to the 60th parallel, British Columbia is the largest Province in the Dominion.

It is big enough to enable one to place in it, side by side at the same time, two Englands, three Irelands, and four Scotlands. Looking across the water to the millions of British subjects in India, in Hong-Kong, in Australia, and the isles of the sea, one catches brief pathetic glimpses of the commercial greatness which the Pacific has begun to waft to these sh.o.r.es. Nature intended British Columbia to develop a great seaward commerce, and substantial trade relations are now established northward to the Yukon and southward to Mexico. Population, June, 1911, 392,480.

British Columbia has natural wealth in her forests and her fish, in her whales and seals and fruit farms. But it is from her mines, more than from aught else, that she will derive her future wealth.

The parallel chains of the Rockies, the Selkirks, and the Coast Ranges are a rich dower. They furnish scenery unrivalled in its majesty; they are nurseries of great rivers which pour tribute into three oceans; and in their rocky embrace they hold a mineral wealth second to none.

British Columbia contains an aggregate of from 16 million to 20 million unoccupied arable acres. Sir William Dawson has estimated that in the British Columbia section of the Peace River Valley alone, the wheat-growing area will amount to 10 million acres. It is a country of big things.

=How to get the Land.=--Crown lands in British Columbia are laid off and surveyed into townships, containing thirty-six sections of one square mile in each. The head of a family, a widow, or single man over the age of eighteen years, and a British subject (or any alien upon making a declaration of his intention to become a British subject) may for agricultural purposes record any tract of unoccupied and unreserved crown land (not being an Indian settlement), not exceeding 160 acres in extent.

Free homesteads are not granted. The pre-emptor of land must pay $1 an acre for it, live upon it for two years, and improve it to the extent of $2.50 per acre. Particulars regarding crown lands of this Province, their location, and method of pre-emption can be obtained by communicating with the sub-joined government agencies for the respective districts, or from the Secretary, Bureau of Agriculture, Victoria, B.

C.:

Alberni, Nanaimo, New Westminster, Golden, Cranbrook, Kaslo, Nelson, Revelstoke, Bakersville, Telegraph Creek, Atlin, Prince Rupert, Hazleton, Kamloops, Nicola, Vernon, Fairview, Clinton, Ashcroft.

=Agriculture.=--It is not so long ago that agriculture was regarded as a quite secondary consideration in British Columbia. The construction of railroads, and the settlement of the valleys in the wake of the miner and the lumberman, have entirely dissipated that idea. The agricultural possibilities of British Columbia are now fully appreciated locally, and the outside world is also beginning to realize that the Pacific Province has rich a.s.sets in its arable and pastoral lands.

Professor Macoun says: "As far north as the fifty-fourth degree it has been practically demonstrated that apples will flourish, while in the southern belt the more delicate fruits, peaches, grapes, and apricots, are an a.s.sured crop."

On a trip through the valley one sees apple orchards with the trees fairly groaning under their loads of fruit, and pear, plum, and prune trees in like manner. In many places between the trees there are rows of potatoes, cabbages, and other vegetables, showing that the land is really producing a double crop. Grapes, water melons, and musk melons also thrive in the valley, and large quant.i.ties of each are grown.

Tomatoes, cherries, and berries of all kinds are grown extensively.

Wheat, oats, and corn give excellent yields. As an instance, one man's wheat crop this season averages 48-1/2 bushels to the acre. Of prunes, one orchardist grew a crop of 7,000 boxes. The apples shipped find a ready market in Calgary, Regina, and in the other cities in the prairie provinces. Prices this year are considerably better than they were a year ago. Last year this valley produced 350 carloads of fruit and vegetables, and some of the farmers have made net profits of as high as $250 an acre.

Those who have turned their attention to mixed farming are exceptionally well pleased with the result. A local company is being organized to build a cannery and this will be in operation next year. And besides this one, another cannery is being talked of.

In the valleys, of which there are many, there are tracts of wonderfully rich and, largely of alluvial deposits, that give paying returns.

The Columbia and Kootenay Valleys, comprising the districts of Cranbrook, Nelson, Windermere, Slocan, Golden and Revelstoke are very rich. The eastern portion requires irrigation; they are well suited to fruit farming and all kinds of roots and vegetables. Timber lands are said to be the best, when cleared. In the western portion of these valleys there are considerable areas of fertile land, suitable for fruit growing. The available land is largely held by private individuals.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The fruit industry of British Columbia is making rapid development. Peaches, plums, pears, grapes, apples grow to the greatest perfection.]

The valleys of the Okanagan, Nicola, Similkameen, Kettle, North and South Thompson, and the Boundary are immensely rich in possibilities.

The advent of the small farmer and fruit grower has driven the cattle industry northward into the Central district of the Province. The ranges are now divided into small parcels, occupied by fruit growers and small farmers. Irrigation is necessary in most places, but water is easy to acquire.

The Land Recording District of New Westminster is one of the richest agricultural districts of the Province and includes all the fertile valley of the Lower Fraser. The climate is mild, with much rain in winter. The timber is very heavy and the underbrush thick. Heavy crops of hay, grain, and roots are raised, and fruit growing is here brought to perfection. The natural precipitation is sufficient for all purposes.

For about seventy miles along the Fraser River there are farms which yield their owners revenues from $4,000 to $7,000 a year; this land is now worth from $100 to $1,000 an acre. As much as 5 tons of hay, 120 bushels of oats, 20 tons of potatoes, and 50 tons of roots have been raised per acre.

Vancouver Island, with its great wealth of natural resources and its commanding position, is fast becoming one of the richest and most prosperous portions of the Province. Its large area of agricultural land is heavily timbered and costly to clear by individual effort, but the railroad companies are clearing, to encourage agricultural development.

Most farmers raise live stock, do some dairying and grow fruit. Grains, gra.s.ses, roots, and vegetables grow to perfection and yield heavily.

Apples, pears, plums, prunes, and cherries grow luxuriantly, while the more tender fruits--peaches, apricots, nectarines, and grapes attain perfection in the southern districts when carefully cultivated.