Western Canada and its Great Resources
The Testimony of Settlers, farmer Delegates and high Authorities

AND ITS GREAT RESOURCES. 13 timber supply, which is an important consideration, is yery plentiful. A large quantity is suitable for being manufactured into lumber. Near Binscarth there is a saw-mill doing a flourishing business. There are numerous small marshes which yield an abund- ance of very nutritious hay. Fish abound in the small lakes, and ducks and geese are very common. The crops, as elsewhere in the Canadian North-west, are marvellous. One needs only to see them to appreciate the fertility of the soil. People enjoy living in a country where there is some good scenery. Along this line, though the surface of the country is gently undulating, yet in some places it is sufficiently broken to become delightfully picturesque. For a short distance we ran through a beautiful valley, and frequently we got glimpses of delectable plains. Many of the villages that are springing up along the line are very pleasantly situated, either in some secluded dell or on a sheltered hillside. In conclusion, I wish to express my gratitude to the officials of the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Manitoba and North-western Railway, and to the Government agents, all of whom facilitated my making as thorough examination of their magnificent country as the time at my disposal would permit. Yours very truly, A. KNECHTEL. Mr. James B. Truscott, an old resident of Faulk County, on returning from the Canadian North-west, wrote a long and enthusiastic letter about the country, from which the following extracts are made, the whole letter being of similar import:— As you are aware, I left home on. the 27th July for Winnipeg, where I arrived in good time, and where, let me tell you, I met with a revelation; for, instead of finding a poor, miserable, scattering, poverty-stricken, God forsaken place, as most of our papers would lead us to believe, I found a most beautiful, charming, healthful and enterprising city, possessing apparently everything that can be found in any large city. At 2.30 p.m., Saturday, 1st August, the train pulled out of the depot and away we sped for the west. After passing over about one hundred miles of the best country I ever saw, we arrived at Carberry, with the sun. about one hour high, and then finding Mr. Win. McMillan and presenting my letter of introduction, that gentleman rushed to the livery stable, got a horse and buggy, and away we went out through the country; and oh, oh, what fields of grain ! I got out of the buggy and stood against the posts of the railway fence, but on. attempting to take an observation for a line from the top of the fence post to the top of a post on the other side of the field, found I was unable to do so, the wheat being too high, higher than, the fence posts, and the field as flat and level as a floor. For fear that there might be a swell in the field, and thereby deceive me, I went to the corner of the field and took a view diagonally across a small portion of it with the same results. The wheat was taller than the fence posts; yes, taller than myself, and so thick that a jack rabbit or a dog could not run through it; and this I say not only of one field but of many. There are hundreds of the same; it is th^his- tory of the country. Out on the Hope farm I saw other wonders; but what is the use of describing? It would only be repeating what has already been. said. Suffice it to say that Mr. Hope came to his present home in 1878, bringing very little property with him, and now has 320 acres. One field of 170 acres of wheat will turn off forty bushels to the acre; thirty acres of oats will yield about seventy-five bushels to the acre; and a large field of timothy—the best I ever saw, and I have seen good in New York, New Hampshire, Vermont and Connecticut—he claimed 3 tons per acre. He took me to a forty-acre field which yielded crops that in the last three years sold for $900, $1,000 and $1,200 respectively. He has also a fine lot of horses, cattle, etc., a splendid house, two years’ wood cut and piled near the door, some three or four hundred bushels in the granary- left over from last year. Back to Mr. Bedford’s we drove again, and found him patiently waiting for us. After a little chat he gave me the following averages which he expects. I think on some he is low; but his business being an experimental one, some of the grains run low, thus bringing down the general average.