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

30 WESTERN CANADA James Coventry and family will go soon, and goods were already shipped. John Lawrence left on Wednesday to join his family, who are in Iowa visiting, and meet the regular delegation at Winnipeg. This was the first load only, as many more will follow. The Quill editor is, indeed, sorry to see them leave. It is just that many friends goinAmong these are men who have stood by and encouraged this paper from start till now and it follows them. Every family is to receive the Quill and we hope that it will be a visitor which brings good news and good cheer. They are among Colfax county’s very best families, honest and industrious. No dead-beats are among them. They leave with no debts behind and looking everybody in the face. With such people Alberta must prosper. We regret to see so many friends leave, but can only wish them well. (Extractfrom Chicago “Times,” 3rd January, 1892.) We reproduce the following from the Chicago “ Times” of 3rd January, 1892, at» emanating from so reliable an authority, it cannot fail to be of interest to the intending emigrants :— “ Notwithstanding his proverbial shrewdness, the average American, is at fault when dealing with the resources and territorial extent of central Canada. The great majority of writers and speakers in the United States are prone to consider the arable portion of the territory a mere strip running along the international boundary line. Why this is it is hard to say, but partially probably because of the recent entrance, so to speak, of these districts into the society of civilized communities. As is well known, the Canadian Pacific road was not completed till 1885; hence the greater part of this wide region was not thoroughly accessible to explorers and settlers until that time. In view, then, of this prevailing ignorance, it may be interesting to cite a few facts regard- ing the area and natural resources of this north-western portion of the continent. “ A line running 1,000 miles from north to south, and another of equal length from east to west, does not reach the borders of this rolling, park-like plain, whose uniform adaptability to agriculture and stock-raising is now verified by experience. But we will not in this article go behind the points reached by the great western pioneer—the rail- way train, and accordingly fully accessible to settlers. The district thus equipped embraces an area of nearly 500,000 square miles. What this area means is made plain by the statement that out of it might be carved no less than eight States, each the size of Illinois, and then a good slice to spare. “ This continent cannot produce a soil superior in fertility to the rich black loam soil of Manitoba (area, 123,200 square miles), and, with local exceptions, such as morass or a belt of hills, the same applies to the whole territory above designated. The yield of wheat per acre has run from twenty to forty and forty-five bushels, of the. world- famous “ Manitoba hard ” wheat, while the harvest of the present year may be described as the crowning effort of a record-breaking soil, fifty to sixty bushels to the acre being recorded in many cases. This wondrous fertility, coupled with the vast extent, of territory equally adapted to wheat-raising, warrants authorities on wheat culture in prophesying that inside of fifty years central Canada will be the world’s bread-maker. “ It will readily be understood that a soil so fertile naturally produces grasses in great variety and unsurpassed in quantity and quality, insuring an ever-plentiful supply of fodder for domestic cattle. This never-failing supply of nutritious grass, the plentiful supply of pure, running water, the sheltering bluffs of timber, as well as immunity from cyclones in summer and snowstorms in winter, combine the properties which make Alberta one of the finest ranching districts on the continent. Stock-raising is carried on with equal success in the other provinces, and Manitoba beef and dairy products have already an enviable reputation on the European market.”