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

AND ITS GREAT RESOURCES. 31 Extracts from Letters by Hon. C. H. Harrison, ex-Mayor of Chicago, to the Chicago “ Mail.” ‘Manitoba is a grand province. From the boundary, stretching north about 150 iniles by 120 miles east and west, it is a splendid small-grain country. The land is not held by great individual owners or by syndicates, but in small holdings, rarely larger than a section, and generally not larger than a half. The farms are much better culti- vated than in Minnesota. The fields are much freer from weeds and the crops better than anything I saw in the States, except a small section, near Crookston. I was told the expectation was an average crop of 25 bushels to the acre. Some fields, I thought in passing, would nearly touch 40 bushels. At Winnipeg we boarded the Canadian Pacific. For a considerable distance the country is perfectly flat, but the soil of great depth } ditches will make it all finely arable. From Portage la Prairie west, the surface of the prairie is undulating, often high-rolling, and on to Virden, 109 miles, is as beau- tiful prairie as one could wish to see. North and south in. this belt the same character- istics, I was told .by a well-informed gentleman, extended from the United States line to the northern limits of the province. “ What cunning chaps the Hudson Bay company people were! For long years they told the world that this was a region only fit for fur-bearing animals. And now that the iron horse has snatched the reins from this great cormorant, we find in this great North-west a country capable of supporting millions of happy agricultural people. Rivers abound, running in deep-cut banks, into which the lowest and flattest land can be drained. Wood is not so far off that it cannot be had in sufficient quantities for domestic purposes, and coal fields lie so close to the water-courses that it can be trans- ported by water if the rail fails to do the work. In the summer season the sun pours down a flood of heac. My alpaca coat was quite sufficient when standing on the plat- form, and from 10 to 5. I was constantly tempted to unbutton my vest. The nights are cool now, and, we are told, are always so. The people are thriving, and the Cana- dian Pacific Company has built a road with which none of our transcontinental railroads can. compare. It is thoroughly laid, smooth, and finely ballasted. The depots or sta- tions are built with taste, and the bridges are erected with great strength. In the far west, experimental farms are worked so as to give the emigrant actual knowledge of what the soil is capable of producing. “ Cattle ranches are scattered over the country. After leaving the wheat land, near Virden, I saw far off on the prairie a lady galloping with long skirt on a horse with banged tail. Habitations became scarce and ranches few. Many lakes were passed, covered with geese and duck. Sometimes we could see young broods of the latter, about the size of partridges, on small streams not over 20 feet from our train, fhe plain is now the Coteau de Missouri, but is not arid, as the same plain, is on the Northern Pacific road. The whole country is pleasantly green, with patches of town diversifying the landscape. “ At Medicine feat, 660 miles west of Winnipeg, we crossed the south fork of the Saskatchewan River. Here, and for a long distance, it is a navigable, fine stream, some 400 yards wide. Above this place some 50 to 100 iniles are fine coal fields. The coal looked very pure, and one look assured me it was the best cooking coal in America. Before night we should have seen the Rockies, but did not, because of the smoky atmos- phere. Sixty miles from their foot lies Calgary, a town of 2,000 people, the centre of the great ranche district, where ranches of many thousand horses abound. The grazing country is said to be very fine, and extends far south down into Montana. The plains here are very fine and the bunch grass is pretty green. It grows good wheat but better grass.” Extract from a Letter by the late United States Consul at Winnipeg. To many of the farmers living in the western and middle States, the severe climate of the North-west, the “ cold winters,” is a serious question. They cannot understand how a country so far north as they seem to think it is can be suitable for mixed farmin