To the man with no capital, but a pair of willing hands, Alberta has free homesteads to offer (for conditions, see Appendix, Note B, page 297), and there is a good demand for labour, by which a thrifty newcomer can acquire a little capital before taking up land. On the farms, the monthly wages for a good single man (engaged by the year) range from $18 (£3 12_s._) to $30 (£6), with board. When the engagement is for eight months they average from $25 (£5) to $40 (£8), whilst for harvesting and threshing the rate is from $35 (£7) to $50 (£10) the month. At present, as in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, “hired men” sometimes find it difficult to obtain employment during the winter, and the farmers find it equally difficult (despite harvest excursions from the east) to get anything like the number of men they desire in the brief, hurried harvest. The more general adoption of intensive farming would greatly help to solve the labour problem. In the meantime the progressive farmer employs all the labour-saving machinery he can—in some cases, on the smaller farms, more than he can well afford. About three-fifths of the self-supporting population of Alberta find employment in agriculture, leaving two-fifths to work in the factories, the mines, the shops, the transportation service, and in the several learned professions, and in all these lines of human energy there are opportunities awaiting the man who knows how to take advantage of them. New lines are being built by each of the three great railway companies—the Canadian Pacific, the Canadian Northern, and the Grand Trunk Pacific—and the province, which thus will soon have two new gateways to the Western Ocean, is speculating eagerly on the probable effects of the opening of the Panama Canal. Much labour is being expended (with excellent result on business and social conditions) on the provision of other means of transport and communication—roads and bridges, telegraphs and telephones. Many of the latter are rural, and are an especial boon to the women dwelling in the lonely little houses on the great farms. Some of these women, tied to their homes by the small children, whom they can neither leave nor take for long drives in cold weather, may not see another woman’s face for weeks together; and in such cases it is a great thing to hear a friendly voice, and to know that, in case of emergency, doctor or nurse or other aid is within call.