“For the past two years we have lived in comparative isolation, sometimes being left for three weeks together without the slightest notion of what was going on in the outside world. We were completely at the mercy of the weather for news and provisions, all having to come by road from Saskatoon; and when they did come, the price of the commonest necessaries was enough to make the pluckiest feel occasionally downhearted. ‘It will be different when we have the railway,’ became a stock phrase. But it was weary waiting, and many of us had almost lost hope, when one day we heard that the rails had been laid within two miles of Lloydminster. Less than a week later, the first train arrived. Since then there has been quite a revolution in the price of everything. Flour, for which we had paid $4½ to $5 per 100 lb., is now $2.80, top price; and the cost of all other provisions is decreasing in proportion. Lumber, too, is coming down in price. “Town lots have been on the market and bought at high values. Everyone is now to build lumber houses instead of log shacks. Bricks, too, are being extensively used for buildings. What a transformation! When we arrived in May, 1903, about a dozen tents were all there was to see on the bare prairie. Now three large hotels are in course of erection, there are stores of all kinds, and even a branch of the Canadian Bank of Commerce is going up. There is also a printing office, from which is issued weekly our newsy little paper, _The Lloydminster Times_. “This year we have had fifty acres under cultivation. Our grain is not threshed so far, as the threshing outfit has not been our way yet. The general yield of oats is about 50 bushels to 60 bushels per acre—of wheat, 25 bushels. We have two acres of potatoes—a splendid crop, though early frost spoilt half before they could be got out of the ground. From 4 lb. of seed from the experimental farm, Mr. Rendall had a yield of 136 lb., many of the potatoes weighing over 20 oz. Our garden produce was splendid. We picked several hundredweight of peas, and disposed of them in the town, one restaurant taking nearly all we could supply. We have put on a large addition to our house in the shape of a substantial log building, 14 feet by 18 feet, which will serve as a granary in winter and an extra kitchen in the summer. Mr. Rendall is now completing a fine log stable, 30 feet by 15 feet. We have some very good cows, and our milk is now disposed of right away and fetched from the door, so that we have no bother.” * * * * * Last autumn I visited Mr. and Mrs. Rendall and their fifteen hundred neighbours—a healthy, happy, and prosperous community. The town of Lloydminster, with its large and handsome banks, hotels, churches, schools, and hospital, was a visible part of the abundant wealth which the Barr colonists, by growing grain on 27,000 acres of hitherto useless prairie, had brought into being—and all in less than eight years!