Part of the territory that came into the possession of the company was a stretch of land—between Calgary and a point some thirty miles west of Medicine Hat—which, while its capacity to produce bumper crops had been demonstrated, was liable in certain seasons to suffer from an inadequate rainfall. And since an occasional loss of crop is apt to have a demoralising effect, more particularly on new settlers who have not had time to accumulate a financial reserve, the C.P.R. decided that, before putting those 3,000,000 acres on the market, it would counteract the natural shortcoming, and ensure the agriculturist against loss, by carrying out a system of irrigation. For this purpose the area was divided into three sections—a Western Section, a Central Section and an Eastern Section. The Western Section was put in hand first, and, at an expenditure of over £1,000,000, the C.P.R. tapped the Bow River with a canal seventeen miles long, and of a width that varied from 60 feet at the bottom to 120 feet at the water level; it constructed a reservoir three miles long, half a mile wide and 40 feet deep; and it excavated 1,600 miles of primary and secondary canals (the former being 120 feet wide by 10 feet deep) and distributing ditches. These extensive works, involving the removal of more than 8,000,000 tons of earth, necessarily occupied some years; and thus, long before the canals and ditches had reached their limits, the artificial water supply had been tested for a season or so on parts of the area that were dealt with first. That early experience was conclusive; and the land was eagerly taken up. Now the C.P.R. have commenced to irrigate the Eastern Section—an area of 1,100,000 acres—and the work, which will occupy about three years, is estimated to cost £1,700,000. In this case heavier expenditure is necessitated by a greater difficulty in reaching the source of supply, and 3,500 miles of canals and ditches have to be constructed. Afterwards the Central Section will be put in hand. On visiting a number of irrigated farms in the Western Section, I found their prosperous proprietors enthusiastic in praise of artificial watering, of which, indeed, the fruits were visible. Not that an abundant harvest is the only advantage yielded by the system. In the glorious Canadian sunshine, herbage is liable to become so dry that a chance spark will set it on fire; and farmers bore grateful testimony that, when this has befallen, the opening of an irrigation ditch proved an easy means of arresting the trouble. Again, food fishes are swept down the excavated waterways; and many an agriculturist, on discovering trout and pike flopping about in his furrows, has found himself with a strengthened faith in the wisdom of the C.P.R.