Nor must I omit to mention a new style of colonisation that has been devised and introduced by this inventive and indefatigable company. Hitherto, in the history of Canada and other new countries, the rule has been for a settler to arrive on empty land, and find himself compelled to build a habitation, dig a well, knock up outhouses and erect fencing before he can address himself to the crucial matter of cultivating the soil. In a flash of inspiration, it occurred to the C.P.R. that this awkward and irksome beginning of the new life is not inevitable; and that, before offering land for sale, they might just as well put the required buildings and appurtenances upon it, so that the new-comer who buys it shall be spared protracted initial labours for which, in all probability, he lacks the necessary training. This novel idea grew and blossomed. The C.P.R. fenced off a number of holdings, and upon each built a neat little home, with a living-room, sleeping apartments, and a kitchen fitted with a large cooking stove. On each homestead it also built stabling and a barn, provided a source of drinking water, and set up fences. Nor did the C.P.R. stop there. In each case it ploughed forty acres of the land, and, in the following spring, seeded them. It thus prepared a group of “Ready-made Farms”—to quote the name bestowed upon these remarkable innovations in the domain of colonisation. They were offered on the C.P.R.’s usual terms of payment by instalments—the first of twelve annual instalments to be due after the first crop was harvested. It was merely stipulated that each family should possess at least £200, to carry them over the initial stage of their new existence. The arriving stream of Canada’s immigrants—or, rather, the assembling army of Great Britain’s emigrants—provided many competitors for these new opportunities. I do not know whether the C.P.R. made a selection from among those competitors, or whether it accepted the earliest applicants. But, having visited last autumn the first group of Ready-made Farms to be occupied, I can testify that the hundred new neighbours, whether chosen by chance or discrimination, looked to be the sort of energetic and enthusiastic men who could be trusted to profit by the favours of fate. Those farmers (who, for the most part, followed other callings in the old country) had found their first crops in vigorous growth; and when I arrived they were largely occupied—with powerful machinery bought by the communal purse—in enlarging their areas of cultivation.