The provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta have the largest area of desirable lands in North America, with but 8 per cent under the plough. Their cultivation has practically just begun. A few years ago the wheat crop amounted to only 71 million bushels. To-day, with only 4 per cent of the available area in wheat, the crop is over 209 million bushels. What, then, will 44 per cent produce? Then look at immigration. In 1901 it was 49,149, of which 17,000 were from the United States; in 1906 it was 189,064, of which 57,000 were Americans; in 1913 it was about 400,000, about 125,000 being Americans. Why did these Americans go to Canada? Because the American farmer, like his Canadian cousin, is a shrewd business man. When an American can sell his farm at from $100 to $200 per acre and homestead in Canada for himself and for each of his sons who are of age, 160 acres of fertile land, capable of producing several bushels more to the acre than he has ever known, he will be certain to make the change. And then, following the capital of brawn, muscle, and sinew, comes American capital, keeping in touch with the industrious farmer with whom it has had dealings for many years. These two, with farming experience, are no small factors in a country's upbuilding. Nothing is said of the great mineral and forest wealth, little of which has been touched. In so short a time, no country in the world's history has attracted to its borders so large a number of settlers prepared to go on the land, or so much wealth, as have the Canadian prairies. Never before has pioneering been accomplished under conditions so favourable as those in Western Canada to-day. It is not only into the prairie provinces that these people go, but many continue westward to the great trees and mountains, and fertile valleys, the glory of British Columbia, where can be grown agricultural products of almost every kind, and where fruit is of great importance. The vast expanse of the plains attracts hundreds of thousands who at once set to work to cultivate their large holdings. But man's work, even in the cities with their record-breaking building rush, is the smallest part of the great panorama that unfolds on a journey through the country. Nature is still supreme, and man is still the divine pigmy audaciously seeking to impose his will and stamp his mark upon an unconquered half continent. =THE HOMEMAKING SPIRIT.=--The most commendable feature in Western development to-day is the "homemaking spirit." The people are finding happiness in planting trees, making gardens, building schools, colleges, and universities, and producing an environment so homelike that the country cannot be regarded as a temporary abode in which to make a "pile" preparatory to returning East. [Illustration: Confiding to his better half what they will do with the proceeds of their crop of wheat, which yielded 41-1/2 bushels per acre.]