Agriculture -- Prairie Provinces; Northwest, Canadian -- Economic conditions
The possibilities of Western Canada are no longer new and untried.
Twelve or fifteen years of cultivation have made it a vital, living
land, and placed it on the level with the greatest of the food-producing
countries. That same redundant energy will shortly make it the richly
laden "bread basket" not of England only, but of the entire world.
Here every condition is a health bringer as well as a wealth bringer. A
few months in this "New World" to which you are invited and where
rejuvenating physical and mental changes are wrought; where before hard
work was drudgery, it is now a delight; where nothing but fresh trouble
darkened the horizon, the outlook is now a rainbow of promise. Industry
is seasoned with the compelling spirit of adventure, and the thought of
the coming harvest constantly lightens the burden of labor.
The crowded city dweller, curbing those natural desires for
home-building that are as natural as breathing, will find in Western
Canada a country where nothing is so plentiful as space. And in building
his home here he is surely laying the foundation for a competence, and
very often for a fortune. Along with prosperity there is abounding
happiness and good fellowship in the farming communities. The
homesteader, beginning in a modest way, rears his first habitation with
practical and serviceable ends in view. His next-door neighbours are
ready and willing to help him put a roof over his head. There is a
splendid lend-a-hand sentiment mixed with the vigorous climate. The
first harvest, like all succeeding harvests, comes quickly, because the
soil is a lightning producer. All summer long the settler has dreamed of
nothing but acres of waving grain; with the autumn the sight of hopes
fulfilled compensates him for his months of toil. In due time the crop
is harvested and marketed, the debts are wiped out, and the settler
proudly opens his bank account.
When he has turned the golden grain into the golden coin of the realm he
realizes for the first time what it means to be liberally paid for the
work of his hand and brain. The reward of the farmer in Western Canada
is sure; and as the soil responds faithfully to his husbandry, year
after year, he looks back upon the old conditions he has left with
devout thankfulness that they are past.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account