“Low rates for settlers’ effects apply from Eastern Canada and many United States points to Winnipeg and West.” The best thing an unmarried man settler can do is to go out with one or more settlers similar to himself who shall take up neighbouring homesteads. If they go out from the same village or district they will immediately form a congenial society and will have the common interest of old acquaintance and of common knowledge of the people among whom they have been brought up. A great number of homesteads have been taken up by such companions, who, when they have “made good,” have sent for their brothers and friends to come and do likewise, with the result that a neighbourhood becomes in a sense a replica, as far as the settlers are concerned, of the familiar village or country-side out of which they have gone. As has been said, if they are the right sort of men, they will find it quite easy to get the first 30 acres, which is a condition of taking the homestead, ploughed for them, either by a neighbouring farmer or by the Farmers’ Association of the district. Such homesteaders usually work for a neighbouring farmer during their first year, saving money, learning the business, and putting in odd time on their own land. The requisite first home, which is also a condition of the tenure, may be simply a few rough boards knocked together or a turf hut. This is the familiar “shack.” The shack serves very well for a single young fellow whose necessities are reduced to the barest minimum. If he is an adventurous spirit with a dash of humour he relishes his life, and if he has two or three companions settling at the same time as himself on neighbouring homesteads they will work together and tide each other over the roughing period. The shack at the end of the second year will give place to a wooden house—small it may be, just a combined living-room and kitchen, a washing-up place and one or a couple of bed-rooms, but if there is a “girl he has left behind him” this will be sufficient to warrant sending out for her, and a sensible practical wife is a very valuable asset to the homestead if she is prepared to accept the conditions. Some of the largest farmers in the Far West began in this way less than a dozen years ago. They have added “quarter section” to “quarter section” to the original homestead, until now they may be farming a square mile or a square mile and a half and making money enough every year to allow them to spend three months in the Eastern Provinces or to visit the Old Country, putting up at the best hotels, and spending money with a free hand.