There were, of course, in those days, lean years as well as years of abundant crops, but prices which could be realized for grains were usually very low, and facilities for exporting were quite inadequate. There were periods of depression and sometimes hardship, when the early settlers and purchasers of the Company's lands were unable to meet their interest payments, and in some cases the farmers could not even meet their taxes. During these difficult times, when lands were not by any means of such great value as they are today, and land was a doubtful security, the Hudson's Bay Company never wavered in its confidence in the future of the West, and in order to assist in maintaining the optimism of the settlers, the Company did not unduly press for the liquidation of its purchasers' obligations, but gave every encouragement to the farmers who suffered reverses, would even advance taxes to tide them over until crop conditions improved and they were able to meet their commitments. These conditions obtained fairly often, and by reason of unbounded faith in the future of the prairie provinces by the Company's officials, hundreds of settlers and agriculturists were retained for Western Canada, who in other circumstances would have abandoned their farms and left Canada for other parts. Long before Dominion Government Surveyors were sent west to sub-divide the prairies into rectangular townships under the existing system of Dominion Government Surveys, and previous to the surrender of Rupert's Land by the Company to the Crown, the Company arranged to have laid off farming plots fronting on the Red River, running east and west to a distance back of two or more miles. The first regular sale of farming land by the Company under the Government system of surveys is designated as sale No. 1, the land having been sold to William McKechnie, of Emerson, Man. The sale was negotiated on the 4th of August, 1879, covering the whole of section 8, township 1, range 3, east of the principal meridian, containing 640 acres, at the price of $6.00 per acre, the total consideration being $3,840.00, which in those days was considered very fair compensation for such land. In the present day administration of the Company's land, the same sound policy prevails, and by this time the Company has sold many thousands of parcels and continues to make sales, preferring always to deal with and sell to _bona-fide_ settlers. No purchaser of Hudson's Bay Company's farming lands who has made an honest endeavour to cultivate the land and use it for legitimate farming purposes has ever had just cause for complaint in the treatment he has received at the Company's hands. Lean years are bound to come, and adversity as the result in some cases is bound to follow, and when it is fairly established to the Company that the farmer has done his part within reason, he has not been unduly pressed for liquidation of his indebtedness.