The Great War of 189-: A ForecastForbes, Archibald
History
The Great War of 189-: A Forecast
Forbes, Archibald
Imaginary wars and battles; Science fiction
The old Ontario farmers appear to be all on the move farther westwards.
Splendid as is that province they appear to prefer to sell off the farms
they have made at the best rate they can, and to move on to the rich new
lands which are available in the north-west. One hears of men here, who,
with their own hands, having three horses with all sorts of improved
machinery, but no other assistance, have actually sown a hundred acres
of wheat this spring. It is said here that in a very few years this
region will be able to supply a surplus grain crop for England equal to
the surplus product of the whole of the United States.
[Illustration:
TOMMY ATKINS BARGAINING WITH THE INDIANS ON THE CANADIAN PACIFIC
RAILWAY.
]
We were naturally a good deal interested in making inquiries about the
prospects of the great railway itself, which has done so much for Canada
and become such an important link between different parts of the Empire.
I came over it with the Governor-General’s party which went down to
British Columbia, soon after the railway was opened. The development of
the country itself, of course, is the first thing that strikes me. Green
fields of corn and comfortable homesteads as far as the eye can reach,
where there was nothing but wild prairie! The trains loaded up with corn
of last year’s crop are still travelling eastwards to Quebec, because it
has not been even yet possible to transport it all, so great is the
accumulation. But no less remarkable were the trains travelling
westwards which we passed at the several stations in our rapid transit,
full of farmers, commercial travellers, and others engaged in the
rapidly developing commerce of the country. Great piles of agricultural
implements and household stuff going westward showed that even in those
parts of the line where the land near the railway has been bought up by
speculators, so that cultivation recedes to some distance from it, rapid
development is taking place.
[Illustration:
OUR NEW ROUTE TO INDIA: RATIONS ON THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY.
]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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