districts, the settlers were utterly unable not only to make 

 any payment to the Company on account of their lands, 

 but could not even settle their taxes, and some of the 

 municipalities were very seriously affected financially on 

 this account. The Company carried over the payments 

 due them, and from time to time advanced on their pur- 

 chasers' accounts very large sums in settlement of taxes. 

 In the early days of the West, the importation of pure- 

 blooded stock was, of course, a very difficult matter, and 

 one not lightly to be undertaken by an individual farmer, 

 and consequently the live stock in many districts was 

 pretty well run down. To remedy this state of affairs, the 

 Company distributed several hundred pure bred bulls and 

 boars to farmers at different points on the understanding 

 that for two years their neighbors were to have the benefit 

 of their services free, and at that time the stock became the 

 property of the farmer. This gave a powerful and much 

 needed impetus to the live stock industry, and the influ- 

 ence of these animals is still noticeable in the districts 

 where they were placed. 



Brought in Many Desirable Settlers 



Later on, as the country developed and new districts 

 were opened up, the land department inaugurated exten- 

 sive systems of advertising the country, and by agency 

 arrangements all over the world brought in very large 

 numbers of desirable settlers. Under the auspices of the 

 department, too, various colonies were formed in different 

 sections of the country, and during their earlier stages 

 were nursed along and finally have become the centres of 

 prosperous settlements. During all these various periods, 

 the Company has disposed of its lands under terms ami 

 conditions which seemed to be suitable to the times, and 

 which were calculated to produce the best results all 

 round, and eight or ten years ago, when the time appeared 

 to be ripe, it contributed largely to the tremendous influx 

 of the last few years by interesting several large coloniza- 

 tion organizations in Western Canada, by selling to those 

 organizations tracts of land at low rates and thereby 

 obtaining for Western Canada the benefit of the machinery 

 which had been largely instrumental in settling up the 

 North-West States. 



There is one feature of the policy of the Company 

 which calls for special reference, and that is the system 

 which has been followed in pricing land and the regulations 

 under which the lands have been disposed of, the policy 

 in this regard having had a very considerable effect on 

 the welfare of the country from the point of view of 

 speculation, as it affects permanent and beneficial settle- 

 ment and development. In this respect it may be said 

 that the Canadian Pacific Railway has many times, at 

 periods of undue land excitement, acted as a safety valve, 

 and have been able to safeguard the best interests of the 

 country. Controlling a vast area of land suitable for 

 settlement, the officials of the land department, by care- 

 fully watching the signs of the times, and by following 

 closely their well-marked plan of building up agricultural 

 communities, have been in a position to see when the 

 limit of legitimate speculation has been reached, and have, 

 without working any hardship to anyone, and without 

 putting any obstacle in the way of desirable investment, 

 been able, in a very large measure, to direct the land busi- 

 ness of the whole country into proper channels. 



Regulations Governing Land Sale 



You will be interested in the regulations governing the 

 sale of land by the Canadian Pacific Railway, which is 

 now sold under two general policies: (a) with settlement 

 conditions; (b) without settlement conditions. The 

 settlement conditions entail that the purchaser will reside 

 on his land for at least six months during each of the first 

 five years after the sale of land; that he will build a house 

 to cost not less than three hundred and fifty dollars and 

 a barn capable of accommodating four horses and four 

 cows, which buildings are to be insured against fire; that 

 he will sink a well and fence the land; that during the 

 first year he will break and crop at least twenty-five acres 



in each quarter section, after which at least fifty acres 

 are to be kept under cultivation in each quarter section; 

 that he will also keep at least three milk cows. In lieu of 

 cultivating the land, however, the purchaser may maintain 

 ten head of cattle or seventy head of sheep for each quarter 

 section. 



(1) Terms of payment are one-tenth of the purchase 

 price (including improvements or loan, if any), to be paid 

 at the time the final application is made. 



(2) At the end of the first, second and third years, 

 interest on deferred payments at six per cent. No pay- 

 ments on account of principal will be required to be made 

 during the first three years of occupancy. 



(3) The balance of the purchase price will be divided 

 into sixteen annual instalments; the first instalment will 

 be due and payable at the expiration of four years of 

 occupation with interest at six per cent, and annually 

 thereafter. 



(4) Providing satisfactory evidence is produced 

 that the above settlement conditions have been complied 

 with at the end of the first two years from the date of con- 

 tract, the Company will reduce the rate of interest from 

 six to two per cent, during these two years only. 



Under this policy it will be seen that the terms of 

 sale are spread over a period of twenty years in all. The 

 smallest acreage that is sold is one hundred and sixty 

 acres, while no purchaser will be allotted more than two 

 sections or twelve hundred and eighty acres. The .price 

 of land averages from $18 to $20 an acre. Irrigable land 

 from $50. 



Irrigation Enterprise 



Rich as the entire Western country is, there are areas 

 where diversified and more intensive farming is essential. 

 In some of these large districts, a splendid and abundant 

 water supply being available, the Canadian Pacific Railway 

 have gone into irrigation on a large scale. It would re- 

 quire considerable more time than at my disposal to go 

 into the detail of this, but I will quote some figures and 

 give you an idea of the extent of the work done and the 

 immeasurable benefits obtained. 



In Southern Alberta the Canadian Pacific Railway 

 has over 4,200 miles of irrigation ditches, with an irri- 

 gated area of 743,520 acres, developed at a cost of over 

 seventeen million dollars. Last year a system to serve 

 17,000 acres was constructed in a special area which had 

 been affected in previous seasons from drouth. Other 

 districts in the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan 

 have been surveyed by Federal and Provincial Govern- 

 ments and it is anticipated that development on a large 

 scale will have immediate consideration. The advantages 

 of irrigation have been made apparent in the remarkably 

 greater increase in soil productivity, frequently doubling 

 and trebling the averages formerly attained minus irriga- 

 tion. We have found, without exception, that irrigation 

 farming is the most intensive, most successful, and most 

 profitable form of scientific agriculture. 



Before leaving this subject, I would remark that 

 conditions with respect to irrigation projects, I am told, 

 differ from those prevailing in the United States, inasmuch 

 as our Government controls all the water, and for many 

 years have, under their Hydrometric Branch, kept careful 

 records of all streams. No works can be constructed with- 

 out Government sanction, based on thorough engineering 

 investigations as to the feasibility and soundness of the 

 projects and their approval of the construction details. 

 The Government even goes further and gives approval on 

 their part of the character of the lands to be classified or 

 sold as irrigable. 



Educational Propaganda 



With customary progressive spirit, and realizing the 

 rapid strides in agricultural methods, we are not losing 

 sight of the educational side and the necessity of keeping 

 in immediate touch with the rural districts. By means 

 of the Company's own splendid farms, maintaining a 

 staff of agricultural experts, operating special instruction 



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