Many Factors Encourage Industry. 



In general terms furs have been high be- 

 cause they were scarce ; they have become 

 scarce because less is produced and more is 

 used than ever before. In a growing popula- 

 tion with the wealthy classes increasing com- 

 merce and efficient salesmanship have intro- 

 duced them to all parts of the globe, whilst the 

 ubiquitous automobile encouraging the out- 

 door life has been a pronounced factor in the 

 increased consumption of furs. On the other 

 hand the wilds are disappearing. The con- 

 tinual trend of settlement northward pen- 

 etrating the woods and tundras has driven the 

 wild creatures into their last retreat. The use 

 of modern guns, smokeless powder, improved 

 traps and bait have all been factors in exter- 

 minating certain animals and seriously deplet- 

 ing the numbers of others. For years they 

 have been diminishing in numbers and this 

 process will continue indefinitely. 



The only measure to cope with problem of 

 decreasing supply and increasing demand is 

 the encouragement of the domestication of fur 

 bearing animals. Not only can sufficient be 

 raised to furnish the large market previously 

 supplied by the wild product but a much 

 higher grade of fur can be developed and 

 marketed. Under the care of skilled husband- 

 men the animals raised on fox farms can be 

 brought up to the highest pitch of condition 

 and the farmer has the advantage of the trap- 

 per in as much as he can kill the animal at that 

 stage when the pelt is richest and glossiest 

 thus being sure of the highest market price. 



Canada undoubtedly offers the widest and 

 most profitable field at the present day for 

 engaging in the domestic rearing of fur-bearing 

 animals. The last resort on the continent of 

 the wild furbearers, it offers the finest of con- 

 ditions for following the cult both physically 

 and economically, breeding them in what 

 closest approximates their natural habitat. Not 

 only does Canada raise the best of wild pelts 

 but climate, food, environment and general 

 conditions bring to a richness and glossiness 

 unequalled elsewhere the pelts produced dom- 

 estically. 



Across Canada Edmonton 



Probably no city has for years been so in- 

 tently and steadfastly the focus of the world's 

 gaze as the city of Edmonton, the capital of 

 the province of Alberta is at the present time. 

 After existing for years as an important fur 

 centre it attained a more exalted position when 

 selected as the seat of the Alberta provincial 

 government. The penetration and opening up 

 of the vast fertile agricultural tracts of the 

 Peace River country added greatly to its 



national and world importance but it has sud- 

 denly acquired a new and much enhanced 

 prominence as the world's gateway to the new- 

 ly discovered oil field of the Mackenzie river 

 basin. Edmonton, taken apart from its assur- 

 ed eminence as the capital of a rich province 

 rapidly developing in all phases, has had to 

 await the settlement of the enormous agricul- 

 tural area to the south of it before it could 

 vision that vaster greatness ahead which its 

 choice situation and many advantages justify 

 and which the recent discovery of oil in the 

 Northland promises to expedite. 



Edmonton, often termed the most hand- 

 somely situated city in the Prairie Provinces 

 perched as it is high on the banks of the Sask- 

 atchewan River had its origin in 1795 when a 

 post was established there by the Hudson's 

 Bay Company and it became the collecting 

 centre for furs of the Northland, a trade in 

 which it has never lost its prestige despite the 

 fact that other businesses of the rapidly devel- 

 oping area of which it is the centre have out- 

 stripped it in importance. 



A city of about 68,000 people with corporate 

 limits comprising an area six miles by seven, 

 Edmonton is a handsome city in a fair, timber- 

 ed, park-like country, the centre of a rich agri- 

 cultural area and tributaries of a varied natural 

 wealth. Farm products of all kinds, coal, 

 timber, furs (and in future oil) come to the 

 city for distribution to all parts of the world. 

 Its legislative buildings make a collection of 

 exceptional beauty, and it possesses many 

 other public utilities and business houses of 

 imposing aspect. Educationally, it is a provin- 

 cial centre being the seat of the University of 

 Alberta and possessing a seminary, convents, 

 high school, technical school and thirty-three 

 public schools. There are over forty churches 

 and twenty-two banks. 



Centre of a Network of Railways. 



A glance at the map will indicate how 'ex- 

 cellently Edmonton is provided with transport- 

 ation facilities, her arms radiating in all direc- 

 tions to serve and be served. The city is a 

 veritable spider's web of railways, two trans- 

 continental lines entering it in addition to the 

 overland stretches of the Canadian Pacific 

 Railway. Penetrating into the great North- 

 land are the Edmonton, Dunvegan and 

 British Columbia Railway serving the Peace 

 River, Grande Prairie and Spirit River dis- 

 tricts and the Alberta and Great Waterways 

 Railway terminating at Fort McMurray both 

 at the present time, the jumping-off places for 

 the oil fields. Supplementary to these is an 

 excellent system of waterways furnishing 

 transportation to within rasonable distance of 

 the city. 



ISO 



