corn belt experts. The fact that corn is only 

 becoming really popular in the West is due to 

 several causes, one being that devotion to the 

 cult of wheat and other cereals has tended to 

 practically exclude more crops, and another that 

 before the more intensive farming which is be- 

 coming the order in the larger portions of the 

 provinces, the wide ranges provided the necessi- 

 ties of pasturage and winter feed. 



Certain it is that in the West corn can be grown 

 successfully, and the increasing favor it is finding 

 with farmers augurs the future location of the corn 

 belt much in the same region where the wheat 

 belt is to-day. 



Danish Colony in Western Canada 



By C. LaDue Norwood, Dept. Natural 

 Resources, C. P. R., Montreal 



The Scandinavian people, Danes, Norwegians, and 

 Swedes, are noted for their pioneering instinct, and it 

 is therefore not surprising to find representatives of these 

 races in the vanguard of settlement in Western Canada, 

 in which especially Danes have taken a prominent part. 



The Danish people, due to the limited area of agricul- 

 tural land in the country of their birth, are keenly appre- 

 ciative of the value of land and its proper cultivation; 

 indeed, they are very good judges of soil and agricultural 

 conditions and make few mistakes in selecting locations 

 for settlement, and where they settle together and follow 

 agricultural pursuits prosperous farming communities soon 

 develop. Individual Danish farmers have located in 

 various parts of the Prairie Provinces of Canada and in 

 some cases, where the first families settled a few years ago, 

 very fine settlements of these thrifty agriculturists have 

 sprung up. 



Markerville, Alberta, an early and successful Danish 

 settlement in a fine dairy and mixed farming district, 

 named after Mr. C. P. Marker, one of the first Danish 

 settlers there, who is now Dairy Commissioner for Alberta, 

 and the Innisfail district, may be mentioned. The latter 

 district has become noted for its dairy products owing to 

 the fact that in their homeland the Danish settlers soon 

 discovered the advantages of dairy farming and it was not 

 long before a good creamery was in operation at Innisfail, 

 creating a staple industry and a regular income to the 

 settlers, and through the maintenance of a good number 

 of stock and careful cultivation of the land, a very solid 

 farming community has been established. 



An Outstanding Example of Success 



Probably the most outstanding example of Danish 

 pioneering and agricultural success, however, is that of the 

 Danish settlement at Standard, Alberta. It was in 1909 

 that J. H. Myrthu and Jens Rasmussen first heard of the 

 fertile lands of Western Canada, and whilst they were 

 farming good high-priced land in Western Iowa, where 

 their ancestors had pioneered before them, they were 

 beginning to feel the call of the Canadian North-West. 

 Then the desire to investigate the opportunities in the 

 Canadian West grew into a determination and crystalized 

 in the spring of the year when these two prominent farmers 

 decided to make a trip to Canada. After travelling over 

 various parts they decided that the undulating prairies 

 of Southern Alberta was the right place for them and their 

 Danish friends. 



Returning home they talked to their neighbors and 

 mends about their plans, with the result that in the fall 

 of the same year a party of about some thirty people 

 arranged to make the trip from Iowa to the new land in 

 Alberta. These men were of the sturdy Danish -American 

 farmer class and as soon as the Canadian border was 

 crossed were at once interestod to see everything and miss 

 nothing;. No doubt there was a thought in some minds 



that a great change would appear when they crossed 

 from the land of the Stars and Stripes to the Land of the 

 Maple Leaf and Union Jack, but there seemed no great 

 difference except that the fields of golden grain were 

 larger and the stocks of grain were thicker. 



Their keen appreciation of the productive soil was at 

 once aroused to the opportunity presented to the farmer 

 to make the rich prairie acres pay a handsome dividend, 

 while at the same time the home life for their families 

 would not be materially changed. On every hand they 

 aw progress and prosperity. Big farms, fine buildings, 

 progressive cities and towns, good schools, everything 

 much as they had left in Iowa; the people spoke the same 

 language and many had preceded them from "back home. ' ' 

 When the train reached Gleichen, Alberta, a budding 

 Western town, the end of their railway journey, they 

 proceeded by democrat thirty-five miles across the prairie, 

 everyone enthusiastic over the promising future which 

 the new land offered. 



To Spy Out the Land 



Early the next morning the thirty pioneers, in six 

 double-seated rigs packed with provisions and feed, set 

 out to "spy the land"on their seventy mile trip. Reaching 

 the site of the prospective colony and whilst dinner was 

 being prepared, the Danish minister, who had been invited 

 to join the party, formally dedicated the settlement the 

 "Standard Danish Colony," after which the teams were 

 again requisitioned, the party piled into the wagons, and 

 every parcel of land was carefully inspected and allotted. 



This then was the nucleus of the present very success- 

 ful and prosperous Danish settlement which has won for 

 the district an envied position among the many progressive 

 grain and stock-raising districts which have sprung up 

 during the past decade. Here now are to be seen the 

 comfortable homes and big red barns of wealthy and con- 

 tented farmers, and the undulating unbroken prairie of 

 1909, with its picturesque winding trails, has given place 

 to the mile long furrows, the woven wire fence, and the 

 graded road with the railway penetrating the settlement 

 and the town of Standard at their door. 



No Vacant Land Remains 



The original settlement, which, through its wonderful 

 record of success, has drawn their fellow countrymen from 

 all directions, has long since overflowed the original 

 township boundaries, extending in all directions, has 

 crossed the Rosebud River to the north, where at Wayne 

 an extension settlement has rapidly grown. Many of 

 these settlers came with limited means to take up land at 

 from $15 to $25 per acre, while today, through their energy 

 and determination and the inherent fertility of the soil 

 and favorable climatic conditions, they have built up a 

 community in which their land is in demand by new settlers 

 at from $75 to $100 per acre. There is now no vacant land 

 in the Standard Danish Settlement. 



Probably no more persistent and uninterrupted record 

 of progress in colonization and agricultural development 

 can be instanced, and the millions of bushels of wheat, 

 oats and other grains, and the thousands of head of live- 

 stock produced in this settlement have already created 

 substantial railway traffic such as few districts attain 

 the ideal state of settlement so much sought after by the 

 Colonization and Traffic departments of a progressive 

 railway. 



When this condition is attained throughout the West 

 generally, one can only imagine what Canada's annual 

 agricultural returns will be. 



Irrigation Pioneers 



The Canadian Pacific Railway Company 

 introduced irrigation into the semi-arid tracts of 

 Southern 'Alberta, and in the face of profound 

 and general scepticism entered upon the con- 

 struction of a project in an area larger than any 



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