tural future which awaited Manitoba and the Brandon 

 district. Individually they threshed the matter out 

 thoroughly, and came to the same conclusion. They de- 

 cided to set themselves a tremendous task for two young 

 girls, one of seeming impossibility, one to daunt most men 

 and fraught with the longest odds against success no 

 less than that of clearing the farm of its debts and encum- 

 brances, putting it on a sound basis, and inducing it to 

 provide them with a comfortable living and ultimate 

 prosperity and independence. 



They would see_m to have started out in the greatest 

 independence of spirit, a keen appreciation of their capa- 

 bilities in this direction, and a resolute determination 

 never to call in the assistance of any man but prove what 

 two inexperienced girls could do with fertile western land. 



Since the father died a man's hand on the farm has 

 never guided a plough or seized a fork. Ploughing, seed- 

 ing, haying, stocking, harvesting, feeding, all the multi- 

 tudinous tasks of farm life in their every phase and detail, 

 have been solely accomplished by the two girls, and the 

 excellent reputation the farm has among the province's 

 agriculturalists to-day is the greatest tribute to their sus- 

 tained endeavor and determination. Whilst the mother, 

 who is now old and almost blind, remains the housekeeper, 

 the girls have, in the best and every sense of the word, 

 proved themselves the men of the family and overcome 

 any handicaps their sex may be expected to have imposed 

 upon them. 



From 160 to 1,120 Acres 



When the father died the farm consisted of a homestead 

 of one hundred and sixty acres encumbered with a mort- 

 gage; to-day the two girls have developed and extended 

 their holdings until they comprise a section and three 

 quarters or 1,120 acres. They started operations on their 

 own with seven horses and ten head of cattle; there are 

 now on the farm twenty-three horses and ninety head of 

 cattle. Furthermore, each animal is an attainment in 

 breeding worthy of special attention, and no expense or 

 care is omitted in bringing the farm's stock up to the high- 

 est pitch of perfection. A bull was recently purchased at 

 Brandon fair for $700, and last year some of the horses 

 from the farm secured first prize and sweepstakes at the 

 Oak Lake Agricultural Fair, which is a much coveted honor 

 in a territory where a high excellence in husbandry is main- 

 tained. Other stock and poultry pigs, chickens and 

 turkeys-^-are of the same fine standard and perfection is 

 the consistent aim in all farm production. 



The farm buildings would be a credit to a larger staffed 

 establishment and practically every piece of work in con- 

 nection with their erection and maintenance is performed 

 unaided by the two girls, even to excursions to the woods 

 for timber, and the actual cutting and hauling. The whole 

 collection of farm buildings and sheds presents an un- 

 usually cleanly and tidy appearance, everything being in 

 its place and all machinery covered and protected. The 

 general excellency of the management of the farm has 

 indeed created such a reputation that it is visited 

 frequently by farmers from near and far who freely admit 

 that they learn much there and are not too proud to take 

 a pattern of operation from the achievements of two 

 young girls. 



Two Charming English Girls 



The girls are by no means Amazons or with pronoun- 

 cedly masculine traits of character and appearance as one 

 might reasonably conclude. Their man-like occupations, 

 their ceaseless work in the open in all weathers, has never 

 taken from them that girlish charm which is woman's 

 most cherished possession. They are still two charming 

 English girls, slight of figure, fair of countenance, with all 

 the allurenient of their sex despite the fact that they faced 

 the necessity of becoming the men of the farm, and have 

 outdistanced man in a man's occupation. 



Quiet, modest, and of the cheeriest of dispositions, they 

 have always held the affections of the people of the dis- 

 trict who watched with admiration their gallant struggle 

 to success and independence, and are immensely proud of 



their dwelling in their midst. Devoutly religious, though 

 living nine miles from town where exists the nearest church 

 of their denomination, they have on no occasion missed 

 their regular weekly attendance and it is recorded that 

 they have never once been late. During the war when a 

 jumble sale was held among the farmers for the relief of 

 distressed French farmers, the girls gave one of their splen- 

 did two-year old colts which brought $175 and turned out 

 to be one of the most valuable gifts of the sale. They 

 appreciated, perhaps more than most, rhe acute position 

 of a farmer struggling under severe handicaps. 



Their Work Equitably Arranged 



The work of the two partners is equitably arranged. 

 The elder sister handles all the business affairs and in the 

 matter of buying and selling has proven herself the equal 

 of all and the superior of many of the business men of the 

 district. The younger supervises the actual farm opera- 

 tions and the duties of the two dovetail in harmoniously 

 without conflict of any nature. They love their shares of 

 the work, their life runs on equitably, smoothly and con- 

 tented, whilst they share in that exquisite knowledge 

 which comes of success attained by honest effort and cease- 

 less endeavor. 



The passerby on the trail may see either or both of the 

 sisters working in the adjoining fields at any time, seated 

 on plough or binder, pitching hay or loading sheaves. He 

 may also be fortunate enough to enjoy a greater intimacy 

 in the privacy of their farm home, and learn to his entire 

 satisfaction that the labors of the field need not detract 

 from woman's great charm in the atmosphere of the fire- 

 side, and that girls may become homemakers in the 

 material as well as the sentimental significance of the 

 term. 



Manufacturing Asbestos Products 



Canada offers advantageous industrial open- 

 ings in many important lines of manufacturing, 

 and probably none more so than in the manu- 

 facture of asbestos products. It has long been 

 an anomaly that the Dominion, whilst ranking as 

 the world's principal producer of asbestos, has 

 lagged behind in the matter of engaging upon 

 the manufacture of asbestos products. Practi- 

 cally the entire demands in Canada for goods 

 manufactured from asbestos have been satis- 

 fied from the United States manufacturing plants. 

 Canada, with 88 per cent, of the world's pos- 

 session of asbestos deposits, is exporting 89 per 

 cent, of the raw material she mines to the United 

 States and buying back her own product in a 

 manufactured form. 



Though the urgency of bettering this state of 

 things has long been recognized, efforts to this 

 end have never been aggressive or strong, largely 

 because the necessity in establishing asbestos 

 manufacturing industries on a sufficiently large 

 scale lay in capital which was lacking. Never- 

 theless, a few manufacturers who have success- 

 fully entered upon the manufacture of asbestos 

 goods, have been successful to an extent in in- 

 creasing Canada's exports of manufactured as- 

 bestos even though little has been done in ma- 

 terially cutting down the volume of imports in 

 these goods. 



Canada's Production 



Canada's production of asbestos and asbestic 

 in 1920 amounted to 197,321 tons, the deposit 

 of crude and milled fibre being 157,904 toni. 



