RED RIVER VALLEY TO FOOTHILLS 143 



farmers had had from the first. Most of the grain 

 which the Company handled in this way was sold to 

 exporters in the Eastern States and in Eastern Canada, 

 this method being found more satisfactory than selling 

 direct to buyers in the Old Country at this time. 



In spite of everything, therefore, things were swing- 

 ing the farmers' way. The whole Farmers* Movement 

 w^s expanding, solidifying, particularly in Alberta, 

 which for so long had been primarily a cattle country. 

 Grain production was now increasing rapidly in this 

 Province of the Foothills and Chinooks and the future 

 shipment of Alberta grain to the Pacific Coast and 

 thence via the new Panama Canal route was a live 

 topic. Owing to special conditions prevailing in the 

 farthest west of the three Prairie Provinces the Grain 

 Growers' Tnny^m^n^ there did not solidify until 1909 

 into its final cohesion under the name. " United 

 of Alber." 



Prior to this the farmers of Alberta had been organ- 

 izejdl Jala-two groups the Canadian Society of Equity 

 and the Alberta Farmers' Association. The first had 

 its. bftgrnniTiya among some farmers from the TTnited 

 States mostly from Nebraska and Dakota who 

 settled near Edmonton and who in their former home 

 had hflftfl TPfTnhfiffi of the American Society of Equity. 

 These farmers in 1904-5 organized some branches of the 

 American Society after arrival in the new land and, 

 becoming ambitious, formed the Canadian Society of 

 Equity with the idea of owning and controlling their 

 own flour and lumber mills and what not. For this 

 purpose they got together a concern called " The 

 Canadian Society of Equity, Limited," and bought a 

 timber limit, so called. They secured shareholders in 

 all parts of Alberta and the concern went to smash in 



