Locating a Homestead 



and one began to wonder if some of the immigra- 

 ' tion were not due to a sort of hereditary land- 

 hunger. I mean a sort of instinct, inherited 

 from Saxon or other ancestors, to get hold of 

 a bit of Mother Earth, there to have elbow-room 

 and be able to develop ourselves and do our 

 work, without cramping and artificial shackles. 

 In fact, were not many actuated by a feeling that 

 took little account of dollars and cents ? And 

 is not this a great factor in the subjugation of 

 great new lands to man's use ? 



From some experience of many prairie-folks 

 I am inclined to think that this is so, and that 

 it is a factor receiving very unfair treatment 

 from the dollar politicians, who for the most 

 ' part rule Canada, and who in their way are worse 

 than the Podsnaps and Gradgrinds from whom 

 the Old Country is gradually shaking herself free. 

 Be this as it may, we found several of the home- 

 steads we looked at too stony — not, be it under- 

 stood, that the earth was shallow, but that large 

 and small boulders, presumably brought by ice 

 when the land lay at the bottom of the ocean, 

 showed partly buried, and indicated the presence 

 of others below the surface. This was speci- 

 ally the case on ridges, and meant they would 

 have to be removed before the plough could be 

 used with any satisfaction. Some quarter sec- 



59 



