Homesteading 



said, we were twenty-six miles from the nearest 

 railroad, and a man I met in town had come fifty 

 miles with a load of wheat, for which he received 

 the sum of eight dollars. The elevator man's 

 comment was : "I don't blame him if he spends 

 it in drin'c.'* 



It may be asked, " Why do people settle under i 

 such conditions, and try to grow grain for profit ? " 

 Partly because in some parts railroads have been 

 surveyed, and are shortly expected, though, alas, 

 it may be long before they arrive. 



But, of course, what is taking place is only a 1 

 modern chapter in the long history of the settle- 

 ment of the North American Continent. Drawn 

 by glowing advertisement, and pushed forward 

 as it were by his own land-hunger and the pres- | 

 sure of an ever-increasing population, the hope- i 

 ful colonist from Eastern Canada, the United 

 States, and Northern Europe sets forth. 



It is true some of these settlers might adopt 

 the words of Kipling : 



We were dreamers, dreaming greatly, in the man-stifled town, , 

 We yearned beyond the skyline, where the great roads go ^ 

 down ; 



;i 

 ;i 



but of many it may be said they are hard- i; 

 headed men, not lacking in judgment, who, know- 

 ing that in the States and Manitoba the good 



i6o 



