Homesteading 



two to five hundred head. He will then soon 

 realize that, prior to the surveying of the country 

 for homesteading and the coming of the settler 

 proper, there was much stock raised, and some 

 wonderfully fine stock, too. Joe and Nigger had, 

 in fact, come originally from such a man. With 

 the coming of the grain grower, however, it soon 

 became evident that the small rancher must 

 either change his method or go further back ; 

 a few have homesteaded, and some have followed 

 the other alternative. 



From all this it will be seen that even a new 

 country has passed and is passing through different 

 phases. 



After what has been previously said, it is hardly 

 necessary to point out that the vast stretch of 

 country which is known as the Prairie Provinces 

 varies very much in different parts and in many 

 ways. Enormous numbers of people, either for 

 business or pleasure, have passed over the great 

 east and west route of the Canadian Pacific during 

 the last thirty years, and probably most of 

 such travellers, whose survey has been limited 

 to such a journey, imagine that they have a 

 pretty fair idea of what the rest of the Prairie 

 Provinces are like ; but any such idea is calculated 

 to give a totally wrong impression. The late 

 Sir William Butler, writing some forty years ago 



220 



