ON AGRICULTURE TO CANADA 175 



The problems to be faced in tbe undertaking have not been few. 

 The water has been difficult to retain in the ditches owing to 

 seepage. Labour has been scarce and dear. Rocks have had to 

 be cut and materials to be transported over many miles of rough 

 mountain trail. Tree stumps of three and four feet diameter have 

 had to be blown out, and 1400 feet of flumes constructed. But in 

 spite of all these difficulties the work has been energetically pro- 

 secuted, and when completed the cost will probably not be less than 

 £4 per acre of land irrigated. The total length of the main canal 

 will be 30 miles, and the only revenue of the company will be 

 derived from the sale of water. 



It should perhaps be stated that there is in project another very 

 considerable irrigation enterprise in British Columbia — that of the 

 Columbia River Valley lying between Golden and Cranbrook on 

 the Crow's Nest Line. This will probably be the biggest under- 

 taking of the kind in the province, but as construction has just com- 

 menced it will be some time before results can be estimated. It is 

 expected that apple culture, alfalfa growing and dairying will be 

 the main features of the Columbia River Valley project. 



2. The Alberta Railway and Irrigation Company^s Scheme 



This is one of the oldest in the Dominion. The district covered 

 is that triangle of Alberta which has Cardston, Stirling and Leth- 

 bridge at its angles. The scheme has had many engineering diffi- 

 culties to overcome, but it has been successful in diverting the water 

 of the St Mary River by miles of artificial canals, and the natural 

 channels of Spring Coulee and Pot Hole River, to many acres of 

 fertile but arid soil. The intake is near Cardston, 30 miles from 

 the United States boundary, and nearly 60 miles from Lethbridge. 

 The system has 200 miles of main, and 500 miles of subsidiary canals, 

 and 250,000 acres can be irrigated thereby. So far 1,500,000 dollars 

 have been expended, but it is expected that extensions involving 

 considerably increased outlay will have to be made. Many state- 

 ments have been got to show that land in this district which is 

 irrigable is much more valuable than land that is non-irrigable, and 

 the fields of sugar beet which were shown, for example, at Raymond, 

 indicated that under present conditions, valuable crops are being 

 produced. The Company which works the scheme charges 25 to 

 30 dollars per acre for lands which are or can be irrigated, while 

 lands which cannot be reached by the ditches are sold according 

 to quality at from 8 to 15 dollars. Farmers who take advantage 

 of irrigation are charged by the Company a dollar per acre per annum 

 for the privilege. 



3. The Canadian Pacific Railway Company^s Irrigation Scheme 



This scheme is by far the largest on the Continent, The Company 

 owns or owned land extending at an average breadth of 40 miles 

 eastward from Calgary for 150 miles. It has undertaken the 

 irrigation of this land, and about one-third of the system is now 

 finished. The water supply is taken from the Bow River near 



