190 REPORT OF THE SCOTTISH COMMISSION 



emphatically the place for him. It offers the opportunity to succeed 

 to all those who can, and it welcomes with outstretched arms the 

 man, who, having counted the cost, has decided to avail himself of 

 the opportunity. 



Now, a man, after having gained experience of Canadian farming 

 as a hired hand, may lease land. Tenancy has already begun in 

 this new land of occupying owners. We even get a hint now 

 and then of the absentee landlord. If the settler decides, in the 

 first place, to lease, he will enter into an agreement with the owner 

 of a farm, who, for some reason is not himself working it. The 



C.P.B. HOTEL AT VICTORIA 



owner usually supplies part of the capital ; the tenant supplies the 

 rest, and manages the farm. The profit is divided between the two 

 in the proportions agreed on. Whatever may be said of this system 

 of tenancy as part of the rural economy of Canada, there is no doubt 

 that it affords a working man a good opportunity, while gaining 

 experience, of making money to enable him either to homestead or 

 to purchase. 



Homestead 

 But the settler may prefer at the outset to farm his own land. 

 If his means are limited, he will be forced to homestead, that is, 

 take up 160 acres of land, which the Government is willing to 

 give, provided he pays a registration fee of ten dollars, and 

 lives six months every year for three years on his homestead, and 

 breaks up thirty acres, of which twenty acres must be cropped. 

 Now, this seems an easy way to become an occupying owner, but it 



