192 REPORT OF THE SCOTTISH COMMISSION 



ploughmen would feel in going to Canada they were going to serve 

 men who had at home a reputation to sustain for fair dealing. 

 Unless we are greatly mistaken, the company, if properly managed, 

 would make handsome profits from its farming operations. But it 

 would have another, and an equally, if not more, profitable branch 

 of business. It would have its colonisation scheme. Its policy 

 in this connection would be to settle Scotchmen on part of its land 

 in colonies so far as that was possible. Its own farm servants would 

 have the first claim. The Company would break up the ground for 

 them by contract and work it for wages till they were ready financi- 

 ally to work it for themselves. Similar facilities would be given 

 to other Scotch settlers. Unless all reports are false this should be 

 a profitable part of its business, for land in Canada, notwithstanding 

 the recent depression, is rising in price, and the company need 

 neither work for less than the current rate of wages nor sell land at 

 less than the market value. Settlers would pay for the land by 

 instalments spread over a period of years, which is in fact the system 

 at present in vogue in Canada. Interest would run on the unpaid 

 balance at current rates. This system of payment which is ad- 

 vantageous to the settler, would be equally advantageous to a sound 

 company, because it would borrow money at home for 4 per cent, 

 on which it would be paid in Canada 6 per cent. The Company would 

 assure the settlers that when bad years came it would stand by them, 

 instead of forcing them to sell out at a loss. There is undoubtedly 

 a great future for such a company, great, looked at from a financial 

 point of view, and greater looked at from a national and imperial 

 point of view. So much for the emigrant who particularly stands 

 in need of help and guidance. 



The Dairyman's and the Market Gardener's Chance 



The west also opens up possibilities to those comparatively 

 well-to-do dairy farmers and market gardeners who are having 

 some difficulty in making much money at home. Their promised 

 land is not on the bald-headed prairie, but as close as they can 

 get to the habitation of men in the new and rising towns of the 

 west, where cows are cheap and feed is cheap, and where milking 

 machines will get over the labour difficulty till increase of population 

 otherwise solves it. In these centres there is the hope of an ever- 

 increasing demand for dairy and market garden produce, at exceed- 

 ingly good prices. Nowhere is there a better chance for the dairy- 

 man and the market gardener. But they too must be wary. There 

 are western towns which have shot up almost like a rocket, and may 

 come down like a stick. It would not be safe for the dairyman 

 and the market gardener to get in beside them. There are other 

 towns, however, which have come to stay, and their development 

 is only a matter of time, and in some cases, a very short time. To 

 difEerentiate, the dairymen and market gardener must do one of two 

 things. They must either go as hired hands or they must, if they 

 have the necessary means, make a prolonged stay in Canada, and 



