DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



beyond the reach of settlement, owing to lack of transportation facilities, have 

 been made available by the building of new railways. In the Lower Fraser Valley 

 the conditions have, perhaps, changed even more than elsewhere. At least three 

 new lines of railway have been built throughout the length of the valley the 

 British Columbia Electric, the Canadian National, and the Great Northern bringing 

 within easy reach of transportation practically every part of the Lower Fraser 

 Valley. But perhaps the greatest change has been the cutting-down and utilization 

 of the standing timber. Twelve years ago a very large portion of the valley was 

 covered with a dense growth of, in many places, heavy merchantable timber. This 

 has been almost all logged off. In another two years or so it will probably all have 

 gone; and not only the merchantable timber, but large areas of smaller growth, which 

 twelve years ago was not considered to have any value. This has been used for 

 railway-ties and for logs by small sawmills, with the result that there are to-day 

 thousands of acres of logged-off lands available for settlement, and the valley as 

 a whole has had one stage of the clearing completed without any effort on the part 

 of the land-owners. This makes the final clearing not only an easier but also a 

 shorter operation, as immediately the trees are cut the stumps begin to rot. 



Two other changes have taken place in this valley. One is the great extension 

 of co-operation, in both buying and selling, among the farmers. This tends to 

 stabilize prices and cheaper production. The other is the very large extension of 

 the small-fruit industry. Twelve or fifteen years ago there was, comparatively, a 

 very small acreage in berries ; the future looked doubtful and the profits were 

 small some years there were none. There are to-day large areas in strawberries, 

 raspberries, loganberries, blackberries, etc., and these areas are being greatly 

 extended. The profits are so large and the demand so great that it undoubtedly 

 pays in some cases to clear land as an investment alone, even allowing for the 

 present abnormal prices of everything. 



CHAS. E. HOPE. 

 Deep Creek Farm, 



Langley Fort, B.C., June, 1920. 



Spring. The noon hour. 



