AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION. 



T THE time the first edition was printed there was a strong movement 

 towards taking up bush lands. Most of the settlers entering upon 

 this work were largely Inexperienced and there were no handbooks or 

 pamphlets to guide them. There is again a wave of immigration sweep- 

 ing over this Province, and again it is largely a question of the clearing 

 of these bush lands; :mfl, while there are many opportunities for new- 

 comers to learn the various kinds of farming, either through the British 

 Columbia University or in the different public institutions, through the Soldier 

 Settlement Board and Civil Re-establishment Departments, there is no course so far 

 being undertaken by any of them having any relation to the clearing of land. As 

 most farming operations in this Proince have to commence with land-clearing, the 

 writer feels that this apparent oversight is much to be regretted. While the different 

 processes of land-clearing described in this and the two previous editions will apply 

 generally to almost all parts of British Columbia where there is hush to clear, it 

 applies more particularly, perhaps, to the Lower Fraser Valley, Vancouver Island, 

 and the Coast Districts. 



Since the second edition was printed many changes have taken place throughout 

 the Province, and perhaps these changes have been greater and more far-reaching 

 in the Lower Fraser Valley than anywhere else. At the time this third edition is 

 being written wages and costs of lumber and other materials, but particularly 

 lumber to say nothing of the cost of living have increased enormously, and it 

 can fairly be said that they are now quite abnormal. As time goes on there will, 

 no doubt, be some adjustment downwards, but when this will come or to what 

 extent it is not safe to prophesy, so this pamphlet has been rewritten, basing it 

 largely upon present-day conditions. When the second edition was written the 

 average rate of wages in any land-clearing activities was not over $2.50 per day 

 of ten hours, and sometimes it. was less. To-day it is from $4.50 to $5 for ten 

 hours, and sometimes even more. Rough merchantable lumber and shiplap were 

 selling at from $8 to $12 per 1,000 feet. To-day they run from $30 to $45, and 

 everything else is in proportion. 



Cost, of course, enters very largely into the question of clearing and cannot be 

 ignored, but the underlying principles of bush-land improvement are still the same, 

 although new and improved methods have been developed. If one could be certain 

 that the present prices of farm produce would continue indefinitely, it might be 

 safe to figure the present cost of clearing as being in proportion ; but it cannot be 

 doubted that as time goes on many of the articles produced on the farm will drop 

 in price, so that to estimate the value of clearing based upon present costs would 

 give a capital value to land when cleared probably in excess of what it would be 

 able to pay a reasonable rate of interest on when the price of produce comes back 

 to somewhere near what it was before. The best authorities say that farm 

 produce will never come back to quite its old level, but the probabilities are that 

 is and other costs will not do so either. It would, however, be unwise for any 

 one clearing land to figure his wages at present rates. A man is always willing 

 t work for himself at a little less than what he will work for any one else, and. 

 no matter what happens to produce prices or wages in the future, the man who 

 has cleared his own land has always -rot the satisfaction of knowing that lie did 

 it, "not (Jeorge." and that the man who is going to get the benefit of the clearing 

 will he himself. As a slight offset to this increased cost of clearing, unimproved 

 land can be obtained in most places for a great deal less than was asked for it 

 prior to the war. 



Since the second edition was written, also, great changes in other directions 

 have taken place in the Province. Many hundreds of thousands of acres formerly 

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