396 WHEAT AND WOMAN 



hundred and sixty acres of it, and a further hundred 

 and sixty had been added on the condition of pre- 

 emption, which is by payment of three dollars an 

 acre in addition to the performance of the home- 

 stead duties ; in this way a farm in every way equal 

 to the one which had cost me five thousand dollars 

 was to be obtained by any man for nine hundred and 

 seventy dollars. So that even allowing that a 

 woman farmer is at a slight disadvantage in working 

 out a farm proposition, she has the killing weight of 

 extra payment thrust on her at the very outset. 

 She may be the best farmer in Canada, she may buy 

 land, work it, take prizes for seed and stock, but she 

 is denied the right to claim from the Government 

 the hundred and sixty acres of land held out as a 

 bait to every man. 



I talked to every man about it, and almost to a 

 man they said : " Too bad ! " 



