SPYING OUT THE LAND. 37 



of the trip, to warrant me in disregarding the prompt- 

 ings of that prejudice. Besides, it was not alto- 

 gether instinct that deterred me from buying in the 

 Okanagan. The prices there ruled very much higher 

 than they did in the Kootenays. This was only to 

 be expected, as the country was older and the art of 

 fruit-growing in every way more developed than in 

 the Kootenays. The prices I was asked ranged from 

 $200 (£40) an acre upwards. But then, I must 

 admit that this was for land which required no clear- 

 ing: it was already cleared and quite ready for the 

 plough and for planting. On the other hand, there 

 was an annual rent for water, a rent that would last 

 in perpetuity. And what a heavy burden a tax of 

 that nature may become upon agriculture I knew 

 from painful experience in the region of my youth — 

 the Fens of Lincolnshire. 



Summerland, some ninety miles farther south, on 

 the west side of the Okanagan Lake, was in many 

 respects an ideal place. There was not a single 

 drinking saloon or store which could supply strong 

 drink throughout the whole of the community. Such 

 a thing as locking the house door was, I was assured, 

 absolutely unknown. The ranchers had a most con- 

 vincing air of prosperity, and were very hospitable. 

 We were shown three or four of the ranches belong- 

 ing to the most successful of these men, whose fruit 

 had won medals at the Royal Horticultural Society's 

 Colonial Exhibitions in London two years in succes- 

 sion. But the dust! April though it was, the roads 

 were more than ankle-deep in soft, floury, silty dust, 

 which rose in choking clouds in the wake of our 

 chariot wheels. 



