CANADA AND THE STATES.

Shannon News, 3 February 1928, Page 3

CANADA AND THE STATES.

MR H. KILSBY'S TOUR. INTERESTING ADDRESS AT THE LUNCHEON CLUB. Many refreshing impressionts of a tour in North America. accomplished last year, were given by Mi- H. Kilsby, of Levin, at the monthly gathering ot the Chamber of Commerce Lunch Hub, last Friday. ~ n Mr P. W. Goldsmith presided over a 'fair attendance,' and suitably introduced Mr Kilsby, to whom he rcterrec as the youngest of their travelled speakers. -. / , VANCOUVER ISLAND. Tn describing his journey. -Mr Kilsby stated that he left Auckland on March 15th, travelled via Suva and Honolulu; and in 10 days landed at where he stayed for a while, 'that city was the largest, he had been in up_ to that time, and he was considerably impressed by it. Vancouver he made.various trips into the outlying country. There was not a great deal o. farming land in the immediate vicinity, which was mountainous, but dairyin" and mixed farming were earned on"in the valleys. He visited -Victoria, on Vancouver Island, and found tnai city, which is the capital of British Columbia, to be very English in char acter. Mauv people who retired from farming on the prairies went to live m Victoria, and the majority ot the inhabitants of the residential area appeared to be retired folk* He met the Minister of Agriculture, who gave him quite a' quantity of information; also the Commissioner of Lands, a New Zeaknd THE LUMBER INDUSTRY. Mr Kilsby travelled about 120 miles up the island to a place called Courtney. Evidence was abundant that the island had been "at one time thickly wooded, but the forest was fast being cut out. A good deal of goldmiuing was also carried on. He took a run down to Seattle, U.S.A., and spent a dav in the vicinity, inspecting the lumber industry, which was earner! on* upon a very extensive scale. rhcre was. quits a large system of railways running through the woods, to bring the timber down, to the coast. The logs were then made up into rafts and tow ed to the various mills and porta. A good deal of lumbering was earned on around Vancouver; there were many mills on the outskirts of the eity, aim the timber, which was mostly Douglass fir, was exported to all parts of the "world.

ACROSS THE ROCKIES. From Vancouver, Mr Kilsby went by train across the coastal range and the Rocky Mountains to Calgary, in Alberta. The journey of 600 miles was mountainous practically all the way : and he only saw a few signs of tanning en route. He spent a day at Bautt,, the famous tourist resort in the Rockies, and also stopped at several smal. towns to pass the night, making tin railway stages in daylight. Calgary iabout 3500 feet above sea level, and i< right on the edge of the prames. Jhn was his point of departure for tie Trine of Wales's ranch, where the manager, Professor Carlyle, was very courteous in showing him over the properly. Pure bred stock is carried exclusively on the Royal ranch, and the importations oi stud animals from England have become a benefit to stock-owners in Canada. AN IRRIGATION AREA. Mr Kilsby proceeded to Brooks, in the dry area of Alberta, where -over s, million acres are being irrigated, lln rainfall was only 13 inches per an num. and this land had not grown any thing prior to the scheme. 'J he Canadian Pacific Railway Company owneu quite a larga" amount of land in panada, especially along the railway line. and they were responsible for this-ir rigation project. Dams were constructed, and ditches and- math throughout the dry;a*ea, and it wfu being cut up into small block and so o to the public The water was led rigtn clongside the sections, and all that-r selcctor had to do was to lead Ins drau. from the supply. Some of this lain. was a little high for irrigation, and n. that case a lower price was charge.! for it -The land subject to irrigation could be bought for £lO an acre u, the rough state, and a small annua. charge was made for the water. Non irriglble land could be obtained to. £2 or £3 an acre. Even the land tha. was irrigable must be levelled; other wise the water could not be used. Urn beinlg rough, Virgin country. Aid irrigation it would grow any crop; bu the holders went" in mostly tor lnixeu farming, cultivating grasses and lu cerne. Some of them were engaged in ■sheep-raising and were-doing very well, but the sheep had to be housed m the Winter. The company allowed stock t be turned out on to the range country of the non-irrigable area, at a low rental. For the purchase of land from the company easy terms were anangeel and altogether the farmers were well treated by the organisation. WHEAT-GROWNG ON 111 h

PEAIEIES. The prairie lands of the Government were divided up into "townships' con sisting of 36 sections of a square mile each, which were subdivided into quar-ter-sections of 160 aSres. A man could obtain Government land by paying fcto go on to a quarter-section; he must live on it for six months out of three years, and after that he could do with it as he wished. The Government seem- •• ed elb quite a lot for the farmers, offering loans on low security and male ine every effort to encourage settlement. Most of the land in the southern part of Canada was taken up now; that which was not taken up was not of very good quality. From 800 to 100 C miles north of. Calgaiy was the 'Peace Biver district, which was now being opened up. The season was rather short there, but the district was. reputed to contain some ft the best country in Canada. He had had the pleasure, while in Victoria, 8.C., or. staving with a man, originally ■ ±rom New Zealand, who had had about 20 years' experience in the northern part of Canada, and avlio said that that was undoubtedly the best part .of Canada.

The drawback at present was that inorder to reach the Peace River district it was necessary to travel" about 2000 ' miles by rail from Vancouver. A proposal" had been made to construct a railway from Vancouver or Prince Rupert, direct, to the district, across the 'Rockies, and this would reduce the distance to about 500'miles. At present the Government gave the farmers a subsidv to go on the land there and grow grain. Although the season was short, the weather was good iii the summer: with long days for growing Iho crops, <and there was plenty of moisture. * A great deal was being done in Canada now with the 90-day I wheat, .which was being adopted for its quickness in maturing as compared with the older varieties, which took from 310 to 120 days from the sowing of the seed to the gathering of the crop. Most of the wheat was sown in the prairies during the spring. A portion of the land which had been fallow the previous year would be workei. once with the cultivator and then the seed would be sown. The land that had been under grain the year before was-allowed to lie in the second year. Bv this method of farming there was rot a great deal of exptnse, the mam items of which were the operations of ploughing before fallowing, cultivating and '-owing afterwards. The seed must be .'-own on the prairies not liter than May 20th; if it was sown "later a frost .night catch the grain before it was ripe and shrivel it up. Sometimes a tailstorm occurred during the summer and cleaned the crop out. There was also the advent of snow to be reckoned

UP-TO-DATE HARVESTING. _ Machines were now being made which stripped the heads of whc/it, threshed, hem, and deposited the grain into a ,jox-wagon drawn alongside. This obviated the risk of leaving the gram ;ut in the paddock, .besides saving .auch labour. M>st of the farmers .vere doing very well on the prairies—some of them exceptionally well. They aad verv few rates dnd taxes; the .oads wcie m order sufficiently good or cars in. the summer, and in the win ,er horse-drawn sleighs were used. Afcr the-wheat was harvested, it was noi 'mt into sacks, but was handled m "ulk, being deposited iv. elevators at he railwav stations, then transported n l. ( fx ears to the elevators at the seaSons, from which it was shot into the mid* of the ships. The Government x-K doing a great deal in giving asM'uico to the farmers through the vVhoat Pool, which had made a great UiTu-ence to the price and had done ■etier than the Butter Pool of New 4enbiKl. When Mr Kilsby was in Canida the wheat-growers were gel ting ibout - r >s a bushel. ibVtiCT OF WINTER CONDITIONS Dairying and sheep-raising were not followed mir:h on the prairies, except n the irrigation ar-ea; in fact the Can.dians seemed lat-Ker backward in Hie natter of dairying and shecp-farmmg, ecause, for live months of the year, he counti-v- was under snow. He howht it would be a long time before anudians on the prairies would change o 1ho?c occupations. The Avheat growing was rather an easy life, takT|g it 7ill thnr.ig:i the year, A man •ad to work fairly hard whet, putting n the crop and harvesting it, but after ending the grain to -the elevators he mild nack up and go to South Call

ornia'for the winter, as quite a nuinL'i- of the grain-growers did. The Oandianv generally, however, seemed _to ;J jov the snow and. the winter life. Ivy said that they did not notice the old', although 40 'degrees below zero .-as common enough. Skating on the

:(.kis ami sports on the snow and ice .-ere indulged in, and were much onoyed. The farml olives did not coma're with New Zealand homes. The lea cf the Canadian was to settle .own for a few vears, make enough -iouev, and got away. Consequently he ■d not seem to take'a great iuu-rest ,j his home Some of the houses, howvor, were very well appointed.

WINNIPEG VISITED. After seeing the prairie country, Mr vil-bv wenl. to Winnipeg, which he escr'bed as a very nice "ity. The Candi.*J) towns were much the same as he Americae. towns, but there was a ifierence iu the people. The Ciinad--ni.s were very quiet people, who were Iw.yp ready to help the stranger. Hi: ad. only to "tell them that he was from ;,.«■ Zealand and they would do any;,u..y for him. This country had un;i!.id.edlv received a great advertise- . , !; through the tours of the All Black i-.d footballers, and Ihe part ij.vcd bv New Zealanders in Iho War. While "at, Winnipeg. Mr-Kilsby visitd the Agricultural College, where many ■itcresting experiments in agriculture ,e earned on. One of the troubles of he north was that the summers were <, -dinvr ;ui.i the winters so long that h,-' (Traces wt.M' kdied oul ; and this as mie of the subjects of investigai(»ii. He spent a full day at the col- • '..r, and. met a number of professors, ,vhV were wry good 'in s'nowing him round.

TRIP TO THE STATES. After his vi-sit. to Winnipeg, Mr Kil.-:by went down to the United .-.fates, where he soon noticed the racal contrast with the people he liad •n lie s;iid that he certainly did inert cruite a number of plea-ant Am--ricajis, but, speaking generally, the .-coule of the States were not as tnendv as the Canadians. There seemed to ile a different atmosphere, and they alked about their own country a great •crd It was a line country, with just ;:|.otit -everything that the population needed to support them. He wont _to Chicago, and noticed tliat the city contained some very pretty spots as well as some vcrv undesirable-looking ones. It had the" reputation of being vhe worst city in the world for crooks, who went round with machine-guns on ears And thought nothing of holdingup a bank. He saw a lot of the manu- \ fnefcuring in Chicago, also in Detroit, the centre of the motor industry, with factories covering acres of ground. It was interesting to see the mass pro; Auction, many of the factories turning out a thousand cars a day. The mar-

vel of it all was what became of "the vast number of cars produced. CHEAP ELECTRICITY.

la answer to a question by Mr J. \V. Gibson as to the cost'of elect .-ic dy -ji t'anada as compared with New Zealand. Mr Kilsby said lie had met some ,f the engineers of the Winnipeg Hy-Iro-electric Company, which claimed to have the cheapest power in the'world, the charge for lighting was about per unit,"and the other charges Were .'lroiiortionatelv cheap. -AVIF.BAT prninNS.

The chairman asked hew many bushels v>er aero it was necessary to raise in irdc'r to niakfl wheat-growing pay, w "mV fcilsby said llia.t in the first place if, was not necessary to buy any fertilisers. The average Avheat production of Canada was about 17 bushels per ,-ere The farmers to whom he had spoken seemed to think a 20-bushel -roT) a good one. Some of the farmers stated tint they had not had a crop failure in 20 years. Farm hands were raid about £IU a month., with their KCi*p, and beyond this there was not much expense' to the grain-grower. A hearty vote of thanks to Mr Ivi.sbv, for his interesting address, was passed by acclamation, after having been moved by Mr J. W. Gibson, who remarked that he had spent a really good time at the agricultural college mentioned by Mr Kilsby.