Homesteading : two prairie seasons

Front matter

Wendy innis

TWO PRAIRIE SEASONS

THE CALL OF THE WEST:

Index

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SOI

ILLUSTRATIONS

MOWING .....

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Frontispiece

FACING PAGE

DECK QUOITS ....

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SNAP-SHOT OF OUR FELLOW-TRAVELLERS

A GROUP OF SCANDINAVIANS

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AMUSING THE CHILDREN

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SNAP-SHOT OF OUR FELLOW-TRAVELLERS

LAND HO !

PROVISIONING FOR THE JOURNEY

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ALL ABOARD ....

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LAKE SUPERIOR . .

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ONTARIO SCENE

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HITTING THE TRAIL FOR A HOMESTEAD

LOCATED ON A HOMESTEAD

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DOUKHOBOR AND HIS TEAM

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STARTING TO FETCH THE MAIL .

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A HAY RACK ....

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AN INCREASING FAMILY

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MY HOMESTEAD IN THE DISTANCE

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THRESHING SCENE

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THRESHING SCENE

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WINTER VISITORS

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Illustrations

FACING

OFF TO TOWN IN WINTER ....

BEGINNING A LARGE STABLE

A PRAIRIE HOMESTEAD

READY FOR A “ JOY RIDE ”.....

HORSES ROUND A SMUDGE

AN OLD-TIME RANCHER ......

AN OLD-TIME RANCHER AT HOME ....

THE rancher’s BUNCH OF STOCK ....

THE BINDER READY FOR REAPING ....

A GOOD CROP OF OATS ......

PAGS

TO THE READER

Are you a young man of spirit, tired of the daily round of office or shop, and tempted by eloquent lectures, Government emigration booklets, or descriptions ^of summer tourists to try your fortune on the great Canadian prairies ?

Or are you an overworked paterfamilias, who, while realizing that for yourself and beloved helpmate the prospects of improvement from such a change are very doubtful, is inclined to think that for the sake of your large and growing family it might be well, while in the prime of life, to make a move to a less crowded land ?

Perchance you are a farmer’s son, longing to own your own farm, or one of the much-talkedof farm labourers earning from twelve to sixteen shillings a week, with a sweetheart or a growing family, which makes the Saturday’s pay look very small indeed.

Well, to you two last mentioned, Canada may indeed be the Land of Hope ; but let me tell you “ right here ” that you are the prime birds those great sportsmen, the Canadian vested interests.

II

To the Reader are especially after, for without men of your class the alluring dividends of manufacturing companies, banks, and railways would soon dwindle. So you may as well know your value to Canada at once.

Or perhaps you have dear friends or relatives pioneer farming in Saskatchewan or Manitoba or Alberta, nobly subduing nature to man’s use, who find but little time to write details of their lives to you, for they are engaged in heroic work, and are for the most part heroes and heroines, though the last to recognize themselves as such. Should the following pages help you to understand their lives and increase your sympathy towards them, the author will be well repaid, for he has many friends among them.

Or possibly you are one who, like the writer, for some reason has had unexpectedly to return to the Old Country, and after reading a page or two drop into prairie speech and remark : “ Gee-whiz ! this fellow talks to beat the band, but I, didn’t see things like this ” ; and if you go on reading you may wonder why there is so little about the marvellous towns and their rapid growth, of great chances to grow rich, speculating in real estate, and many other marvels of the Great W est.

Well, Canada is a fine country, but there is

To the Reader

SO much of it that one cannot generalize, and my observations were confined to one district where I lived and worked.

Now, it seems to the writer that while there are plenty of books dealing with past history and telling of rapid growth in modern days, also many interesting travellers’ tales and some good works of fiction, there is plenty of room for more details of the actual life of the thousands who annually leave our shores and settle down to pioneer farming on the open prairie, and it is the experience of such that I wish to describe.

Come then, one and all who care to read these pages, and let us try in imagination to visit or revisit a tiny bit of that wonderful new land and the true-hearted men and women who are doing their part in laying the foundations of a great new nation.

V ,

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Chapter I West Bound

The door opened and a young man entered, just an ordinary young Britisher, such as one sees by dozens during the dinner-hour in the cafes of our large towns. He had been a grammar-school boy, but was now three-and-twenty, full grown and fairly well proportioned, if somewhat slender.

We had a very slight acquaintance, and I felt a mild surprise at his entrance, but he soon broke silence by remarking, , as he dropped into a chair, “ I heard you were off to Canada again, and thought I would give you a call.”

His tone arrested my attention, and I said, after a few seconds, My next visit home will find you head of a department, with a fine salary and a growing family perhaps — eh ? ”

He stood up, thrust his hands into his pockets, and remarking, Excuse me, but look here,” went on : I’ve stuck to this job pretty well for five

years, but there are a lot in our place better than me, and they hold on like limpets. Then there are brothers and sisters coming on with the same chances — ^the boys with perhaps thirty bob a week when they are five-and-twenty ; and as for the girls — there ! I don’t call it good enough ; and as I’m no hand at beating about the bush, the long and short of it is, I looked in to say, if you’ll have me. I’ll go along with you.”

After a pause he added, Of course, I’m not such a duffer as to think things may not be worse over there, but I’ve talked to you before, and other fellows, and you say there are chances, and I’ve made up my mind to try it.”

He had been fully charged, and after the explosion silence fell on us for a few minutes, and , my thoughts ran rapidly over what he had told me.

At last I said :

‘‘Well, Tom— by the by, I suppose I may call you Tom, and you may call me Jack — provided the old folks at home are not against your going ; and you feel quite well and fit, I shall be glad | to have you, for a good chum is well worth j having ; but I fear you will have to listen to much that may sound humdrum, though it will probably come in useful, all the same,”

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DECK QUOITS

“I can say ‘Yes, yes’ to all that, Jack,” he replied; ‘‘but one thing I want to say: I do want to get on the land, and because I heard that you were going to homestead, and I knew you had some experience, I came to you. Fellows tell me there are better chances in the towns for a chap like me, but it is the life on the land that attracts.”

“ That’s so, Tom,” said I, “ and in the long run we may be right, but we are not choosing the soft job.” Then I said, “ But if we mean homesteading, we must talk a little business ; how does your credit balance stand ? ”

“Well, I’ve got just the even hundred pounds,” said Tom.

“ I can put the same in,” said I, and went on: “You see, it’s like this: chaps do go out and homestead with practically no cash, though they gain in experience while they are doing it, and if you were going alone or with a green hand, I would say, ‘ Put your money in the bank and go to work first,’ for nothing one can tell or that you read in books takes the place of actual experience.”

I continued : “ This is January, and as we

ought to be out there early in April, we had better book our passages at once, as the rush is on then, and if we leave it much longer we may

B get left. Any regular liner will do, and as every dollar is of consequence to us, we will book third class, and as such passengers we shall probably be most comfortable in one of the newer boats, so we will try for one of them.

‘‘ As for outfit, take all your ordinary clothing, but leave behind such things as leggings or knickerbockers, or anything that would advertise you as distinctively English. Bring along a good shot-gun, and two or even three blankets or rugs, packing these where you can get at them, as you may be glad of them on the long train journey and in the winter. Also bring a plate, knife, fork, spoon, and cup — enamel things are the sort. You might slip in a nice tin of tongue, and I’ll get some tea and sugar and canned fruit ; you’ll see the good of these little details later on.”

“Where would you book to on the other side ? ” said Tom.

“Well,” said I, “the -country is so big and new, and the conditions change so much, that it is not easy to answer that question, and as hardly any one really knows the country and nearly every settler is inclined to boom his own district, and may have some special axe to grind, getting accurate and reliable information is not a very hopeful job, in spite of Government

SNAl’-SIIOT OF OUR FEIXOW-TRAVELLERS agencies. There’s the B district in Saskatchewan : good land, rolling, even hilly in

places, with water generally to be got for the digging, and in many parts plenty of timber near. This is an important point at first, and as I know that part to be pretty good, though there may be better, suppose we go there ? ”

“ That sounds well. Jack,” said Tom ; “ but as locality is important, tell me a bit more about it, as to why you like it.”

“Well, Tom,” said I, “this matter is one on which we should be careful not to dogmatize, but I think in the future settlers should choose a district suitable for mixed farming, and that’s one great recommendation for this district. Then the country is being settled up fairly fast by a hardy lot of immigrants of various nationalities, many of them English, and railway construction is fairly brisk. You must remember Western Canada is a young country, with young people chiefly, who are for the most part learning as they go on ; and, after all, this is what we must do, though I can tell you some things that may smooth the way a bit, and I don’t think we shall make a mistake, Tom, if we book to B

“ Right you are. Jack ; take the tickets, by all means.”

A few weeks rapidly slipped away, and on a bright, cold, breezy morning in the middle of March, Tom and I stood on the great landing-stage at Liverpool, our passage tickets safely in our respective pockets, and modest drafts

on the bank at B , together with a few

spare dollars in Canadian money, snugly stowed away next our respective persons (a not unwise precaution). We also carried vouchers for the railway ticket on the other side.

Very wisely our people had said farewell ” at home, for in most cases seeing one’s friends off, with its waiting about to see the ship sail and the trying return journey, is an unpleasant business.

For the traveller the case is different, for, whether old or young, man or woman, there is usually in most a touch of that spirit which, as Kingsley said of the east wind, ‘‘ drives our English hearts of oak seaward round the world,” and as a Canadian poet has said, “ Though we may look askance at the lone trail, the lone trail

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lures us on.” And let us rid our minds of any idea we may entertain that such thoughts apply to us of British lineage only. As we walk up and down the long stage we may note Germans, Russians, many voyagers from the Baltic provinces of continental Europe, the women and

GROUP OF SCANDINAVIANS children seated on their baggage in more or less picturesque dress — possibly some Iceland folk in still more picturesque garb ; but perhaps the finest figures in all the crowd are the Danes and Scandinavians. These, be it noted, with their strong, well-knit frames, often come from the forests, farms, and fisheries of that hard Norse land, and are splendidly fitted for the grim wrestle with Nature that awaits all who aspire to, carve out a farm from the great Canadian prairie and make a home there. But who are those fellows with fur coats and caps, or perhaps only an unobtrusive fur collar showing ? They are returning Canadians, and if we can get some chats with the right sort, they should be well worth listening to ; but beware of the “ bounders.”

To some the scene may seem commonplace, but let us reflect for a few moments how, week after week, indeed almost daily, these great steamers leave, carrying hundreds of thousands ever Westward to this great new land, not from Liverpool only, but also from Glasgow, Bristol, London, besides continental ports.

The annual Canadian immigration has, I believe, for some years now been upwards of 300,000, enough to provide in ten years a population for ten cities of 300,000 each, or thirty of 100,000 each. And who are the people who are going ? Not, as in some past periods of colonial history, a vicious and criminal class, who “ left their country for their country’s good,” but mostly the flower of the British Isles and Europe.

Although many have been town-dwellers, they or their immediate forbears are sprung from what Goldsmith calls the hardy peasantry, which once destroyed can never be supplied ” ; enterprising, energetic, and ambitious, and on the whole too young to have had their minds cramped by mere formulas. And though they may not carry much capital in money, they often have a good round sum, and the fact that they pay their passages, and often that of a family, means that, generally speaking, they are not drawn from the class that lives from hand to mouth.

“ Looks rather good for Canada, the Flag, and the Empire, doesn’t it ? ” said Tom.

“ Been thinking imperially, eh ? ” said I.

Rather,” said he.

“ That’s all right,” I replied, but you know there are different ways of doing that; and don’t you think that sometimes nations are apt to wave their respective flags a bit too much ? Take, for instance, ourselves, the United States, and Canada. Now, for my part, I love to think of^ them as the mother.

AMUSING THE CHILDREN.

with her older and younger daughter, and when one looks at what they have in common, is it wise to make much of a little difference in the colour of bunting ? ”

“ But surely. Jack,” said Tom, “ devotion to the flag of your country is a fine thing ? ”

‘‘Look,” said I, ‘‘at those Stars and Stripes flying from the mainmast of that Cunarder, bound to New York, and at the red ensign of our merchant service flying from the flagstaff aft. Do you see that, though a different pattern, they are both red, white, and blue, and don’t you remember that old Christian legend of the red and blue cross on the white ground, the mantle of St. John de Matha, which, set as a sail, bore a cargo of slaves to a land of freedom and justice ? Now, if our flags still stand for those two things, combined with full recognition of the rights of others and the will to do unto others as we would be done by, let us be devoted to our flags by all means. And now think of Canada and her elder sister, the United States, in relation to our old land, the Mother of Parliaments — all in a broad sense sprung from the same races, with one language, one literature, and may we not add practically one faith also ; with many close family ties, and, to drop to a lower plane, with enormous financial and commercial inter-relationships. I think you will see that between the old mother and her two daughters, as I call them, there is no room for any mere flag-waving, though ^ you may find even some citizens of the Great Republic and Canadians who are not free from it.”

“ Come to think of it, I reckon you are about right,” said Tom.

“ Just another word as a send-off,” said I, ‘‘and I’ve done. Between Europe and America, as represented by the States and Canada, there is this great difference : that so far, thanks to wise statesmanship in the past, the latter has been able to keep itself clear of the terrible military and naval burdens Europe groans under. Think of the five thousand miles of frontier practically without a soldier, and compare that with the state of Europe, and ask yourself how it is possible in the future for her to compete successfully with that continent, under such conditions.”

“ Yes,” said Tom ; I’ve heard this firework business costs Europe £600,000,000 every year, and, come to think of it, the handicap does seem pretty big ; but they have not the population.” True,” said I, ‘‘ but they are growing by leaps and bounds. However, all this sort of talk won’t get us across the Atlantic and on to our homesteads, and here comes our big ship,

SNAP-SHOT OF OUR FEIT.OW-TRAVELLERS.

dropping alongside the stage. She seems to have some passengers who have gone on board at the dock, but the gangways will soon be run on board for us, and we had better get on as soon as we can, though there is no need to crowd and push.”

Needless is it to dwell on the departure, voyage, and arrival, a trying, and to some even a terrible experience ; to many a time of mingled joy and sorrow ; yet to others, especially old voyagers, such times are full of delights which never seem to grow stale by repetition.

The intense bustle of embarkation, the crowds of visitors, the rattle of the steam winches as they hoist tons and tons of baggage on board, followed by the bellow of the siren and the note of bugle or gong warning all visitors to go ashore ; the last farewells, and then, as the throngs who line the rails and bulwarks look down on the crowded landing-stage or quay, the few minutes of quiet and almost silence, very impressive compared with the preceding noisy activity, are incidents of never-failing interest. A wave of a hand from the captain or pilot, and one by one the hawsers are let go, the tugs are slowly breasting the great ship off the stage ; there is a great waving of handkerchiefs, the bridge telegraph-bell tinkles in the engine-room, the propellers give their first, revolutions, the last cheer is raised from the landing-stage and returned from the ship, and we are off.

The voyage is soon over, with two or three days of unpleasant weather perhaps, or possibly we meet a gale and get a good bit of knocking about, and then gradually slip into smoother water and fog as we cross the banks.

If we are wise we keep clear of cards ; there are deck quoits, and many a tired mother will be thankful if we can amuse the children by helping them to skip or otherwise. We are probably too early to see bergs that drift from far north, and we certainly are for going up the noble Gulf and River of St. Lawrence to Quebec and Montreal, so we must land at St. John’s, and as this means a still longer railway journey than from the former ports, we shall be wise to make ourselves as comfortable as we can right from the start. With this end in view we will ask those two pleasant young fellows to whom we were talking to join us on the colonist car, unless indeed we went in a tourist ; but that costs more. You see, the difference between a tourist or colonist car and an ordinary day car, from our point of view, is that in the former you can make up beds, and such cars are fitted with cooking-stoves, while, though the latter may look to have beau-

I, AND HO !

tifully upholstered seats, you cannot make them into beds, and to have to sit up night and day for a journey of seventy hours or more is no joke.

Then the cooking-stove may be a great help if properly worked ; and here our knives, forks, and small supply of food, which we can add to and replenish, come in, making us independent of wild rushes to wayside restaurants, with hasty gobbling up of such food as we can get hold of— if, indeed, similar raids from previous trains have left any for us.

“ Yes,” said Tom, as we arranged with our young friends, who were going through, ‘‘ the railroad circulars have made a great talk of these colonist cars and their comparative comfort, but, as I understand, they are always available.”

‘‘ So I once thought,” said I ; ‘‘ but it does not always seem to work out so ; they run short of such cars, or for their own purposes change you from one car to another. But what are all those people looking at ? — the land, I suppose. Yes, there it is.”

There is always something exhilarating in the sight of land after an ocean voyage, even in these days of swift steamers ; and to the many who for the first time are looking on their adopted country, such an experience may mean much more. To the ‘‘ matter of fact ” it will not mean much, but to others of a more imaginative turn, some of the environment of a life to which they have looked forward for many years may begin to materialize.

A few more hours brings us alongside the wharf, and the usual medical and official examination is courteously made, though with some care, for Canada wants none of the really unfit. Then comes the baggage examination of the Customs, often rigorous enough to seem ridiculous to a Free-trade Briton, but usually amounting to little to the genuine settler landing for the first time.

One of us purchases bread, butter, fruit, and other food supplies, while the other three are fortunate enough to secure a section in a nice colonist car, and having checked our baggage, tickets have been taken in exchange for our vouchers, and we have begun the railroad journey of some three thousand miles or so.

We find ourselves seated two and two, face to face, on fairly roomy if hard seats, which draw out at night and make a six-foot-long bed for two, while overhead a shelf of similar length and width lets down for the other two ; far from luxurious, of course, but with rugs and coats good enough for men prepared to rough it, as all should be who tackle the prairie life.

PROVISIONING FOR THE JOURNEY.

Later on in the day we get the stove lighted I and make ourselves some tea, and have a meal,

|: and when night has passed and we have had a good sleep, followed by a wash and breakfast, we come to the conclusion that if we can travel i in the same car through to Winnipeg, and are I wise enough to keep it decently clean and well aired, we shall get on famously.

Needless to dwell on the journey. We pass towns and farmhouses, mingled with field and forest, stream and lake, in rapid succession, for the most part still under snow. Were it a little later in the year, perhaps men at work in the

II fields would give the incoming settlers a wave of the hand and a welcoming shout as the great train thunders past them.

When travelling on the C.P.R., Ottawa is a good place to provision again for the stretch to Winnipeg, and after passing this, with its fine Parliament buildings, of which we got a glimpse, we soon ran into that wilderness of lake, rock, and forest, stretching for hundreds of miles, which seems to' defy man to make use of it, and may well make the new-comer wonder what [strange land he has come to.

j We were favoured to skirt the shore of Lake Superior during the evening hours, as the sun hung a gradually sinking golden ball of glory over the lake, making a radiant and shining path across a part of the great inland sea, whose waters wash its rocky shore as the Atlantic does the Cornish coast, we got one of those glorious views that live in our memory to our last days.

Soon after passing this rugged strip of coast, with its sharp railroad curves, rock cuttings, and trestle bridges, we reached Fort William and Port Arthur, through whose mammoth elevators the bread-stuff for millions finds its way to the world’s markets. Suggested by the sight of these, our talk drifts on to the question of outlets and transportation facilities for the present and probable future production of these immense areas of fertile soil. Our car conductor, who finds time to join in the conversation, is naturally all for improving the railroad facilities to and through the Eastern Provinces, and he points out that on a good track the big modern locomotive could haul a hundred thirty-ton cars, and asks is not that nearly or quite as cheap as water transport.” He is reminded, however, that the railroads are in the habit of working for their shareholders. A citizen from Dakota is all for J. J. Hill’s railroads across the border, saying ‘‘that way you get ice-free ports all the year round,” but some one remarks that while much doubtless goes that way in

ALL AnOAUD bond, his idea will work better when the tariff walls of both his country and Canada go down.

Another traveller in the little group is loud in praise of the Pacific ports.

“ For my part,” said I, ‘‘ I have great faith in the Hudson Bay route to Europe, if it is given a fair chance. By it you save from the greater part of the Prairie Provinces to Europe a thousand miles of rail haul. True, there are said to be dangers, but it is well known the St. Lawrence route, especially through the Strait of Belle Isle, is not free from such, and the Hudson Bay Company have, I believe, been sending ships for two hundred years with very few losses. It is also an interesting thought that this route is on the line of that North-West Passage to the East which British navigators dreamed of and sought for so many weary years, and which may, with the aid of railroad facilities, even now in progress, become an accomplished fact.”

A few hours later, and forest, rock, and lake begin gradually to give way to flat, open spaces, and it is interesting to notice how little by little the country changes into the open prairie, with farms here and there; and soon the great train rolls into Winnipeg.

The morning is a beautiful one, and as we

Homesteading "

approach this modern city of the plain, “Tom,” said I, we are pretty sure to have a few hours to spend here, and we will have a run up to Eaton’s.”

“I have heard of Eaton’s — a big store, 'isn’t it ? ” he asked.

“Yes,” said I, “ and something more than the ordinary big department store to many prairie-folk, for their eatalogue is sometimes spoken of as the prairie-woman’s Bible. Besides catering for the ladies, they supply tools, harness, many implements, and an immense variety of such wares as the settler and farmer need. Then, as they do an immense trade for cash, or rather, prepayment, their prices to the fortunate ones able to pay cash are usually much lower than those of the local stores. People living a long way from any store at all find it very convenient to get goods sent out by mail, or to their local station, to wait to be called for as opportunity serves.”

So at the great store w^e invest in some brown canvas overalls, which we can w’ear instead of our cloth clothes in the hot weather, also some leather gloves, as it is well and usual to use them for working in ; and Tom, w^ho says he does not mind a heavy hat, buys a “ Stetson,” good value, though for myself I prefer a lighter and

LAKE SUPERIOR,

ONTARIO SCENE.

softer headgear. On request, one of the larger catalogues is handed us — a very useful article, both as a means of ordering in future and checking the prices asked in country stores, on which subject, more probably later.

After a run round some of the principal streets of this fine and growing city, and a look at what remains of old Fort Garry, whence within so few years the dog teams of the Hudson Bay Company used to start out on their long winter journeys, we make our way to the new Union Station, and take our seats in the Canadian Northern train for the last trip of some six hundred miles.