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I HAVE been much occupied
helping my Scotch friends get in their harvest ; two of them went off on the
threshing gang, so the remaining one and I got in the crop. It was very hard
work, but luckily we had fine weather.
I have had to come into town
for stores and to buy a set of harrows, as I want to get my land worked up
ready.
I was much amused at the
letter you sent me. The cutting is taken out of a local paper; it has all
got some truth in it as far as Saskatoon itself is concerned. The C.P.R. are
going to make it their prairie centre, and have paid a very high price for
lots in the middle of the town, only this will not, I am afraid, as your
correspondent seems to think, make any great difference to the price of
outlying lands. As to having a railway a mile from us, it may come about in
time, only so far I have heard nothing to confirm such a rumour. Saskatoon
is growing at a wonderful rate; every time I come I find some change, and it
gets quite difficult to find the proper way in. The Grand Trunk Railway is
laying rails 20 miles north of us, and the C.P.R. 18 miles west. Land my way
now is worth 12 to 13 dollars an acre, bare prairie land; broken it is worth
15 to 20. I have had people round already wanting me to sell the whole place
next year, but I certainly should not think of doing so. I have a place of
my own, and I am creating a home that I hope will one day be a comfortable
one. No, I do not believe in selling a home that you have made all yourself,
not only by spending money on it, but by counting every stick about it with
your own hands.
I do not think I could put up
with life in England now, I should feel shut in. Here I have space around
me, I can do as I like, and no one thinks the better or the worse of me,
whether I am driving a buggy or a wagon, whether I am in working overalls or
otherwise. Would it be the same in the old country? I shall give notice to
Government next month that I mean to apply for a patent, and then I have to
write again for it six months later, when the three years' occupation are
completed, and the regulation duties are done. |
