14
Grain elevators at Indian Head, Saskatchewan1913
Indian Head, Saskatchewan
Credits:Library & Archives Canada, Ottawa, Ontario
15
W.J. Patterson's home, Indian Head, Saskatchewan1913
Indian Head, Saskatchewan
Credits:Library & Archives Canada, Ottawa, Ontario
16
"Western Farmers: Are Not Making Much Money Says Mr. Sallows," by Reuben R. Sallows, Goderich Signal, June 26, 1913, p. 1The Signal has received a second letter from R.R. Sallows, portrait and landscape photographer, who is at present touring the West. His notes of conditions as he finds them will be read interest.
"I arrived at Regina on Saturday night and spend Sunday afternoon with a Goderich old boy, J.P Brown, who drove me around the city. We passed the headquarters of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police where Louis Riel was confined, and the jail where he was executed. We also viewed the new Parliament buildings and toured the residential section of the city. I also met Mr. and Mrs. G. F. Blair and family and spent the evening with them chatting over old times.
Regina is a fine growing city. The building trade is quite brisk and numerous houses are being erected. A house in Goderich that would rent for $15 per month would bring from $60 to $75 per month here. Good board can be secured for $23 per month with an additional $15 for a room. Girl waiters in the hotel whee I stayed are paid a monthly wage of $30. Washwomen charge 30 cents per hour. Putting it briefly, the cost of living is high. I was told that the owner of a certain corner lot on which stood a fine house pays $1200 taxes yearly on the property. Taxes at the rate of $100 per month! It almost took my breath away.
On Monday I secured a rig and driver and drove north to get in touch with the early settlers and secure views of their residences. This is a good farming section, but it is overrun with noxious weeds, wild oats, tumble weed and French-Russian thistle. In some places, without summer fallowing the land will not produce enough grain to pay for the labor expended on the land. In talking over the matter with one farmer he stated that it cost $14.50 per acre to place his grain in the elevator and at the present prices he was losing money. The farmers' present "hobby" is grain-growing. The straw is burned in the field and no attempt is made to enrich the land, with the result that the average yield per year is growing less. Many of the farmers keep no cows, pigs or poultry. They buy their eggs, butter and bread and use condensed cream. Unless they soon change their present methods of farming they will become bankrupt. If I were offered a farm in Ontario I would prefer it to all the farm land as far as the eye can see if I were compelled to live on it out here.
My livery expenses for the day were $9. According to the livery tariff inRegina a single outfit costs $1.50 for the first hour and 50 cents for each additional hour on week-days. On Sundays the rate is $2 for the first hour and $1 for each additional hour. A team and buggy with a driver costs $7 per day. Do your own driving and you save $1.
I took the evening train for Medicine Hat and reached Swift Current at daylight. The country from this point, in my opinion is not well adapted for farming. There is too much broken land. Alkali deposits, resembling snow in appearance, cover the low-lying land where the water has dried up.
I arrived at "the Hat" in time for dinner. With a letter of introduction I went to the office of the Southern Alberta Land Company, and made the acquaintance of the manager, who instructed his chauffeur to take me out to the ranch headquarters, a distance of fifty miles from town. We covered the distance in three and a half hours. I noted with interest the hundreds of old buffalo trails leading in all directions over the prairie and the bleached bones of these animals were not an uncomman sight along the trail.
The Southern Alberta Land Company owns 500,000 acres of land, which is to be irrigated by bringing water a distance of 210 miles. The estimated cost of the work is $7,000,000. The land cost the company $3 per acre and when the ditch is completed and ready for use the property will be placed on the market at $30 per acre. A townsite is being laid out. The company has an experimental farm where fine crops are grown by the dry-farming methods. In growing alfalfa the seed is sown in the same manner as the Ontario farmer plants his roots. They keep cultivating between the rows to retain the moisture. The day I was at the farm they were sowing, cultivating and cutting alfalfa. The first crop would average two tons per acre. The second cutting is used for seed, which brings 25 cents per bushel. There are hundreds of cattle and horses on the ranch and in going over the land to get the best subjects for photographic purposes we covered over one hundred miles that day.
What would the Ontario farmer think of using forty miles of fencing to enclose one field? This would be a field almost the size of Wawanosh. They were plowing with a traction engine, hauling ten plows. The furrow was two miles long, making four trips in a day and turning over twenty acres of land. A bunch of horses was rounded up and I was given the first opportunity of seeing the cowboy lasso and ride a bucking broncho. I would not attempt to ride one of these horses for all the Northwest. First, they captured the broncho that threw the champion lady rider at Calgary last summer. He is a bucking broncho, sure! The cowboy who attempted to ride it was thrown off and his leg was nearly broken when the beast lay on it. They told me the reason that so few cowboys get hurt was that they were weak in the head and strong in the back.
The buffalo wolves are very plentiful in Southern Alberta. The land company to which I have already referred offers the Indians a bounty of $50 for each head that they secure. It is claimed that this kind of wolf will never return and finish a beast which it has killed, but must have a fresh animal for every meal. Many rattlesnakes are to be found in Southern Alberta. They grow as long as five feet.
Hark! Hark! The dogs do bark. The beggars are coming to town! They are here. The streets are lined with men looking for work, who can not find anything to do. Thousands of men are idle and the situation is serious. I have talked with men at the railway stations who stated that for over six weeks they had looked in vain for employment and I have met some who were riding the "humpers" on their way to the East. If this season's crop is a failure the West will have a problem to handle in dealing with the unemployed. I have been told by those who profess to know that every city in the West is bankrupt. Calgary offered or placed debentures on the market and only sold four per cent of them, and the situation is the same all over the West.
Many blame the real estate men for this regrettable condition of affairs. Calgary for instance is subdivided to such a degree that if all the lots were built on the city would hold a population of 15,000,000.Rents are higher, I am informed, than in London, England. Stores on main streets command rentals as high as $1,000 per month.
Calgary is situated in a valley, and from the hills you get a fine view of the city. One thing about this city that impressed me was the fact that the law of imitation is not carried out the same extent as in other town and cities. You will see scarcely two houses alike in design, giving a more pleasing effect to the eye.
For the last three years crops have not been as good as the farmers expected, and with low prices they are only holding their own. A farmer who buys farm machinery will pay part cash; on the balance he is charged eight per cent for the first year. If he cannot meet his payment when due then the second year he is charged ten per cent. Some who came here with thousands of dollars have left the country with fewer cents than they had dollars when they arrived.
I start for Red Deer this afternoon."
17
Michener Brothers' home, Red Deer, Alberta1913
Red Deer, Alberta
Credits:Library & Archives Canada, Ottawa, Ontario
18
C.A.J. Sherman's old barn, Red Deer, Alberta1913
Red Deer, Alberta
Credits:Library & Archives Canada, Ottawa, Ontario
19
C.A.J. Sherman's new barn, Red Deer, Alberta1913
Red Deer, Alberta
Credits:Library & Archives Canada, Ottawa, Ontario
20
C.A.J. Sherman with his cow, Rosalind of old Basing, Red Deer, Alberta1913
Red Deer, Alberta
Credits:Library & Archives Canada, Ottawa, Ontario
21
Combine Crew in Caron, Saskatchewan1912
Caron, Saskatchewan
Credits:Reuben R. Sallows Gallery, Goderich, Ontario
22
Combine crew in Caron, Saskatchewan on Oct. 25, 19121912
Caron, Saskatchewan
Credits:Reuben R. Sallows Gallery, Goderich, Ontario
23
Prairie Bison1910s
Western Prairies, Canada
Credits:Huron County Museum & Archives, Goderich, Ontario
24
"Mr. Sallows' Trip: North Battleford, A Young and Growing City", Reuben R. Sallows, published in Goderich Signal, July 10, 1913, p. 1 & 5R.R. Sallows, portrait and landscape photographer, send The Signal another letter. It was written from Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, just prior to his departure from Dauphin on his way home to Goderich.
"Leaving Wainwright on the GTP I went east to Saskatoon. The country through which I passed looked fine, the growing grain being in good condition. Arriving in Saskatoon station I was surprised to find that I had to take a bus and make a trip of three miles over the prairie trail before reaching the city. I suppose that the station was placed at this point because it would be near the track and convenient for the passengers to alight and get aboard without any regard to the city.
Leaving Saskatoon my next place to visit was Lloydminister, situated east of Edmonton on the CNR. I spent a day there getting in touch with the Barr colonists who came over the trail in 1903, a distance of 200 miles. I had dinner with J.C. Hill & Sons, about ten miles east of the town, who, for two years in succession have won the trophy for the oats of best quality grown in America. They are entering the contest again this year, and if they win the cup becomes their property, as the competitors must win the award three times out of five. Their oats average eighty bushels to the acre and average fifty-five and fifty-six pounds to the bushel. Their barley will average forty bushels per acre.
The Barr colonists were robbed right and left when they reached Saskatoon, by farm implement agents and representatives of piano firms. Barr, I was told, received a commission on all sales made. To illustrate - he went ahead of the colonists and bought up all the oats from the farmers along the trail at thirty-five cents per bushel and directed that they should to resold to the colonists at $1.50 per bushel. These people brought with them pianos, organs and in one case a lot of fishing rods. Not many of the original settlers are left, the majority of them having sold out or left their farms, and the land is being grown over with scrub. It is so thick in some places that when we left Mr. Hill's the driver undertook a short cut and it was two hours before we reached the right road. The last man whom I called on is bound to stick to it. He is cultivating eighty acres with one yoke of oxen, working from 5 o'clock in the morning until 10 o'clock at night.
Before leaving they insisted that I should stay for tea and in conversing with the lady of the house she told me that at times several weeks elapse without her seeing one of her own sex. She has one little girl and they are seven miles from the nearest school. I thought her condition was most pathetic, yet there are many others in the list of pioneer settlers who could recount similar experiences.
Ducks are plentiful and are to be seen in almost every slough or lake. In one trip across the prairie I saw two coyotes. One of them was chasing gophers and the other was standing on the trail beside a small pond watching a duck. As we approached he strolled on ahead for several years, then crossed the trails and after we went by it went back to watch the duck. We passed within seventy five feet of the animal.
25
Robert Wakefield's homestead, Wainwright, Alberta1913
Wainwright, Alberta
Credits:Library & Archives Canada, Ottawa, Ontario
26
First home built in Lloydminister, Alberta1913
Lloydminister, Alberta
Credits:Library & Archives Canada, Ottawa, Ontario
27
J.C Hill & Son's old homestead, Lloydminister, Alberta1913
Lloydminister, Alberta
Credits:Library & Archives Canada, Ottawa, Ontario
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