Monday, January 5, 2015

When Canada Was Seen As New Land Of Promise, 1903

“Agricultural Movement Toward Canada,” from The Progressive Farmer, Raleigh, N.C., Tuesday, January 13, 1903

American farmers are going to Canada by the thousand. “Free land,” once the brightest attraction to the United States, may no longer serve to attract the industrious here, and Canada has become indeed the land of promise. In two great movements settlers from this country are going to the dominion. One of these movements it towards the province of Ontario, where 25,000,000 acres of good farm lands await settlement. The American Company, of which W.H. Utt of Chicago is solicitor, is being established to take advantage of this. The other great movement is into Manitoba. The first is intended to draw the farmers of the middle West. The second to attract the grain raisers of the West. Here is a view of the situation as set forth by a Canadian official, and it is most suggestive of changing conditions here:

“The United States, with reference particularly to the middle West, is composed of tenant farmers. It is impossible for these farmers to obtain the land they cultivate. This land is held by the few, the men of wealth. The farmer, even though he were able, cannot purchase the land, because the wealthy few will not sell. He cannot own his home if he continues to live in the United States. He cannot go elsewhere in the country and obtain land. All the government properties have been taken. There is no available farm land in America, co-called.”

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