LITMIR.BIZ

      CHAPTER I

       Table of Contents

      "Thousand-pounders"—Ontario Agricultural College—Political Meetings—Volunteer Artillery—Value of the Agricultural College.

      The Western States and Provinces of North America thrive on our “thousand-pounders” and “remittance-men.” Some years ago in one small prairie town of Iowa there were 105 young Britons on the books of the local club. One of these (dubbed Sitting-bull after a famous brave) was doing fairly well in a milk-walk; a few others earned livings as farm hands; the rest were, said the natives, “doing no good.” How should they, unless to the manner born? Four young sons of farmers and parsons, all neighbours from Owersby, Walesby, and other Lincolnshire "by’s," bought a “raw” farm on instalments in the Red River Valley. A land-seeker was sent there by the owner. “He has not got us yet,” said the lads; “we are ready with our instalment.” But he got them at last, with their improvements—homestead, stable, well, and many acres under plough. That is how the “thousand-pounders” nourish the West; not that these Lincolnshire men had so much between them, but many collapse with even more capital, for lack of experience. And even afterwards the experience, thus bought at a long price, does not generally lead to much.

      In 1890, 1280 acres of carefully-chosen land awaited me in Manitoba, bought from and traversed by the Manitoba and North-Western Railway. To qualify myself for farming this land I went to Guelph, in Ontario, Canada.

      The Ontario Agricultural College is recognised as one of the finest institutions of its kind on the continent of America, because of the thoroughness of its methods and the class of graduates it turns out. There are graduates of this college holding professorships in many of the agricultural colleges of the States, others in charge of large farming interests, and also of some of the largest dairies in the country.

      Students have come here from Mexico, Argentine, and even from Japan, sent by their respective countries. I am sorry to say that the majority of us English students did not come up to the general standard, frittered our time away, and thought more of standing high in the estimation of the girls down-town than in that of the professors. The great handicap under which an English student labours at the college is the fact that he has no practical knowledge of farming while he is trying to learn the technical and scientific part. I could not, for instance, appreciate duly the fact that there were over a hundred different varieties of wheat, when I could not tell wheat from barley growing in the fields. At a live-stock examination I once attended, the examiner had two

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