=Education.=--The organization of free district schools is optional with
settlers, the Government liberally supporting them. An expenditure of
about $700,000 a year brings educational advantages within the reach of
the most scattered community. One new school a day has been opened in
Alberta during the last three or four years, an indication of the
settlement that is going on. School population at end of 1912, over
70,000; number of schools 2,029. Two hundred and forty-five school
buildings were erected in 1912.
The dissemination of exact scientific knowledge is carried on by
farmers' institutes, stock-judging schools, seed fairs and travelling
dairies. The raising of pure-bred stock is assisted by Government
grants. Experimental and demonstration farms have been established
throughout the Province. Agricultural high schools will soon be started,
and agriculture form part of the public school curriculum.
=A Healthy Product.=--The air of Alberta insures the best of health. The
whole of Alberta lies above mountain altitude, and the air is
extraordinarily clear and bracing. Consequently there is comparatively
little cloudy weather on normal days, either in summer or winter. Bright
sunshine prevails. Striking testimony as to freedom from consumption is
provided by Dr. T. H. Whitelaw of Edmonton, according to whose official
report not one case of this disease has originated in Edmonton since the
beginning of 1911.
=Stock.=--Alberta's dry and invigorating atmosphere, short, mild winters,
nutritious grasses, and abundant water supply, make it pre-eminently
adapted to horse breeding. The Alberta animal is noted for its
endurance, lung power, and freedom from hereditary and other diseases.
It winters out at a nominal expense and without even hay or grain
feeding.
Four-year old steers, which have never been under a roof nor fed a pound
of grain and have been given less than a ton of hay, weigh about 1,500
pounds by August 1 and will then gain until October from 2 to 3 pounds a
day. Experiments made at the Demonstration Farm at Olds show that 100
steers weighed in November 1, at 127,540 pounds, weighed out May 20,
less than 7 months later at 143,412 pounds, showing a net gain of $10.12
per head.
At the Lacombe Experimental Station the gain per day in feeding cattle
ranged from 1.8 to 1.72 lbs., showing a net profit when sold of $14.35
to $28.90.
=Good Roads in the Province.=--One of the most important considerations in
a new country is that of roads. The Alberta government has taken up this
problem in an intelligent manner, that will eventually greatly enlarge
the resources of the Province.
The money expended on ferry service, maintenance of bridges, road
construction, construction of bridges, and the construction of trunk
roads, was essential to the opening up of vast tracts of fertile land.
As a result, $100,000,000, or more than $200 per capita of the total
population of the Province, is the estimated farm value of the 1913 crop
in Alberta.
=Sugar Beets and Alfalfa.=--Operations are now extending north as well as
south of Lethbridge, where a large factory has been conducted for some
years. An expert from Colorado has taken up irrigated land in the
Bassano district to carry on the industry on a large scale. He says:
"This is going to be a great beet-raising country. My crop averaged
between 16 and 18 per cent sugar, which is a very high grade." He says
his new farm produces as much alfalfa per acre as his former more
expensive land in Colorado.
=Fruit.=--It has not yet been demonstrated that the larger fruits, such as
apples, can be made commercially attractive in Alberta. All the smaller
fruits can be grown with little trouble, at a cost that makes their
culture profitable.