The newcomer may start for Western Canada during any month in the year.
Railroads carry him to a short distance of his new home, the country
roads are good, and there is settlement in all parts, so that shelter is
easily reached. Temporary provision is required for the family's
arrival, when better may be made. If going in the winter months, it is
well to have a pair of good strong sleds. As teams cost $5 a day take
along your horses and do your own hauling. As they require care, write
ahead to some livery barn for room. In shipping your horses have them
loaded by the best shipper in your home town. For feeding on the way,
put in two-by-four cleats breast high on the horses, and fix to fit the
end of a stout trough which is dropped in, afterwards nailing on a top
cleat. If they have been used to corn take along twenty bushels for each
horse, if possible, not to feed alone along the way, but to use while
breaking them in to an oat diet. You need both hay and oat straw on the
cars. The new arrival may have to pay $7 a ton for hay and 40 cents per
bushel for oats. Railroad construction consumes lots of both, and not
half the farmers take time in the fall to put up plenty of hay. Bring
all the horses you can. Five big horses can pull a twelve-inch gang
through the sod, but six can do it easier, and you can use five on the
harrow. You can hitch a team to a goat or scrubber, as they call them
here, and lead them behind the drill, making your ground smooth and
packing it lightly, as you put in the seed. If you have been intending
to bring eight horses, bring twelve; if you were going to bring twelve,
bring sixteen. The first two years on the new land is hard on horses,
and you will need plenty. If you have any spare time or can get help,
they bring in money. I know two men who cleared over $600 apiece doing
outside work this last summer. They worked on the roads, in harvest and
threshing, and received $5 per day for man and team. One can get all the
outside breaking one's team can do at $4 per acre, so horse power is the
main thing.
Take a supply of meat along, also lard, canned goods, and other things
for your cellar. One settler took a sugar barrel packed with canned
fruit, and had not a single can broken or frozen, wrapping each in a
whole newspaper and then packing in between with old rags, worn out
underwear, old vests, and such goods as might otherwise be thrown away.
Remember there is no old attic or store-room to go to on the new farm.
The same settler says: "Cooked goods are also good. In the cold weather
we kept and used beef that had been roasted two weeks before, and a
bushel of cookies lasted well into the summer, keeping fresh in a tin
box. Bring your cows and also your separator. The latter will not sell
for much at the sale and is useful here, as you have no place to store
quantities of milk. Bring at least your two best cows with you on the
journey. We had milk all along the road and furnished the dining car
cooks (we had a diner on our freight train) for favors they extended.
Then when we landed we found that milk and cream were scarce, and butter
of the farm variety out of range.
"We packed two one-gallon jars before we moved and also some to use on
the way. This lasted fresh and sweet until it was all used and saved us
the trouble of churning or saving cream, hence we lived high on cream
for the first few weeks. It came in handy making corn starch, as well as
on our fruit and in a dozen other ways. We also had a nice big box of
groceries handy and all selected for emergency. Corn starch, tapioca and
similar packages are easy to handle while moving, and a big box of such
things made cooking easy for the first few weeks.
"Do not sell anything that can be used in your new farming. Old belts,
singletrees, doubletrees, and such goods are worth far more away out on
the prairies than on the old improved farm, and they will cost more
here. We even brought our best big rugs and every carpet, even having
more carpets than we had rooms. Your new home may not be as warm as the
old one. We laid down a carpet and put a big rug right on top of that on
the floor, and then we were comfortable in our rough house. Bring all
sorts of tools and wagon gears with you; you will save money by doing
so, anvil, drills, old bolts, and screws, etc., come in handy. We
brought pieces of hardwood for doubletrees and unexpected uses.
"Bring your stock remedies. You will be far from a veterinarian. Boracic
acid comes in handy, so does a medicine cabinet for the household, with
carbolic salve, liniments, etc.
"One of the first things you will need is a hayrack, and you will not
have time to build one before it is needed, so take the old one or build
a new one and take it with you. It can be used for crating and for
partitions and other purposes in loading the car. Make the sides of the
rack quite close and have a solid bottom.
"Bring along your base-burner. I am writing by a hard coal fire in a
round oak stove, and it makes a splendid heat. Better soft coal than you
ever burned can be had at $9.50 per ton, and hard coal is $13. Wood is
plentiful in the parks, chiefly dry poplar and a species of willow.
"So far from town one needs big supplies of kerosene, so bring a steel
barrel that will not become leaky. You can buy oil cheaper by the barrel
and it saves trouble. Also bring a good oil stove. It will do the baking
and save hauling fuel in the long working season.
"One thing we highly appreciated was a small tank we had made to carry
water in the cars for the horses. It was made to hold two barrels, was
about three feet in diameter and four high, and had the top soldered on,
with a lid just large enough to get in a pail. This was the best
arrangement on the train for hauling water. After we landed we had to
haul water for our house use and the tank was very useful to draw up a
couple of barrels and have a big supply on hand and no slopping when
hauling."
[Illustration: DOMINION OF CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND 1914]
[Illustration]