s “a highly SE a Oil derricks like thi wells were Producing last year. BNET ss CO $ are now a common sight in parts of Saskatchewan where nearly. 400 heavy Saskatchewan's golden jubilee hae is Saskatchewan’s Golden Jubilee Year. Fifty years 480, On July 20, 1905, the prov- meces of Saskatchewan and AI- berta were created by act of par- lament from the old Northwest Territories. Here was a vast new province, More than 251,000 square miles, equal to the combined areas of France, Belgium, Holland and Switzerland, but with a sparse population of slightly more than one person per square mile. _ dt was thought to be a ‘prov- ince suitable only for agricul- ture and was even then famous for its wheat. In the past -half century it has extended its de- velopment of wheat until it now accounts for 60 percent of all Canada’s Production. At the Same time, farming has become more diversified. : : More recently oil and mineral Tesources have been discovered in such huge quantities that it is Possible to foretell a future in which Saskatchewan will become industrial province as well. : ‘We shall see a reversal in the recent trend of a falling popula- tien, and a new surge of growth and development... The people, the children and grandchildren of the pioneers, will build our province to greatness in a free and independent Canada. The ‘beginning of the century was a time of tremendous im- migration into the West. Thous- ands of. immigrants came from the countries of Europe and Asia and thousands more came from the United States. : My father came to Saskatche- wan in July 1905, by way of the United - States. Lured by the glowing promise of the new land and to escape compulsory mili- tary service in Bulgaria, my father, with my mother and two ‘children, set sail for’ the United States in 1903. They had scraped together the fare — $50 for each adult — and booked Passage on the freighter Barbarosa. The lure of the land, strong in land-hungry Europeans, took the family to Spokane, Washington. By ELSIE BEECHING There a little house was bought and father worked for a con- tractor as a sort of jack-of-all- trades. But the “property” was sold and the family, now five, took up their bundles and travelled to Regina to take up a home- stead already filed by my grand- father. Two oxen, at $70 each, a cow for $35 and a hand plough were bought. . With that my father set out to conquer the vast area of 160 virgin acres of his home- stead. ; That summer and fall he broke 27 acres, which he discovered the next year had been a mis- take. In the spring he broke an- other 14 which had to be sown to oats for green feed. His neigh- bor had a good crop on his 22 acres while father had a poor one. How do you explain to a green homesteader who doesn’t speak English, that by breaking in the summer and fall he had lost the moisure from the soil, not to mention the beneficial effects lost when the grass turns dry and does not rot? The neighbor dug in his soil until the earth appeared damp, pointed and said “moisture.” And so my father learned. an- other word and his education in dry farming. * The first years were hard. The young family lived with grand- father for the summer and win: ter. The following spring the sod shack was built. Tt was madé of 18-inch wide sods. These were cut in three foot lengths, laid in double rows, followed by a crossed layer, mak- ing the walls three feet thick. The roof was made by laying boards from a centre beam cov- ered with tarpaper and then with extra thick sods. It was warm and my! how pretty it looked in the spring when the grass grew on the roof, thick and tall. And what is more, the rain never came through, neither did it run off, it just soaked in. The difficulties and problems € came. The‘ first crop was poor, but never mind, there’s more land to be broken, and besides, Uncle John, young and unmar- ried brought two more oxen (and gave mother $5 cash) with his earnings as a stonemason. A sulky plough (this was, a distinct improvement over. a hand plough since it wasn’t guid- ed by hand and had a seat) was also bought, on credit. The neighbors and relatives lent har- rows, seeders and binders. The following spring 20 acres were broken and in the third year 60 acres more than the mini- mum requirement. A barn was Bie built by excavating the side of a hill and finishing the front and roof: with sods. The hen house stood next to it. The barn was a beautiful place to play in—dark and mysterious. You could step on the roof and run through the grass and shout down the ventilator. There are few animals my father regarded with as much love and respect as his first two oxen, Mike and Jimmy. Jimmy, especially, was such a good ox. When loneliness overtook my mother she would hitch him to* the stoneboat, put the children in a big box and go a-visiting. The children, too, could. be trust- ed with Jimmy to get poplar wood from the ravine on the stone- boat. That was before’ the big prairie fires burned all the bush —and then the main summer fuel was cow chips. * The year my father got his title to the homestead he took out his first mortgage of $800 to pay his debts to the ‘store man.” He also bought his first wagon for $85—on time. The first mortgage bought a quarter section of CPR land at $10 per acre for which a tenth down payment was required. Production increased, acreage increased and the mortgages in- creased also. In 1920 the .mort- gage to end all mortgages was taken out—$10,000 on six quart- ers. You had to buy. more land if you expected to ever pay debts already incurred and so there be- gan a struggle to keep at least one jump ahead of the mortgage company. ~ There were windstorms, drouth, hail, rust, frost and grasshop- pers, compound interest and high railway rates, freight car short- ages and low prices, dockage and shrinkage, and it took until 1942 to get rid of the accumulated burden. 'For seven years my father worked with oxen until he was able to ‘buy horses. Threshing was done by neighbors with a huge lumbering steamer outfit which required as many as 20 men to run. Harvesting, for us children, was a most exciting time — so many people, such hustle and bustle, and so much good food. * More than half the population of Saskatchewan is of non-Anglo- Saxon origin. The difficulties of these settlers to whom the cus- toms and language were strange are sometimes hard to imagine. + . . turned to dust in the thirties. PACIFIC TRIBUNE — FEBRUARY 18, 1955 — PAGE 10 In 1909 our first district school was opened; before that my sis- ter had to walk six miles to the nearest town — and very little schooling she got as a result. When the time came to establish a trustee committee, non-English- speaking farmers were excluded. This kind of discrimination did much to retard development, eco- nomic and cultural, as: the for- eign-born who were subjected to such indignities recovered slowly. Throughout all these years my father -had identified himself with whatever was progressive. He participated in the progres- sive movement, he joined and helped to build the Farmers’ Union, and we children were members of the junior section. He fought for the Wheat Pool and supported all cooperative en- terprises. He welcomed the CCF party as a party for change and for socialism and was a member of it. : During the twenties things looked as though they might be better. New methods of tillage were tried. The plough was abandoned in the early thirties and is only now again being considered in the light of Soviet experiences. New wheat varieties were al- ways anxiously awaited as the old lost its power to resist rust. Mar- quis followed Red Fife to be re- placed by Thatcher, and now Sel- kirk is being introduced. How the farmers dread the — southeast winds in the cool damp summers that bring the rust spores from the southern winter wheat belts to our fields! Livestock breeding, too, had its share in the farm activity as had building, repair work ‘and im- proving implements and inven- tions. How well we remember the first. tractor, heralding the ap- proach of mechanization which would take the drudgery out of farming! * Then came the Hungry Thir- ties.” There was no money, but for a while groceries could be bought on credit. That soon came to an end and there was relief “in kind.” To this day the mere mention of relief brings visions of dried beans, dried fish and cheese, all of a poor quality. The struggle for relief grew, the provinces used up their funds, and the federal government “didn’t know where the money was to come from.” “Bennett buggies” came into vogue and here in Saskatchewan we did honor to our own premier with “Anderson carts.” Such resource- ful people were not to be daunt- ed and the fight for relief was won, Y : With the forties the. dried-out . period ended. The war. brought money in unlimited amounts. Markets improved, and there was a tremendous increase in pro- duction in spite of the decline in population. But hardly had the war been won than the cold war and in- ternational tensions grew. The threat of war again ‘hung its heavy pall over the prairies and even though nature had been beneficent, 1955 finds the farm- ers with declining markets for their produce and a doubtful fu- ture’ in which only the rising national movement for peace and the democratic development of our country offers hope. Many were the occasions in the past when the farmers had to unite to save themselves. And so again, there is coming into ‘being a powerful movement to resist the domination of the U.S. profiteers and warmakers. The vision of a beautiful, boun- tiful Saskatchewan built by’ her staunch sons and daughters out of the soil and the many mineral resources already gleams through the mist of the threatening de- pression. This is the promise of our Golden Jubilee.