THE LISTER KAYE FARMS. (con't)
1,100 acres were seeded on this Balgonie farm. The first official reference
to the Company is made in a report of Mr. Burgess, Deputy Minister of
the Interior.
After referring to it as a very important experiment which was being
tried by the Canadian Agricultural, Coal and Colonization Company of
which Sir John Lister Kaye was the chief promoter, Mr. Burgess went on
to say. "The Company have secured ten separate tracts of ten thousand
acres each at the following points on the line of the Canadian Pacific Rail-
way, viz.: Rush Lake, Swift Current, Gull Lake, Crane Lake, Kincarth,
Dunmore, Stair, Bantry, Namaka and Langdon. In order that these farms
might be in one block intact it was necessary that the Company should
acquire the even as well As the odd numbered sections, 50 that one-half of
each tract, being the even-numbered sections was purchased from the
Government, and the other half, being the odd numbered sections from the
Canadian Pacific Railway Company. No homestead entries had been made
within any of the tracts up to the time when this arrangement was com-
pleted, nor were there any squatters upon, or claimants to any of the
Government lands affected by it. The Company have also purchased the
lease and stock of the Powder River Ranche Company. This ranche is
situated between the. Mosquito Creek and the Little Bow River and covers
an area of eighty thousand acres, while the herd of cattle includes upwards
of eight thousand head. The cash outlay of the Company so far, accord-
ing to a statement furnished by Mr. Mollisson, the secretary in Canada,
is ;780,000, made up as follows:
|
"Powder River purchase | $230,000 |
| Buildings on the different farms, fencing, implements,
etc. | 850,000
|
| Purchase of lands from the Government | 75,000 |
| Purchase of lands from C. P. R. | 62,500 |
| Deposit guarantee for land purchases | 62,500 |
"The object of the Company," continued the report "is not only the
cultivation of the land, but the raising of stock, including horses, cattle,
sheep and hogs. The stallions they have imported are light Clydesdales,
and the majority of them are very fine animals. A number of Polled Angus
Bulls and Shropshire Rams, which are being imported by the Company,
are now in quarantine at Quebec. The pigs are Yorkshire Whites of the
large and medium varieties and very highly bred."
The Powder River land purchase never went through, but a large num-
ber of Powder River cattle were purchased.
Next year (1888) it was announced that Sir John had secured in Eng-
land all the capital necessary for this great Northwestern farming scheme
and was busily engaged with preliminary arrangements. On each 10,000
acre farm selected along the C. P. Railway, and which comprised a total
frontage to the line of fifty miles, he would provide housing for a manager
and the necessary number of hired hands. On each far~n would be stabling
for fifty horses, 500 breeding cows, 5,000 sheep and 500 pigs. These build-
ings would cost for each farm $15,000. Each farm would be wire fenced.
Bibliography follows:
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