28

the value of perquisites obtained from the farm, then, would not be a complete
measure of their level of living in terms of satisfactions. There are, however,
other non-money characteristics that tend to subtract from real farm income.
Many of these are associated with pioneer life. They include the isolation from
other people and the relative inaccessibility of certain social and service facilities
that are ordinarily considered to be necessities of life. It is probably true, too,
that the greater intermingling of rural and urban dwellers will tend to magnify the
undersirable features of pioneer life in the minds of some settlers. - For practical
purposes, then, it is probably quite safe to consider the amenities of pioneer farm
life as offset by the inconveniences. Then the farm level of living can be expressed
in objective terms.

A typical farm yard of an established farm with log buildings.

The expenditure on cash living by farmers in the Prince George-Smithers
area was equivalent to or higher than that spent by farmers in other pioneer areas.
The same was true with respect to the value of farm perquisites. It seemed too,
that even though a fairly large proportion of the farm buildings was only fair or
poor and the average value of farm dwellings was quite low, buildings were,
nevertheless, as good as those that have been found in other pioneer areas.
Medical and hospital facilities were provided but in an area as sparsely settled as
this it was inevitable that they were not conveniently located to all of the settlers.
Roads were fair to good and a fairly high proportion of the farms was located on
a gravelled road. The area as a whole was at least as well equipped with roads
as many other pioneer areas. .

HOUSING AND FARMSTEADS

The average value placed on their dwellings by the farm operators in the
Prince George-Smithers area amounted to $793 (Table 18). This was high when
compared with the average valuation of $554 for farm houses in the Bonnyville
pioneer area of Alberta,! 1943 and $340 in eight representative pioneer areas of
Saskatchewan,? 1941-42.

1 Kristjanson, B. H. and C. C. Spence, ‘‘Land Settlement in Northeastern Alberta’’. Economics
Division, Marketing Service, Dominion Department of Agriculture. Unpublished.

2 Stutt, R. A., and H. Van Vliet, ‘‘An Economic Study of Land Settlement in Representative
Pioneer Areas of Northern Saskatchewan’’. Economics Division, Marketing Service, Dominion
Department of Agriculture. Technical Bulletin 52, issued 1945.