Farm LANDS AND Natura RESOURCES. 23

up, and since that time to the present day these fertile areas have continued
to produce a wonderfully diversified line of crops, comprising mary excel-
tent fruits, vegetables, and fodders. In most cases these old ranches have
reached a remarkable state of cultivation, and equipped as they now are,
with modern, irrigation systems they are recognized as among the most
valuable and productive in the Province.

Yet, despite the wonderful possibilities revealed by intensive cultivation
in the rich bench lands of the older Cariboo, agricultural progress in the
promising stretch of territory which lay between it and the Coast was of
slow growth. Owing largely to lack of proper transportation facilities,
settlers were few and development was restricted for .the most part to
scattered tracts here and there.

To-day, with the construction of the Pacific Great Eastern Railway,
this virgin district, so generously endowed by Nature, is facing vastly altered
conditions. At numerous points, in many instances well outside the older-
established settlements, new communities are springing to life. In admirably
chosen and highly productive areas in the Railway Belt mixed farming,
ranching, and dairying is steadily on the increase. With the broad and
sympathetic plans for active settlement and colonization of these Interior
lands now being promoted by the Pacific Great Eastern Railway, this beauti-
ful section of British Columbia, the virile Pacific Coast Province, should
prove a land of’real and ever-ripening opportunities. It offers renewed
health and happiness to thousands of clear-visioned men and women whose
temperament, whose industry, and whose love of life in God’s clean open
spaces marks them as ideal settlers and Canadian home-builders.

WHAT CROPS CAN BE GROWN IN THE P.G.E.
RAILWAY BELT.

The agricultural development of the major portion of the broad expanse
of country that lies adjacent to the Pacific Great Eastern Railway has been
of such comparatively recent date that its remarkable crop possibilities have
never been thoroughly tested or exploited. It is a land of constant surprises,
and every successive season seems to broaden the range of its products.

It has been found that as a general rule all root-crops and vegetables
give excellent yields, and in the rich alluvial soil of the bottom lands this
is particularly the case. Wheat, oats, barley, peas, and rye do exceedingly
well in certain districts, and timothy-hay of good quality is a feature in
most of the lower levels. Alfalfa, clover, vetch, and other forage-crops
are abundant, and sunflowers are popular for silage in the northern areas
as well. Certain lands are deemed highly favourable for sugar-beet culture
and the time seems not far distant when it will be taken up on a generous
scale. While authorities differ as to the grain-growing possibilities of the
Upper Country, many predict that the lands of the great Nechako Valley
will become one of the richest grain sections of British Columbia once the
broad expanses of country are settled and cleared.

Potatoes, carrots, mangels, turnips, pumpkin, squash, and other vege-
tables all show exceptional quality as well as size, and growth is rapid.