Petersens Visit British Columbia

HELLO FOLKS!

It is vacation time again for the Petersen's. By the time this column is being read we will have about finished our leisure time for the summer. We are visiting in British Columbia about 1,900 miles froth home, in the Okanaga Valley.

This is a beautiful valley of fruit, fishing, boating, skiing, hunting, lumbering and cattle. It has a beautiful climate with the warm Japanese current warming up the breezes to give it a temperate climate of few severe extremes.

We took Highway 10 from Fargo to Glendive, Montana; cutting north and going through Glacier Park, Calgary and over the Trans - Canadian to Vernon. It is a beautiful drive. The Canadian Rockies are unsurpassed in beauty.

All along the way, the grass and crops are looking good; with bumper crops coming along. The children were especially impressed with Glacier Park, where they played in the snow. Some of them played their bare feet.

Canada is a young country for the most part in the first stages of a booming economy. Calgary gives the impression of being a city with a tremendous growth period. Everywhere you look buildings are going up, and expanding. The annual Calgary Roundup is the second week in July. This extravaganza is currently being held for five days, however understand that next year it will be extended to 10 days.

It is obvious that the Trans-Canadian highway was a tremendous engineering feat but even so some of it is obsolete almost before it is finished. It has really opened Canada to the tourist trade.

Before completion of the road Canada was almost divided between the West — of the Rocky area and the East; this except for the railroad. No doubt there will soon be much more road building. Tourists are flocking into the area taxing every available, facility. As roads are being built they will flock to move tourist areas. Eastern Canadians obviously want to see what the province to the west of them is like... judging from the license plates.

Canadian farmers have had it hard in the past. They are far behind United States farmers. This is due to the inavailability of credit. Now, however, they in have a Federal Land Bank and Production Credit system. This gives them a chance to expand into efficient units and get the necessary machinery to produce efficiently. They still do some of the work the hard way, however.

Canada having just made a tremendous wheat deal with Russia is urging the farmers to grow all the wheat they can. The government is going all out to encourage farmers to clear land and plant more.

Some farm leaders are complaining that the price doesn't encourage enough incentive for production, but I don't believe this complaint is justified. Farmers are in the drivers seat in many ways. There are no taxes on personal property. There is a 5 per cent sales tax on all commodities except food and medicine. Farmers wanting machinery do not have to pay the sales tax either.

I believe that the Canadian farmers in the plains area could nearly double their production in one year. This through use of nitrogen and other fertilizers and forgetting about fallowing, which I understand is no longer needed with modern farming methods.