Homesteading in Canada

Shortly after he arrived in Canada, Fanny's husband William was enticed by a real estate office in Manitoba called “Read the Land Man” that advertised “[a] Half-Section of Land in Central Saskatchewan – 320 acres, No Money Down and Twenty Years to Pay” (Berton, 164). However, the land for sale was barren, and William and his son George, with limited experience as farmhands, abandoned the idea. Instead, they sought work on local farms to gain experience and he eventually opened a butcher shop reminiscent of their time in England. Despite their initial hardships, the new Canadian homesteading laws enabled the Shepherds to acquire over 600 acres of land: When Fanny arrived in Canada with more children in tow, four Shepherd men over eighteen were eligible to purchase 160 acres of land each.

Fanny’s son George Shepherd recalled,
 

the free homestead virus had bitten mother. Why wait until spring? Why not do something about it now? There was a Dominion land agency in Davidson, the next town north, and there was a railway. The upshot was that Mother and Dad took the train for Davidson – Mother, anxious to see the land office and shops, Father eager to see the land office and anxious to return to his own shop. (Shepherd, 24)

To incite expansion in Western Canada, the Government of Canada (then the Dominion Government) offered grants for free homesteads of 160 acres (alternatively known as a quarter section of land) for a small registration fee to men and families who would live on and tend the land. Central to this agreement was the tending, as “not every farm in Saskatchewan was a homestead. For instance, any farm that was purchased outright, whether from a railroad, land company, or another settler, is not considered to be a homestead” (The Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan, NPN). 

Sources:
Pierre Berton, The Promised Land: Settling the West 1896-1914 (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1984)
Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan
George Shepherd, West of Yesterday (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1966)