In early October 1915, while the First World War was raging, Mayor M.A. Brimacombe, the mayor of Vermilion, vas traveling on the West Coast and made sure to speak of the highlights of Vermilion wherever he went.
Brimacombe stated that he found the conditions brighter in Vancouver than any other city he had visited on his tour along the Pacific Coast.
He told the Vancouver Province that the marketing of big crops in places like Vermilion would benefit Vancouver as a major port city. The Province wrote,
“He states that conditions in Alberta are good, particularly so in Central Alberta, due to the high prices secured for livestock, horses, cattle, sheep, etc, and to the excellent crops both last year as well as this.”
He stated that the previous year the Vermilion district averaged 30 to 40 bushels per acre and that it in 1915, the district was averaging 40 to 50 bushels with oats reaching 100 bushels per acre.
Brimacombe added in his interview that the area around Vermilion was rapidly being settled with a good class of settlers and that many Americans are moving into the area in anticipation of the Medicine Hat-Vermilion Railway that was planned.
He believed that the railway would open up a rich farming country tributary to Vermilion. Brimacombe also brought up the demonstration farm and agricultural college that were providing to be a big benefit to settlers. That year, the college had an expansion done because of the large influx of students that were coming into the area to learn.
He said,“We have had neither boom nor setback at Vermilion but Vermilion has grown steadily and right now, in spite of the war business, is better than ever before.”
After the interview, Brimacombe returned to Vermilion via Prince Rupert on the Grand Trunk Pacific.
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