The Dominion Lands Act was an 1872 Canadian law that aimed to encourage the settlement of Canada's prairie provinces. It was closely based on the American Homestead Act. 1872 was a leap year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... The Homestead Act is a piece of U.S. legislation which gave 160 acres (about 65 hectares) i. ...

The act sold 160 acres (65 ha) for the extremely low price of $10 to any farmer who agreed to cultivate at least 30 acres (12 ha) and build a permanent dwelling within three years. This condition was instituted to prevent speculators from gaining control of the land. An acre is a measure of land area in Imperial units or U.S. customary units. ... A hectare (symbol ha) is a metric unit of surface area, equal to 100 ares (the name is a contraction of the SI prefix hecto + are). ...

The act also launched the Dominion Lands Survey, which laid the framework for layout of the prairie provinces that persists to this day. The Dominion Land Survey is the method used to divide most of western Canada into one-square-mile sections for agricultural and other purposes. ...

An important difference between the Canadian and American systems was that the Canadian system allowed the farmers to buy a neighbouring lot for the same $10 registration fee. This allowed most farms to quickly double in size. This was especially important in the southern Palliser's Triangle area of the prairies, which was very arid. There it is all but impossible to have a functional farm on only 160 acres, but it can be managed with 320. Canadian agriculture was thus far more successful than American agriculture in this region. Pallisers Triangle is a geographic area mostly in southern Alberta and Saskatchewan. ...

The success of the Dominion Lands Act is questionable. Large-scale immigration to the prairies did not begin until 1896 as immigrants preferred to live in the United States. Also the first act limited the free land to areas more than 20 miles (32 km) from a railway. Since it was all but impossible to farm wheat profitably if you had to drive it over 20 miles by wagon, this was a major discouragement. Farmers could buy land within the 20 mi zone, but at the price of $2.50 per acre ($6.20/ha). In 1879 the exclusion zone was shrunk to only 10 miles (16 km) from the tracks. In 1882 it was finally eliminated. Some historians also argue that the system encouraged premature settlement of the West and that many farms were started that went on to fail. 1896 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... A mile is any of several units of distance, or, in physics terminology, of length. ... A kilometre (American spelling: kilometer) (symbol: km) is a unit of length equal to 1000 metres (from the Greek words khilia = thousand and metro = count/measure). ... 1879 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... 1882 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ...

Less than half the arable land in the West was ever open to farmers. The Canadian Pacific Railway owned about half the land. The Hudson's Bay Company, which had once owned the entire prairies, still kept about 10 per cent of the land, and other areas were set aside for schools and government buildings. The Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR; AAR reporting marks CP, CPAA, CPI), known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a Canadian Class I railway operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited. ... The Hudsons Bay Company (HBC) is the oldest corporation in Canada (and North America) and is one of the oldest in the world still in existence. ...

The act went through many changes and amendments and was finally done away with in 1918 when a new system was set up designed to help World War I veterans settle more easily. Overall about 478 000 square kilometres of land were virtually given away by the government under the Dominion Lands Act. 1918 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... Ypres, 1917, in the vicinity of the Battle of Passchendaele. ...