To facilitate settlement of the West, the land was surveyed and divided into squares similar to the survey system used in the United States. Each township is about six miles square and is divided into thirty­six sections. Each section contains 640 acres. Correction lines occur periodically in order to allow for the curvature of the Earth. Because the Canadian survey system added the distances required for road allowances within the township and the number of roads in each township varies, townships are not exactly six square miles. Settlement by non­Aboriginal immigrants was slow prior to 1886. People were not interested in moving west. The construction of the railway through the southern prairies encouraged settlers, but did not significantly increase the speed with which settlement was occurring. The settlers that did come were required to develop agricultural techniques suitable to the operation of their new homesteads. The building of the railway allowed agricultural implements and supplies to be shipped west. The completion of the railway and the availability of cheap land resulted in a number of group settlements being built as farming communities. Some of these were Cannington Manor located 64 kilometres south of Moosomin, the Temperance Colonization Society at Saskatoon and the Qu'Appelle Valley Farming Company at Qu'Appelle. Agriculture in Saskatchewan at this time usually consisted of planting and harvesting wheat crops. Some ranching occurred in the area west of Moose Jaw where the Canadian Agricultural, Coal and Colonization Company was set up to raise cattle, horses, sheep and pigs. This ranch consisted of about 100,000 acres. The size of this operation was unusual. The majority of beginning ranches were operated as family businesses on a much smaller scale. Indian peoples were also involved in the growing agriculture industry of the West. There were many individual Indian farmers and some Indian bands that were highly successful at farming. Problems arose when financial support and technical expertise promised by the federal government in the treaty agreements did not materialize. Successful Indian agricultural operations were also undermined by the limitations of the Indian Act. One example of these limitations was the permit system enforced from 1885 to 1935. A permit or pass from the Indian agent was required if an Indian wanted to leave the Indian reserve for any length of time and for any reason. Some of the Métis people, who had begun to establish agricultural communities in the 1870s, were pushed off their land when European settlers began to establish homesteads. One of the problems was that the Métis people had laid out their farms in a manner similar to the French in eastern Canada, that is, in riverfront lots. The survey system did not allow for this. Church played an important part in most settlements. The church and the school formed the social centre of early life in western Canada. In the early 1900s threshing machines were not often owned by individual farmers, but custom threshing was common. Often with large steam driven engines. Because of the shortage of labourers for stooking and threshing and the fact that the crop was ready to be harvested at the same time over a large area, harvest railway excursions offered cheap fares to men from the East who were willing to help harvest the wheat crop. In 1908 more than 14,000 men made the trip west. As more settlers arrived, villages and towns were established every seven or eight miles along the rail lines. The farmers in the area had to be able to go to town and return and still have time to do the daily chores. Some factors that could be considered in the initial selection of the site for the town or village were: level ground, the water supply, the cost of the land and if the land was available. Some land was reserved for schools and Indian reserves or owned by the railway. Following the drought of 1914, good harvests produced a larger supply of wheat than was demanded. This resulted in an oversupply of grain, or a grain glut. Marketing wheat became more difficult. Problems in farming during the time of the pioneers were similar to those of today. For example, they included early frost, drought and choices in farm management and marketing techniques. Isolation was a factor. Farmsteads were far apart and the speed of transportation was very slow. Homestead lands were interspersed among railway land, Hudson's Bay land and school land. There were also problems with the livestock industry: poor quality stock and a lack of processing facilities.