2 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
not my purpose to burden this address with statistics, but to place 
before you some facts in confirmation of my contention, I have asked 
Mr. Ernest H. Godfrey of the Dominion Census and Statistics Office 
for certain data bearing on my subject. He has very kindly responded 
and I shall now read the paragraphs that he has prepared. 
“Number of Persons dependent upon Agriculture. The total 
population of Canada, as returned at the Census of 1911, was 7,206,643. 
Of this total 3,925,679, or about fifty-four per cent, was classified as 
rural. The number of persons engaged in or dependent upon agri- 
culture in Canada may safely be placed at about fifty-five per cent 
of the total. 
“Land in Canada capable of devotion to Agriculture. Varying 
estimates have been made from time to time as to the extent of land 
in Canada that can be devoted to agriculture out of the total land 
area of Canada, which is placed at 2,306,502,400 acres. Without 
including the areas outside of the nine provinces as at present con- 
stituted, a moderate estimate, based upon census data, is that 440,- 
951,000 acres is possible of cultivation as farm land. (See Year Book, 
1914, p. 208). The total area of land now within the boundaries of 
the nine provinces is 1,401,316,413 acres. Of this area 109,948,988 
acres, or less than eight per cent, were returned at the Census of 1911 
as in occupation as farm land. 
“If, however, we confine attention to land within the provinces 
that is more immediately available for settlement, we find that 
altogether there are just under sixty million acres, consisting of about 
twenty-eight million acres of the Dominion Public Lands open to 
homestead entry, and about 31,800,000 acres of the Provincial Public 
Lands available for agricultural settlement. 
“The occupied farm lands referred to, viz., 109,948,988 acres 
are divisible into improved lands, 48,733,823 acres and unimproved 
land 61,215,165 acres; so that adding this latter total to the 59,800,000 
acres of public lands awaiting settlement, we get a total of about 120,- 
000,000 acres of land capable of almost immediate application to 
agriculture. 
“Value of Agricultural Production. In 1915 the field crops of 
Canada were valued at about $800,000,000, but this was an 
exceptional year as regards yield, and the average annual value is 
more nearly $650,000,000. If we add to this figure the estimated 
value of farm live stock, say $750,000,000, we get a total of $1,400,- 
000,000 as the total value of the annual agricultural production of 
Canada. This figure does not include dairying products. In 1910 
the total value of the butter and cheese production of Canada was 
returned as about $69,500,000. The value of agricultural production, 
