1904-5. ] THE CHEMICAL INDUSTRIES OF THE DOMINION. 179 
more sugar refineries to be builtin Canada. The companies that are already 
here have the experience of what this tariff can do. It allows sugar that 
has been refined in the United States to be shipped in here and undersell 
Canadian refined sugar, which means a loss to the refineries and to the 
Canadian people. It allows raw beet sugar to be imported at a price 
that will prevent the farmers from taking hold of the beet industry as they 
should. Canada is sending to Germany and other foreign countries about 
$1,000,000 per month for raw beet sugar, and the naturally yearly in- 
crease of consumption is about eight per cent, so that the future of the 
sugar beet industry, under a proper tariff, would be a lasting one and a 
great benefit to the farming community.”’ 
XII.—NATURAL GAS AND PETROLEUM. 
NATURAL GAS. 
The existence of natural gas in Ontario was first discovered in 1889, 
being found in two well-defined areas, as the Essex county field and the 
Welland county field. It is chiefly near Buffalo, on Lake Erie, and near 
Windsor, Ontario, that the largest supplies are met with, though practically 
it may be got in nearly any part of the Niagara peninsula in small quan- 
tities. In 1901 there were 158 wells in operation, and 368 miles of piping 
were needed to distribute the gas. Much of the gas produced in Essex 
county was formerly led across the river to Detroit by pipe lines, but on 
representations made by the people of the Essex district to the effect 
that the supply of gas was not sufficient for home. consumption, the On- 
tario Government passed an Order in Council in October, tg01, prohibiting 
the gas from the Essex field being exported to the States. None of the 
product of this natural gas field is therefore now being sent across the De- 
troit river; it is, however, still exported from the Welland field to the 
American side of the Niagara River, chiefly to Buffalo, N.Y. It may be 
mentioned that the landowners on whose farms the wells are located get 
their gas free in addition to being paid for the use of their lands.®* The 
value of the gas produced in Ontario during the last ten years shows con- 
siderable fluctuations, being much less in 1903 than in the previous year, 
due, no doubt, to the Government prohibiting its export.®? 
PETROLEUM. 
This is one of the chief mineral products of the Dominion, though 
as yet the output is not sufficient to meet Canada’s needs. The principal 
seat of the industry is at present in Ontario, where commercial quantities 
(62) Report of the Bureau of Mines, Ontario, 1902. 
(63) Statistical Year Book of Canada, 1903. 
