1908-9. ] THE SETTLEMENT OF NORTHERN ONTARIO. 465 
with a soil very similar to the latter. This land was also heavily covered 
with spruce, jack pine and other timbers, for which the settlers found a 
ready market. The land in the district was very rapidly sold in 160 acre 
lots, but although the great development took place therein 1901 and 1902, 
and although exceptional prices for farmer’s produce were received owing 
to lumbering, mining and other work in the vicinity requiring large sup- 
plies of coarse grains and roots, the agricultural progress has been very 
disappointing. Only a few settlers are even yet actually depending on 
farming for a living. Large areas that are held by settlers and so called 
settlers have only a small clearing and a very poor shack upon them, in 
spite of the fact that the soil is very productive and prices are high. 
When a settler in that district buys a lot from the Crown, he does 
not get the title or patent to the lot until he has cleared and put under 
cultivation sixtéen acres and has lived continuously on the land for four 
years. Until this patent is secured he cannot mortgage the land, that is 
to say, he cannot borrow money for the purpose of developing his farm. 
If he is so unfortunate as not to be located upon a colonization road, he is 
unable to build a road himself, owing to the great cost, hence he feels he 
would be wasting his time to stay upon the lot and merely exist. He 
naturally goes out to work, and only does enough work upon his land to 
prevent its being resumed by the Crown. 
Our whole system of land settlement, or rather, I should say, lack 
of system, for system we have not, is well calculated to keep that country 
‘in an unsettled condition and merely affords an opportunity to men to go 
in and make what they can out of the sale of the timber on the land. 
In the first place, it costs about $1,000 per mile to build a fairly good 
wagon road for the use of the settlers, and without this road they cannot 
take their produce to market, nor get supplies in to support their families 
except upon their backs. In most of the townships the land is laid out in 
blocks half a mile square, so that only four settlers are accommodated by 
a mile of road, which would mean $250 to each settler to build a road. 
As these settlers are for the most part poor, the roads are not built. 
This, added to the fact that they cannot borrow money, having no 
security to offer, makes settlement there an exceedingly tedious and dis- 
heartening operation. If a private individual owned this land and had 
sufficient capital, or could acquire it, he would, to make the most of it, 
undoubtedly provide some system of loans to settlers and adopt some plan 
of co-operation by which all the settlers in a township could be provided 
with the necessary wagon roads. Why should the Province not do so? 
