being along the soundest lines with the firmest of bases 

 against economic slumps. There is nothing problematical 

 about Ontario's future; the province has in every sense 

 arrived, and whilst in many lines of natural resource, 

 development cannot be said to be far advanced when one 

 takes cognisance of the tremendous possibilities.it possesses 

 the possibilities at the present time of expanding and 

 extending largely from within itself. 



Canada was the early name of the provinces of Quebec 

 and Ontario. In 1791 the territory comprised under the 

 name was divided into Upper and Lower Canada. In 1867 

 Upper Canada became a province of the newly created 

 Dominion under the name of Ontario. The first settlers 

 of the province were largely refugees, from the United 

 States who, in 1874, came north to the unbroken forests 

 rather than forego their allegiance to the Motherland. 

 The province of Ontario, as it exists at the present time, 

 comprises a total area of 407,262 square miles. It is 

 divided into two great sections, Southern Ontario, the 

 older and more settled portion with an area of roughly 

 77,000 square miles, and Northern Ontario, where develop- 

 ment is in more primary stages and pioneer conditions to 

 an extent prevail, accounting for the much larger total of 

 330,000 square miles. 



Canada's Industrial Centre 



Whilst the origin of Ontario's growth and prosperity 

 was in agriculture and this industry is still of prime im- 

 portance, the province has forged particularly ahead in 

 other phases of activity and achieved for itself first place 

 amongst the industrial sections of the Dominion. Agri- 

 culture though largely stabilized still makes very satisfac- 

 tory progress. Whilst in 1911 the agricultural production 

 of the province was valued at about $305,000,000, in 1920 

 it was worth nearly $376,000,000. There are about 175,- 

 000 farms in the province. 



Ontario has also become the first mineral province of 

 Canada, leading all other areas in annual production. As 

 yet her wide variety of minerals are only partially develop- 

 ed and capable of considerable expansion, and this is being 

 accomplished substantially each year. In the year 1900 

 the province's mineral production was worth $10,417, 576, 

 accounting for 21.73 of the entire Dominion production. 

 In the following decade this increased to $49,727,400 and 

 the proportion of the Dominion total increased to 40.76 

 per cent. By 1920 the annual production had increased 

 to $78,749,178,but owing to the development of other areas 

 this accounted for a little less in Canadian production or 

 36.16 per cent. A phenomenal feature of the province's 

 mineral development of recent years has been the growth 

 of the Northern Ontario gold fields. In 1921 these were 

 producing at the rate of $19,008,000 per annum whereas in 

 1920 the entire Canadian production of gold was only 

 $15,853,478. 



Extensive Inland Fisheries 



In its inland waters, particularly its share of the Great 

 Lakes, Ontario possesses an extensive fishing field which 

 gives it fourth place among the provinces of the Dominion 

 in the fishing industry. Its production of whitefish, her- 

 ring, trout, pickerel, perch and pike is increasing consist- 

 ently every year in value as illustrated in a comparison of 

 the figures of the past two decades. In 1901 the value of 

 Ontario's annual catch was $1,424,078; by 1910 this had 

 risen to $2,348,270, whilst in 1920 the freshwater fish of 

 the province accounted for a revenue of $3,336,412. 



Ontario's forests constitute one of its most valuable 

 resources which at an early period in its history induced 

 the introduction of capital and exploitation. The total 

 area of forest land is estimated at 260,000 square miles and 

 that covered by timber licenses and other rights, 40,000 

 square miles. Northern Ontario contains vast supplies 

 of timber upon which commercial cutting has hardly com- 

 menced, whilst this region is also estimated to have 200,000,- 

 300 cords of pulpwood. The manner in which the timber 

 industry of the province has expanded in the past decade, 

 due to a great extent to the development of the pulp and 

 paper industry, can be seen in a comparison of the 1910 



figures with those of 1920. Whereas in the former year 

 the value of forest products from the province was about 

 eleven million dollars, it had risen in the latter to nearly 

 forty-eight million dollars, In the pulp and paper indus- 

 try, in which this province takes second place only to 

 Quebec, the same surprising development is found. Pulp- 

 wood used in the industry in 1910 was 210,552 cords, in 

 1919 it was 840,856; in the same period the value had 

 increased from $1,479,538 to $13,113,794. The amount of 

 pulp produced in the province increased in less than a de- 

 cade from 156,076 tons to 597,291 tons, the number of 

 plants manufacturing jumping from fifteen to twenty-two. 



A Great Central Market 



Industrially Ontario has made titanic strides, and 

 with the rise of the newer Western Provinces to agricultural 

 renown has taken full advantage of its unique situation 

 and extensive assets to make a bid for fame as the manu- 

 facturing hub of the Dominion, and to supply not only 

 its own needs but those of the enormous agricultural 

 territory west of the Great Lakes. The industrial ex- 

 pansion of the province of Ontario is pithily summed up 

 in the following comparative tables constituting a survey 

 of the past twenty years. 



1900 1910 1918 

 ESTABLISH- 

 MENTS 6,543 8,001 15,465 



CAPITAL $214,972,275 $595,394,608 $1,508,011,435 



EMPLOYEES.. 161,757 238,817 333,936 



WAGES $56,548,286 $117,645,784 $ 320,740,215 



PRODUCTION. $241,533,486 $ 579,810,225 $1,809,067,001 

 Such is the diversity of provincial activity and the 

 overshadowing effect of the industrial phases that the 

 fur trade is often lost sight of as an Ontario asset. Atten- 

 tion is directed so generally to the Northwest Territories 

 as the prolific producer of pelts, that it comes somewhat 

 as a surprise that Ontario leads amongst the provinces 

 of the Dominion in fur production. The great vasts 

 stretching up from Northern Ontario to Hudson Bay 

 disgorge a peltry which is prime in both quality and 

 quantity. How revenue to the province from this source 

 has increased of late years is illustrated in the added 

 value of the catch from a mere $297,101 in 1910 to $3,- 

 414,917 in 1920. 



Population of Three Millions 



The population of the province of Ontario in 1901 was 

 2,182,947; in 1911 it was 2,523,208; whilst the returns of 

 the census just completed are expected to give it a popula- 

 tion near the three million mark. The province has three 

 cities over the hundred thousand mark in point of popula- 

 tion, Toronto, Hamilton, and Ottawa; one between fifty 

 and a hundred thousand, London; two between twenty- 

 five and fifty thousand, Brantford and Windsor; and 

 sixteen between ten and twenty-five thousand. Urban 

 growth is typified in that of the capital city of Toronto, 

 the second city of the Dominion. With a population of 

 267,730 in 1901, it had added more than two hundred 

 thousand to its inhabitants by 1911 when a population 

 of 470,480 was returned. Its latest estimate of popula- 

 tion gives it 535,000. When completed, Toronto will have 

 the finest harbor on the Great Lakes, an asset of incal- 

 culable value. The cost of the development scheme, 

 including work donated by the Dominion government, 

 is $37,000,000. 



This brief survey indicates the versatility of com- 

 mercial activity in the province of Ontario and the con- 

 sistent progress achieved in every phase of endeavor in 

 the past decade. Ontario has been generously treated 

 in the matter of natural gifts, being richly endowed in 

 agricultural land, minerals, forests, furs, fisheries and in 

 the water powers and other advantages which make for 

 industrial expansion. Though her progress has been 

 gratifying in the past and imparts a sense of satisfaction 

 in what has been accomplished, her natural possessions 

 are yet capable of much greater development, and this 

 there is every expectation of coming to pass in the decade 

 before it. 



29 



