30 ONTARIO. 



with a very moderate outlay of labour and capital, of 

 being brought into a high state of fertility. These farms 

 seem to me to offer most favourable conditions of success 

 to the practical farmer who, owing to the fierce com- 

 petition for land in an old over-populated country, is 

 unable to obtain a farm on such terms as will enable 

 him to make a profitable living out of it. Those are the 

 men good practical farmers with a moderate capital 

 who are also of most value to Ontario. The Canadian- 

 born farmer is the man to clear the forest and to act as 

 the pioneer for the skilled farmer from the Old World, who 

 in turn possesses just the necessary qualifications to take 

 up the land his predecessor has left, and while making out 

 of it a valuable property for himself and his heirs, to add 

 thereby largely to the wealth of Canada. I repeat there- 

 fore that no old- country farmer with capital should settle 

 in the backwoods, where his previous education in 

 farming will be wasted, and his money, in all probability, 

 lost. 



Two other causes have tended lately to throw a larger 

 number than usual of improved farms in Ontario into the 

 market. One is the opening up for settlement of the 

 fertile lands of Manitobah, and the other is the rapid 

 extension of railways through the hitherto unsettled parts 

 of Canada. 



This opportunity for acquiring farms on profitable 

 terms may not last. Ontario is growing very rapidly in 

 population and in wealth. In 1830 the population was 

 about 200,000, at the present moment it is two million. 

 And wealth has increased even in a greater ratio than 

 population. As we have seen before, there is no country 



