172 THE LANDED INTEREST. 



will be broken up and sub-divided, out of which, 

 if there is a demand for them, numerous small 

 properties may be formed. Land will become 

 more valuable when it becomes possible to pass 

 it easily from hand to hand. And the substitu- 

 tion of active and intelligent landowners, whose 

 chief interest would be engaged in rendering 

 their farms fully productive, either in their own 

 hands or in those of tenant-farmers whose 

 capital, when wisely expended, would be subject 

 only to ordinary trade risk, would lead to rapid 

 improvement. 



When this has been accomplished, the landed 

 interest will be better able to meet the coming 

 change. Within ten years it is expected that 

 the Canada Pacific Railway will be completed, 

 and will tap the " fertile belt " by that, or by 

 a shorter route, open for at least three months 

 of the year from Port Nelson by Hudson's Bay. 

 Whatever may be the result on the value of land 

 in this country, nothing probably can stop the 

 inevitable outflow to it of a considerable pro- 

 portion of our agricultural strength. A territory 

 of great fertility, better adapted for the pro- 



