266 



DOMINION OF CANADA. 



Dominion generally. The estimated wheat prod- 

 uct for Canada is 50,000,000 bushels, which is 

 less by 11,592,822 bushels than the product for 

 1891. Of the whole amount of wheat produced 

 in Canada this year, 40,000,000 bushels were 

 grown in Manitoba and Ontario. It is estimated 

 that the Dominion requires for home consump- 

 tion 39,800,000 bushels, which would leave over 

 10.000,000 bushels for export. 



The Government of Canada does much to fos- 

 ter the agricultural interests. For the mainte- 

 nance of the experimental farm and the dairy- 

 ing interests in affiliation therewith, Parliament 

 voted over $107,000 for the present year, and 

 sums were granted to struggling agricultural 

 societies in the Northwest Territories. 



Immigration. To defray the expenses to be 

 incurred in connection with immigration during 

 the fiscal year 1898-'94 Parliament voted the 

 sum of $210,000. Immigration agents are em- 

 ployed in Great Britain and Ireland and on the 

 Continent; but, liberal as are the inducements 

 offered, Canada so far has not been popular with 

 emigrants. Recently the Dominion Government 

 was notified by the governments of Germany 

 and Sweden that Canadian emigration commis- 

 sioners would be prohibited from carrying on 

 active work in these countries. But this restric- 

 tion has been more than compensated for by 

 emigration from France and Holland countries 

 which rarely sent many emigrants to Canada. 

 There has been, however, a decline in the num- 

 ber of emigrants from the British Isles. Dur- 

 ing 1892 the number of immigrants arriving at 

 the ports of Halifax. Quebec, and Montreal was 

 52,000, and of those, 28,000 declared their inten- 

 tion of settling in Canada. The homestead en- 

 tries for the year numbered 4,840, embracing 

 774,400 acres. Of the entries, 513 were made by 

 persons from the United States. 



Railways. The Canadian Pacific Railway is 

 the only one of the two great railways of Canada 

 not operated by the Government which can show 

 a substantial surplus. At the last annual meet- 

 ing of the company, held in Montreal, it was 

 shown that the gross earnings of the road for 

 the preceding year were $21,400,000, and the 

 year's expenses $13.000,000, leaving a surplus, 

 after all expenses and dividends were paid, of 

 $7,000,000, which was carried forward for the 

 security of stockholders. 



The mileage of the road and its branches is 

 now 7,000 miles, while there are 1,800 miles of 

 tributary lines in the Northwestern States. 

 By its new "Soo" line St. Paul and Minneapolis 

 can be reached in seventy hours from the coast. 

 This railway has also a multitude of subsidiary 

 but important enterprises connected with it, 

 among them being the line of ocean steamers 

 linking Canada with China and Japan. 



The freight and passenger traffic of the Grand 

 Trunk Railway has suffered for a number of 

 years by the competition of the Canadian Pa- 

 cific ; but recently, through an extension of its 

 connections, and from other causes, an improve- 

 ment in its trade has taken place. To meet the 

 requirements of its increased and prospective 

 traffic the company will build a new double- 

 track open bridge across the St. Lawrence, at 

 Montreal. It will be built alongside the old 

 bridge, and on the old piers extended. 



Mineral Statistics. From the preliminary 

 statement furnished by the Geological Survey 

 Department at Ottawa it appears that the prod- 

 uct and value of the metallic and of the most 

 important nonmetallic substances in Canada 

 for last year were as follow : 



Metallic. Copper, 7,042,195 pounds, $821,589 ; 

 gold, 49,985 ounces, $900,483 ; iron ore, 103,248 

 tons, $254,206; lead, 1,205,420 pounds, $49,422; 

 nickel, 6,057,482 pounds, $3,513,339; platinum, 

 $3,500; silver, 305,026 ounces, $264,510. 



Nonmetallic Asbestos, 6,042 tons, $388,462; 

 coal, 3,290,897 tons, $7,181,610; coke, 56,135 

 tons, $160,249 ; gypsum, 226,568 tons, $225,260 ; 

 mica. $100,923 ; mineral water, 640,380 gallons, 

 $75,348; petroleum, 779,753 barrels, $982,489; 

 phosphate, 11,932 tons, $157,424; pyrites, 59,770 

 tons, $179,310; salt, 45,486 tons, $162,041. 



The total value of the metallic products for 

 the year amounted to $5,807,049, and of the non- 

 metallic to $13,234,267, which, added to $458,- 

 864 estimated value of mineral products not 

 returned when the statement was made aggre- 

 gate $19,500,000. 



Coal. The most important mining industry 

 in Canada is coal, the extent of the coal fields 

 being estimated at 100.000 square miles. Much 

 of this coal area is very productive, and 9,000,000 

 tons per square mile is regarded as a moderate 

 estimate of the possible product. The most ex- 

 tensive coal fields are found in the Northwest 

 Territories and British Columbia, but owing to 

 lack of transportation facilities, cost of carriage 

 from the mines, and want of capital, they have 

 not been worked to any great extent. At pres- 

 ent the bulk of the coal product of the Domin- 

 ion is mined in Nova Scotia, at Pictou and 

 Cumberland ; and of the entire amount produced 

 last year in Canada, 2,175,913 tons were mined in 

 that province. The coal is usually of excellent 

 quality ; and the anthracite mined at Banff, al- 

 most on the boundary between British Columbia 

 and Alberta, now finds a ready market in San 

 Francisco. 



Gold. The production of gold in Canada is 

 confined almost exclusively to British Columbia 

 and Nova Scotia, though a small quantity is an- 

 nually produced in Quebec, and it has also been 

 obtained from some parts of Ontario. Future 

 exploration of the region north and west of Lake 

 Superior may disclose valuable deposits of gold, 

 as it is known to exist in many localities, and 

 has been found in several places in small 

 amounts. Very limited quantities of the metal 

 are also obtained yearly from Saskatchewan 

 liver, near Edmonton. Since 1860, when gold 

 was first discovered near Tangier harbor, Nova 

 Scotia, the entire value of the product of that 

 metal in the province has been $10,723,779. 

 The value of the gold product of British Colum- 

 bia since 1858 has aggregated $53,634,509. 



The marked decrease in the present annual 

 product of gold in Canada, rendered apparent 

 by the figures for 1892, can be accounted for 

 from the fact that the British Columbia gold 

 mines have been for some years much less pro- 

 ductive than they were before, and the same is 

 probably true also respecting the gold mines of 

 Nova Scotia. 



Iron. Iron ore, except in Manitoba, is found 

 almost everywhere in Canada, but it can scarcely 



