CANADA 



1104 



CANADA 



This brief summary merely indicates the 

 principal lines of development on which the 

 Dominion's future depends. Unlike many 

 lesser countries, it has a variety of resources. 

 A smaller country might be suitable for farm- 

 ing, but might be totally lacking in mineral 



wealth or in fisheries. Canada is fortunate in 

 that it has all the natural resources including 

 water power to help in their development 

 on which the economic prosperity of a nation 

 depends. The extent to which these resources 

 have been utilized is told below in detail. 



Agriculture 



Agriculture is necessarily one of the first pur- 

 suits in which men engage, and to this day 

 fully one-half of the total population of the 

 Dominion are directly engaged in or dependent 

 for their living on the cultivation of the soil. 

 Thousands of people, too, are employed in the 

 trade and transportation of food products, in 

 milling, in meat packing and in other indus- 

 tries which arise as a result of agriculture. The 

 first settlers made their little clearings in the 

 Saint Lawrence Valley and in the Maritime 

 Provinces, and a little farming was done in 

 British Columbia even before its admission 

 to the Dominion, but it was not until the end 

 of the nineteenth century that the fertile lands 

 of the prairie provinces were opened. To-day 



in both these grains. Grain may be raised 

 successfully far beyond the present northern 

 limits of grain-growing areas. Good wheat has 

 been raised as far north as Fort Vermilion, on 

 the Peace River, about 800 miles north of the 

 United States boundary, and at Fort Simpson, 

 on the Mackenzie River, 1,000 miles north of 

 that boundary. The danger from frost, how- 

 ever, is present in many sections during late 

 summer, and it is extremely unlikely that 

 grains will be raised on a large scale in the 

 north. 



The following table shows the production of 

 the important field crops by provinces for 

 1915, as well as the totals for 1914 and for the 

 average period, 1910-1915. 



PRODUCTION IN BUSHELS OF PRINCIPAL FIELD CROPS, 1915. 



* Including both fodder corn and corn for husking. 



agriculture represents a capital investment for 

 the Dominion of about five billion dollars. Of 

 this total one-fourth is in Ontario, about one- 

 fifth in Saskatchewan and one-tenth each in 

 AJberta and Manitoba. 



! At first the plains of Alberta, Saskatchewan 

 and Manitoba were regarded as useful only for 

 grazing, but once the immense possibilities of 

 this region were realized it became one of the 

 greatest grain-growing areas in the world. The 

 development of the west has come almost en- 

 tirely since the beginning of the twentieth 

 century. For many years Ontario was the 

 largest producer of wheat and oats in Canada, 

 but Saskatchewan since 1911 has ranked first 



Agriculture has naturally reached its highest 

 development in the Dominion in the sections 

 which have been cultivated the longest time; 

 these are Prince Edward Island; a few sheltered 

 valleys in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, 

 the valley of the Saint Lawrence above Quebec 

 and the southern peninsula of Ontario. It is 

 true, however, that these sections are better 

 known for the production of a few crops than 

 for the value of their total output. Apples are 

 cultivated extensively in the Annapolis valley 

 in Nova Scotia and the Saint John valley in 

 New Brunswick. Potatoes and turnips receive 

 special attention in the Maritime Provinces. 

 Ontario's annual crop of 7,000,000 bushels or 



