32 THE FARMER'S OUTLOOK 



plies have steadily diminished. A Commission 

 known as the Dominion Ranch and Grazing 

 Commission has recently been appointed to 

 reconcile the demands of cattlemen for leases of 

 Crown lands, sufficiently long to justify expendi- 

 ture on fencing, with the interests of the farmers, 

 who view the large areas occupied by ranchers as 

 limiting the expansion of the cultivable area. 



As in the case of the States, the increasing 

 demands of the Canadian Home Market have been 

 due to the expansion of industries, the develop- 

 ment of the Western prairies itself making large 

 calls for lumber, and the thousand and one 

 articles required by a prosperous agricultural 

 population. Though Canada's industrial progress 

 is well appreciated in the United Kingdom, the 

 census returns for 1911, showing an increase of 

 urban population twice as great as that of the 

 country districts since 1901, is somewhat of a 

 surprise. Even in the Western provinces the 

 urban population shows rapid growth. As an 

 instance of the alternative to grain production 

 open to the rural population, the increase of 

 110,000 in the population of British Columbia 

 between 1901 and 1911 is significant, the pro- 

 vince being mainly occupied in mining, lumber, 

 fisheries and fruit-farming. 



To summarise the immediate outlook as to 

 Canada's place as an exporter of foodstuffs, a 



