ECONOMIC SOLUTIONS 105 



is one of the ten Census Districts with a growing rural 

 population. Let us take Saltfleet, one of its townships, 

 as an illustration of our principle. This is a lakeside, 

 fruit-growing township. After a temporary decline in 

 population between 1881 and 1891, it has grown from 

 2,765 in 1891 to 3,029 in 1901, and 4,458 in 1911, 

 an increase of 61 per cent, in twenty years; while Bin- 

 brook, lying just behind it, w'ith ordinary agriculture, 

 declined from 1,674 in 1891 to 1,403 in 1901, and 

 1,245 in 1911, a decrease of 25 per cent, in the same 

 period. The County of Lincoln is another of the grow- 

 ing districts. North Grimsby is an example of its 

 fruit-growing townships, increasing in rural population 

 from 1,095 in 1891 to 1,321 in 1901, and 1,758 in 

 1911, a growth of 60 per cent, in a score of years; 

 while South Grimsby, immediately adjoining, declined, 

 with mixed farming, from 1,610 in 1891 to 1,379 in 

 1901, a loss of 14 per cent, in ten years, but which with 

 the adoption of orcharding has again begun to hold its 

 own. In each of the ten growing districts — in all of 

 which there had been a previous decline of population — 

 there has been adoption of some line of special agri- 

 culture. 



Another point of exceeding interest is to be noted in 

 this connection. The class that is growing is always 

 the one which is rendering fullest service to the com- 

 munity, not the one which is taxing it most severely. 

 Such is the case with the fruit-growers of Canada in 

 comparison with her general farmers. In 1911, when 

 the average index figure for farm products in general 

 stood at 139.4, for all fresh native fruits it stood at 

 1 16.1, with a drop in the summer fruit season to 89.1. 

 The avoragf figure for the decade has been only 107. 



