1920-21 DEPABTMENT OF LAN^DS AND FOEESTS. 



of applications inspections are made of sold lots to check up the improvements 

 of holders of unpatented claims. When delinquents are found cancellation is 

 effected and though over 400 individuals acquired by purchase farm lots in surveyed 

 areas the Crown cancelled 208 sales for failure of the purchasers to meet the pre- 

 scribed conditions of settlement. 



Permission was granted to 375 settlers to assign their interests for divers 

 reasons, the assignee in each case being required to pay the purchase price in full, 

 rather than by instalments. 



Settlers to the number of 425 satisfied -the requirements and obtained their 

 patents in sale townships. 



Special provision is made in the case of soldiers who held unpatented land 

 and served in the Canadian Expeditionary Forces overseas, whereby arrears oi 

 payments due the Crown are remitted and patents issued on completion of settle- 

 ment duties. A free grant of 160 acres may be made to a returned soldier condi- 

 tional that he perform the homestead duties. A considerable number have availed 

 themselves of these privileges. 



Several of the isolated remaining Clergy, Grammar and Common School Land 

 Sales were paid in full and the rightful claimants secured patents. (For tabulated 

 statement see Appendix Xo. 8, page 34.) 



Free Geants. 



Since the Great War there has been a gradual growth of actual settlers taking 

 free homesteads and the number has again increased over last year, there being 

 654 during the year. The price of farm products has been fairly steady and the 

 cro})s quite bountiful and these factors while tending towards settlement in the 

 older portions of the Province apparently influence those land seekers who are 

 desirous of obtaining free farms for homesteading. The average individual farm 

 location increased from 125 acres of a 3^ear ago to 166 acres this year when the 

 total area thus located comprised 88,813 acres. Patents for Free Grant lands 

 issued to 458 persons covering an area of 53,395 acres, while over 7,500 acres were 

 purchased in small parcels within Free Grant territory for fuel, pasture, pleasure 

 and summer resort purposes. 



A number of settlers have come from Michigan and Minnesota States and some 

 are returning to Rainy River and Thunder Bay Districts from the dry belts of 

 Saskatchewan and Alberta, and in addition to the new locations, where after in- 

 spection by a Crown official it is found the Jocatee is not making good, is a specu- , 

 lator or a spurious holder, his location is cancelled and the land resumed. In this 

 way over 70,000 acres reverted to the Crown during the past year. 



The Free Grant areas of the province are widely scattered, both Old and New 

 Ontario having their respective territories. Certain sections south of the French 

 River and Georgian Bay, opened many years ago, have been very largely alienated 

 in respect of the choice arable land as it goes in the rocky formations. Isolated 

 lots arise regularly where at least fifty per cent, of the land is fit for farming, 

 the minimum percentage pre.<«ented by the regulations, but in most instances these 

 are sections comprised in timber berths, and frequently serious objections are 

 registered by the timber licensees against disposing of the land. Where, however, 

 the Crown is convinced that the applicant has bona-fide intentions of becoming a 

 -farmer in the general accept-ation of the term every reasonable opportunity is 

 afforded him. irrespective of the timber licensees' protestations, which nevertheless 



