TEMPERATE SURPLUS-PRODUCING REGIONS 49 



on a larger scale in the future. Concentrated feedstuffs, which have 

 been an important item in export trade, are likely to be available 

 in smaller quantities in the future, owing to the growing demands 

 made by American stock farmers. 



THE SURPLUS-PRODUCING REGIONS. 

 (5) CANADA. 



Meat and dairy products are produced in Canada mainly in two 

 distinct areas, namely, first, the 35,000 square miles of fertile low- 

 lands in the St. Lawrence valley in the provinces of Quebec and 

 Ontario, where mixed farming, with dairying as a prominent feature, 

 is the general rule, and second, in the High Plains district of South- 

 western Alberta, adjoining the Rocky Mountains, and including 

 the foothills of that chain, where large-scale cattle" ranching " was, 

 and still is, to some extent, the prevailing industrj^. The former 

 region shows a steady and fairly rapid advance in animal industries, 

 particularly in the production of milk (for town consumption) and 

 of butter, cheese, and bacon pigs. 1 The latter region has shown a 

 decline in ranching under pressure from the westward advance of 

 cereal cultivation. 



In recent years, also, mixed farming has gained a foothold in the 

 prairie provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan, and dairying has 

 been established in certain districts (in some cases with Government 

 assistance) as a flourishing industry. The result is that these 

 provinces are now less dependent upon Eastern Canada or upon 

 the United States for foodstuffs than was formerly the case. There 

 seems reason for believing that these prairie province will develop 

 considerably in dairying 2 and in meat production 3 in the future. 



Canada remains for the present, however, essentially a grain- 

 producing and exporting country. Even the bacon surplus of 

 Eastern Canada is to some extent the result of using Canadian 

 barley and other cereal products, as well as maize imported from 

 the United States, as pig-fattening materials. The production of 

 cereals for sale elsewhere, namely, to the eastern dairying 

 provinces, to the United States, or for export to Europe, is the great 

 pioneer industry in the western prairie provinces. Unlike the 

 United States, Canada does not make large net exports of animal 



1 In the ten-year period, 1901-11 the population of Canada increased 

 34-13%, while the milk production increased 43-73%. 



" As yet, in the wheatbelt, this tendency (towards dairying) is just be- 

 ginning to be noticeable ; in the end it will prevail, and Canada will be the 

 first dairying country in the world." Report of Scottish Agricultural Com- 

 mission to Canada, 1908, p. 140. 



See also Dominions Commission, Minutes of Evidence taken in Central 

 and Western Canada (Cd. 8458), pp. 26-8 (Alberta), pp. 83-6 (Manitoba), 

 p. 73 (Saskatchewan). 



3 Dominions Commission, Minutes of Evidence taken in London (Cd. 6517), 

 QQ. 4399-4400. Compare also R. H. Hooker, "Meat Supply of the 

 United Kingdom," Statistical Journal, June, 1909, p. 350, and Dominions 

 Commission (Cd. 8458), extracts above quoted. 



