RURAL DEPLETION 29 



Assuming that the natural increase of population is 

 1.5 per cent, per annum, the rural population of the 

 Dominion in 1901, 3,349,516, should have increased 

 by 547,878 before the census was taken in 1911. Of 

 the 1,715,326 immigrants who came to Canada during 

 the decade, approximately one-third at the ports of 

 entry gave farming as their occupation. These, with 

 the same annual rate of increase, give a further aug- 

 ment of 670,258. The rural population thus received 

 an accretion of 1,218,136. The actual growth was 

 574.878. Therefore 643,258 persons left our country 

 districts during the decade. That all of these are not 

 found in our Canadian cities does not alter the facts 

 of the case. 



On soft Pacific slopes, beside 



Strange floods that northward rave and fall 

 Where chafes Acadia's chainless tide, 



Thy sons await thy call. 

 They wait; but some in exile some 

 With strangers housed, in stranger lands * 



Winnipeg is not the third Canadian city, if we count 

 by Canadian-born population; Boston is; 200,000 of 

 her people are Canadian. There are several Xew Eng- 

 land cities with a majority of their population Cana- 

 dian born. When the figures of the Census Bureau 

 were published a year ago, men asked in perplexity. 

 " Where is the other million ?" The Canadian nurses 

 serving in American hospitals might be given as the 

 first count in the answer. Canada set about making 

 of herself a good place for manufacturers, and suc- 

 ceeded, but at the cost of becoming a less desirable 



* Charles G. D. Roberts, " In Divers Tones." 



