12 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



of ownership to attract the labouring farmer to the soil of Canada 

 and too little on the more enduring magnets of social amenities and 

 efficient organization of the actual development of the land. 



To keep the farmers on the land when they get there has become 

 a greater problem than that of first attracting them to the land. 

 They are said to be leaving the land in thousands at the present time, 

 and we are told that millions of acres of land, which had been occupied 

 at one time, are now deserted, and that the present system of land 

 settlement is productive of much poverty and degradation.* Whether 

 these statements are exaggerated or not, the fact that they are made 

 by responsible people indicates a state of affairs that demands a 

 remedy. Why do men now hesitate to go on the land in the first 

 place, and find it uncongenial to stay in the second place? Why do 

 women stay away, with the injurious consequences to rural life which 

 is caused by their absence? The three outstanding reasons are: 



First, the numerous ills caused by the holding of large areas of 

 the best and most accessible land by speculators and the want of 

 proper plans for the economic use and development of the land. 



Second, the compelling social attractions and the educational 

 facilities of the cities and towns, and, 



Third, the lack of ready money and of adequate return for the 

 labour of the farmer, because of want of co-operation, rural credit and 

 of facilities for distribution of his products. 



To secure any real improvement in rural life and conditions 

 we must try to bring tracts of land held for speculative purposes 

 into use, prepare development schemes of the land in advance of 

 settlement, try to take part, at least, of the social and educa- 

 tional facilities of the cities into the rural areas, and, simul- 

 taneously, provide the co-operative financial and distributive 

 conveniences that are necessary to give the farmer a larger share of 

 the profits of production. 



THE OBJECT OF PRODUCTION 



But before embarking on any scheme of improvement, of our 

 rural as well as of our urban conditions, we must have regard to the 

 object we have in view in increasing production as well as the method 

 by which we seek to attain the increase. W r e have, in the historic 

 case of Germany, an instance of what appears to have been an effi- 

 cient organization directed to the achievement of a bad object, with 



* Millions of acres of land homesteaded in Western Canada have been aban- 

 doned by men who failed as farmers. Farmers Advocate. 



