RURAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT 17 



agriculture and could not be put to economic use it has also been injur- 

 ious. On the other hand, in so far as it may have increased pro- 

 duction in the city at the expense of diminished production in the coun- 

 try, it may not have been entirely an evil; on the contrary, it may 

 have been a benefit if it has meant the transfer of labour from an un- 

 profitable to a profitable industry. Within proper limits the develop- 

 ment of manufacturing is as important as the development of agri- 

 culture, and over-production in agriculture has to be guarded against 

 as well as under-production. There must be a proper equilibrium 

 maintained between the two kinds of industry. Unfortunately for 

 the country at present the production of food has not been commen- 

 surate with the demand; because the equilibrium between the rural 

 and the urban industries and populations has not been properly 

 maintained. 



While, however, it is wrong to jump to the conclusion that the 

 movement of population from rural to urban districts is necessarily 

 injurious to a country, there is no gainsaying that a large proportion 

 of this movement in Canada has resulted from a play of forces which 

 has left us weaker and poorer as a nation, If, by Government sub- 

 sidy or other artificial means, we were to succeed in temporarily in- 

 creasing rural settlement in the future, without revising our methods 

 of planning and arranging agricultural holdings so as to improve 

 farm revenues and obtain opportunities for better social conditions, 

 and if we were not, at the same time, to place difficulties in the way of 

 land-gambling, we would not succeed in arresting such injurious results 

 as follow from the migratory tendencies of the population. 



Sir Horace Plunkett has stated that the city on the American 

 continent has been developing at the expense of the country. Would 

 it not be more correct to say that neither the city nor the country 

 has developed properly because of their neglect of each other? Both 

 have suffered, because of lack of recognition of their inter-dependence. 



DEPOPULATION OF HOMESTEADED LAND 



Whatever question there may be as to the effects of rural depopu- 

 lation, on health and production as a whole, there can be no question 

 as to the deplorable national and social waste which must result from 

 any failure to secure permanent rural settlement, after public money 

 has been expended and public property has been alienated to secure 

 that settlement under a system of free homesteading. If a costly 

 and artificial method of opening up new territory is resorted to, if 

 settlers have to be secured by immigration at considerable public 



