THE QUEEN CITY 81 



back this fertile track, sweetened with snowy blossoms 

 in springtime, and rosy luscious fruit in autumn, was 

 entirely forest and impassable with the exception of 

 an occasional trail. Within a few hours' journey 

 from Toronto, orchard farming offers good openings 

 to small capitalists, and a training ground for those 

 who must wait a few years before starting on their 

 own account. Norfolk County, Ontario, is typical. 

 It has many features akin to the English landscape. 

 Hill and dale alternate, well-cultivated farms, in 

 which the thickly set sheaves of corn stand, attest 

 the bountifulness of the harvest. Herds of sleek 

 cattle and flocks of sheep line up by the palings, as 

 if not sure yet what sinister intent the great snorting 

 unclassified animal has on their pastoral peace. Were 

 it not for the palings, those inseparable concomitants 

 of pioneer agriculture, one might imagine himself 

 in the Motherland. Nothing but a green hedge is 

 needed to complete the illusion. 



Further on in the journey a broad river, moving 

 with a sedateness suggestive of depth, rolls down 

 the valley, deepening the green on its banks, and 

 carrying irrigation to the low-lying plains. The 

 great rivers of Canada have an economic value of 

 incalculable worth to a land where summer sun is 

 rarely clouded. 



The orchard district of Norfolk County offers to 

 the settlers land already cleared of the bush. The 

 long and tedious process of cutting, burning, and 



