20 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



not only be prepared with respect to existing conditions, but should 

 be made in respect of all new territory in advance of settlement. 



Female Population 



The absence of social attractions in the rural districts helps to 

 encourage the migration of females from these districts-a wholly injur- 

 ious form of migration, when we consider the need for improving family 

 life in the country, and when we have regard to the valuable part which 

 the woman plays in the economy of the farm and in the building up of 

 a co-operative organization. As Sir Horace Plunkett has so well 

 put it, "Woman is needed in the country to make co-operation suc- 

 cessful; home life is impossible without her; social organization needs 

 her." In the older provinces Ontario had the lowest ratio of females 

 to males in rural divisions in 1911, the percentage being 86.73, as 

 against 93.69 for Quebec, and an average of 93.88 for the three Mari- 

 time Provinces.* 



In the western provinces the deficiency of female popula- 

 tion in 1911 was not much greater in the rural than in the urban dis- 

 tricts. In the three Prairie Provinces the ratio of females to males 

 in rural and urban divisions in 1911 was 71.9 and 73.9 per cent, 

 respectively. Women are needed in the towns of Western Canada 

 just as much as in the rural districts. 



Movement of Population 



In the census for 1911, it is set forth that the population of Can- 

 ada was divided into 3,280,964, or 45.5 per cent, urban and 3,925,679, 

 or 54.5 per cent, rural. t These figures, however, are based on a di- 

 vision which includes in the urban population a large number of what 

 are practically small agricultural villages.! 



In 1911 there were 142 towns in Canada with a population of 

 500 or over which were either not in existence or whose populations 

 were below 500 in 1901. A great many of these will never really be 

 more than rural villages, and in any event they are not at present 

 urban in character. The rural population of the Dominion might 

 very properly be regarded as consisting of the population outside of 

 the cities, towns and villages of 1,500 inhabitants and over. All 

 towns of less than 1,500, which are not immediately adjacent to large 

 cities, are more or less rural in character, and it is not unreasonable 

 to include them in the rural class. 



* Table 12, Canada Year Book, 1915. 

 t Table 9, Canada Year Book, 1915. 

 \ Table 8, Canada Year Book, 1915. 



