56 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



the squarest of farms may be crossed by ravines and creeks, 

 which are a law unto themselves. 



Proposed Village Scheme in Northern Ontario 



A plan of a different type is proposed by Mr. William Hender- 

 son, who has spent a large portion of the last ten years in Northern 

 Ontario and has travelled many thousands of miles through it. The 

 significance of Mr. Henderson's scheme lies in the fact that he ap- 

 proaches the question from the point of view of the social student, 

 interested primarily in the moral and physical improvement of the rural 

 population, and that, having studied the question from that point of 

 view, he has come to the conclusion that proper planning is the first 

 thing necessary to secure an effective remedy for unsatisfactory social 

 conditions. Whatever the merits or demerits of the details of his 

 scheme, it has unquestionable value as indicating some directions in 

 which improvement is needed and can be found. 



A plan of Mr. Henderson's scheme, prepared by H. B. and L. 

 A. Dunnington Grubb of Toronto, is shown on figure 10. This 

 plan has been prepared without regard to the topographical or 

 soil conditions, as it is merely intended for illustration of the prin- 

 ciples underlying the scheme. Mr. Henderson gives the following 

 description of his proposal and of the reasons which led him to put 

 it forward: 



The hundreds of deserted homesteads seen everywhere 

 in Northern Ontario, the apparent poverty of a great many 

 of the remaining settlers, and, above all, the dissatis- 

 faction with existing conditions, together with a desire for 

 the amenities of city life, can lead to only one conclusion. 

 If the great clay belt, with its vast potential agricultural 

 wealth is ever to support a thriving population, a policy in 

 regard to land settlement, differing widely to that obtaining 

 in the past, must be put into force. 



Until the government and people of Ontario are prepared 

 to face the fact that conditions obtaining one hundred years 

 ago no longer apply, all future schemes for land settlement 

 like those which have been attempted in the past will fail. 

 A day has arrived when intelligent and ambitious young 

 people, with the experience of a past generation before them, 

 will no longer face the privations of pioneer life. The woman 

 will no longer be induced to leave the social amenities of the 

 city for the isolation and slavery of a backwoods . farm and, 

 without the woman's help, the man is impotent. The man 

 is unable to see sufficient reward for the years of drudgery 

 and toil held out to him. 



When stock farming is not made a specialty, the far- 

 mer can operate as efficiently, when living within easy reach 



