TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 849 



area, or about 25,000,000 acres, yet it is claimed that, owing to favourable 

 •climatic conditions, •within this area a greater variety of crops can be grown with 

 profit than in any other equal area of the American continent, thus rendering it 

 peculiarly adapted to the pursuit of a mixed husbandry, which it is claimed is, in 

 the long run, always the most profitable. In support of these claims, figures taken 

 from the last census returns for Canada and the United States are cited, and by 

 them it is shown that, even when placed in juxtaposition with the seven largest 

 producing States, in each of seven cereals, Ontario, notwithstanding she is thus 

 brought into competition with twenty-two States, succeeds in securing a first place 

 A3 a producer of barley, and peas, and beans ; a third place as a producer of oats and 

 buck-wheat ; a fifth for rye ; and a sixth for yield per acre, and an eighth in quan- 

 tity, for wheat ; thus obtaining an honourable position in six out of the seven — a 

 position unattainable by any State in the Union — while the great State of Illinois 

 only obtains three firsts and a second, and then disappears from the comparison 

 altogether. Figures taken from the reports of the Ontario Bureau of Industries 

 and the Illinois State Returns for the year 1882 are also given, showing that in the 

 yield and value of yield per acre, the crop of wheat, barley, oats, iye, corn, buck- 

 wheat, and potatoes in Ontario so largely exceeded that of Illinois in that year as 

 to make an aggregate difference of over #15,000,000 in favour of the Ontario farmer, 

 equal to $47 per head of those engaged in agricultural pursuits, while the 

 Washington returns show a still larger balance in his favour. 



Figures are also submitted showing that during the ten years ending with 1880 

 the production of the different fruits had increased from 100 to 250 per cent., and 

 that the manufacture of wine from the grape was rapidly increasing; while the 

 opinions of eminent pomologists are cited to prove that Ontario's display of fruit 

 at the centennial in 1876 ' was the most instructive and comprehensive exhibit of 

 fruits ' made at that exhibition. 



Stock-raising is then referred to, and it is claimed that the climate of Ontario 

 has proved itself favourable to the development of healthy and vigorous animals, 

 while the awards gained by Canadian stock-raisers at the great Christmas shows 

 at Chicago prove that Ontario bred and fed cattle and sheep can more than hold 

 their own with those of the prairies and great corn-growing States. 



With regard to the future, it is pointed out that less than 11,000,000 of the 

 25,000,000 acres under consideration is returned as ' cleared,' while even in the 

 county of York, in which the capital of the province is situated, 20 per cent, is 

 still ' uncleared.' 



In conclusion, the writer calls attention to the statement of the Hon. D. A. 

 Wells, that, ' north of Lakes Eric and Ontario and the River St. Lawrence, east of 

 Lake Huron, south of the forty-sixth parallel, and included within the Dominion 

 of Canada, there is as fair a country as exists on the American continent — nearly as 

 large in area as New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio combined, and equal if not 

 superior as a whole to those States in agricultural capacity. It is the natural 

 habitat on this continent of the combing-wool sheep, without a full, cheap, and 

 reliable supply of the wool of which species the great worsted manufacturing 

 industries of the country cannot prosper, or, we should rather say, exist. It is the 

 region where grows the finest barley, which the brewing interests of the United 

 States must have if it ever expects to rival Great Britain in its present annual 

 export of over eleven million dollars' worth of malt products. It raises and grazes the 

 finest cattle, with qualities especially desirable to make good the deterioration of 

 stock in other sections, and its climatic conditions, created by an almost encircle- 

 ment of the Great Lakes, especially fit it to grow men. Such a country is one of 

 the greatest gifts of Providence to the human race, better than bonanzes of silver or 

 rivers whose sands run gold.' 



O*- 



8. On the Agricultural Resources of Nova Scotia. 

 By Major- General Laurie, D.G.L. 



The first settlements in Nova Scotia were established for military reasons, and 

 •early settlers were mainly Loyalists from the United States — mostly professional 



188 i. 3 I 



