214 
REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE. 
In the report of 1904 attention was drawn to the greater increase 
of the urban than of the rural population, as shown by the census 
returns up till 1901. 
This increase has gone on to an even greater 
extent than formerly, as is shown by the following table :— 
1901 
Rural Urban Rural avian 
| Population | Population | Population | Population 
Manitoba. 72°41 27°59 62°24 37°76 
Saskatchewan . 84:38 15°62 81:20 18°80 
Alberta 74:00 26:00 68°71 31:29 
75°28 24°72 69°77 30°23 
The relation between the increase of cultivation and the growth of 
the population is shown by the following table. 
The figures are for the 
three prairie provinces combined. 
—_ 1901 1906 
Rural persons 315,821 564,278 
Urban ,, 103,691 244,585 
Total ae 419,512 808,863 
Number of acres cultivated in field crops 3,597,691 8,010,980 
Number of acres cultivated in field sf0Ps per 
1,000 rural inhabitants 11,391 14,250 
Number of acres cultivated in field crops per 
1,000 of all inhabitants 8,576 9,941 
Number of acres cultivated in ‘wheat per 
1,000 of all inhabitants 5,950 6,258 | 
It will thus be seen that, together with the increase of population, 
there has occurred an increase of cultivated area per head of the 
population. While in 1901 the cultivated area amounted to less than 
8°6 acres per head, of which 5°9 were in wheat, or 68 per cent., in 
1906 the cultivated area was 9°9 acres per head, of which 6°3 acres 
were in wheat, or 62 per cent. 
Immigration.—The difficulty of collecting and of presenting accu- 
rate statistics of immigration and emigration for Canada was noticed 
in the report of 1904. The chief reason for this difficulty is that 
the large traffic between the United States and Canada by rail and 
steamer and the considerable traffic by road or by prairie cannot readily 
be divided into migratory traffic properly so called and tourist or 
commercial traffic. | Moreover even if such a distinction could be 
made the actual numbers passing, excepting those travelling by ordinary 
means of conveyance, could not be accurately ascertained. Large num- 
bers of settlers, for example, have in past years crossed from the 
United States into Canada in their own covered wagons at unobserved 
points on the frontier. Methods other than those involving actual 
~ count on the frontier lead inevitably to omissions and duplications. 
Insufficient attention has also been paid to the deductions from the 
