Ill 



Economic and Industrial Conditions 



Farming Conditions 



It is evident from the geological origin and nature of the soil 

 of the region under discussion * that it is, for the most part, 

 unsuited to agricultural pursuits ; yet the bulk of the popula- 

 tion is engaged in farming. In general, the soil is shallow sand 

 or gravel of glacial origin, only in limited areas of sufficient depth to 

 permit the growth of crops. It follows that the farming settlements are 

 found mostly in segregated blocks wherever the latter condition ob- 

 tains. For the same reason, the area under cultivation on each farm 

 is very small. Neglecting the three or four best agricultural townships, 

 the land which is being actually tiUed does not average more than 

 IS to 20 acres per hundred acres cleared or farmed. Under certain 

 conditions of soil and market, and with intensive farming, this would 

 suffice for a good living, but not under the present conditions prevailing 

 in the Trent watershed. This low figure of actually tilled land is in 

 itself indicative of the non-agricultural nature of the region. 



This is further brought out in the following table, which gives the 



percentage of land cleared for farming purposes in each of the townships 



investigated. 



Anstnither 3.5 Limerick 12.1 



Burleigh 4.7 Lutterworth 10.4 



Cardiff 7.0 Marmora 26.2 



Cashel 6.6 Methuen 2.7 



Cavendish 1.4 Minden 31.5 



Chandos 18.2 Monmouth 8.9 



Dysart 11.4 Snowdon 12.4 



Faraday 12.5 Somerville 27.3 



Galway 12.4 Stanhope 12.1 



Glamorgan 7.9 Tudor 12.3 



Harvey 14.0 WoUaston 16.1 



Lake 2.0 



These percentages include the land tmder tillage and pasturage, 



the latter usually in a worn-out condition or even grown up with brush. 



Needless to say, not all the clearings were mapped ; their patchy nature, 



in many cases, led to their being overlooked, and, in other cases, this 



would have made an exact estimate of the total clearings on a farm too 



costly in time, especially since this information was only secondary 



to the forest investigation. The above figures, as a rule, are higher 



than those given in the returns of township assessors, because the latter 



generally reduce the area of fields by allowance for rock exposures, 



stone piles, swamp, thickets, etc. 



* See pages 37, 38 ; 68-89 for a brief description of the geology of the region 

 by townships ; and 108-113. 



