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CANADIAN AGRICULTURE. 



Canada, which is the most extensive of all the British 

 possessions, embraces an estimated area of over 3,300,000 

 square miles, exclusive of rivers and lakes, the land surface 

 being nearly thirty times larger than the United Kingdom. 

 Within this vast area are included the various provinces and 

 districts of the mainland, Prince Edward Island, Vancouver, 

 and groups of islands in the Arctic Ocean and Hudson 

 Bay.* A large region in the northern division of the 

 Dominion is from its physical characteristics unsuited to the 

 pursuit of agriculture, and there is very little settled and 

 cultivated land to the north of a line running eastward 

 from the Rocky Mountains to the northern shores of Lake 

 Winnipeg, and thence by the south of James Bay to the 

 mouth of the St. Lawrence. The territory lying south of this 

 line, omitting for the moment British Columbia, may be 

 roughly divided into two regions : to the east of Lake 

 Winnipeg stretches an immense area of woodland and forest, 

 occupied by the older provinces of Ontario, Quebec, New 

 Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island ; to the 

 west, up to the slopes of the Rocky Mountains, lies a large 

 tract of prairie land, comprising within its limits the province 

 of Manitoba, and the organized districts of Assiniboia, 

 Saskatchewan, and Alberta. 



On the cleared areas of the woodland region, particularly in 

 Ontario and Quebec, farming is the most important industry. 



* The land areas of the several provinces and districts are as follows, the figures 

 representing square miles: — Ontario, 219,650; Quebec, 227,500; Nova Scotia, New 

 Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island, 50,650 ; Manitoba, 64,066 ; British Columbia, 

 including Vancouver, 382,300; North-west Territories, or Districts of Assiniboia, 

 Saskatchewan, and Alberta, 294,280; Keewatin, 267,000; Athabasca, 103,300; 

 unorganized Territories, 859,600; other Districts and Islands, 846,600. 



