748 
Tlie Future of Agrictdtural Gompetitioni 
Ontario the area of the crop was less in 1890 than in 1883 by 
about 350,000 acres, and it is known to have been greatly dimin- 
ished in Quebec and the Maritime Provinces also. In 1891 about 
41,000 acres of the lost acreage were recovered. There is no 
doubt whatever that the farmers of Ontario and other parts of 
Canada have suffered severely from competition. The Toronto 
Globe recently stated that the value of the farm lands of Ontario 
had been depreciated 25 per cent. Probably this is an ex- 
aggeration ; but the official records of value, according to assess- 
ment, show a serious decline. In an article published on 
October 28, 1891, the Glohe says: — "The position of a large 
number of farmers, almost the entire class of renters, had become 
so critical, because of short crops and low prices, that nothing 
but this year's good harvest has saved many of them from 
the sheriff. For this they may give thanks. But their thanks- 
giving can be for little more than that there has not come upon 
them a finishing disaster. They could not have lived through 
another bad year." Last year, it is added, many of the 
farmers did not pay a dollar of rent. " The landowners and 
the loan companies will get about all the profit there is in the 
harvest. They receive their rents and interest, while the 
farmers have only the permission to continue for another year 
their untiring work and grinding economy." It is admitted 
that the stress of past years has not borne so heavily upon 
farmers who own land free of encumbrance ; but these are said 
to be much in the minority. The renting of land has become 
much more common than it was, and is the prevailing system in 
some large districts, owing to the exodus of young men and the 
operation of the farm mortgage. There are, of course, farmera 
in Ontario, ^Manitoba, and other parts of Canada, who have held 
their own and even saved money during the bad times, just as 
there are in this country ; but all evidence shows that they are 
the minority. The great Bell farm, from which Ave were told a 
few years back that wheat could be laid down in Liverpool with 
profit at 22.S. a quarter, has gone the way of nearly a|l other 
" Mammoth " farms in Canada or the United States, and is now 
cut up into small holdings. British farmers have nothing to 
fear from Canadian competition in wheat production. They can 
undersell the farmers in the old provinces of Canada in British 
markets, and in Manitoba and the North-west growers are and 
always will be handicapped by the almost regular occurrence of 
frost when their wheat is in its milky stage, and so in a condi- 
tion to be spoilt for European markets. 
In Australasia there was a great addition to the wheat area 
in the decade ending with 1880, and a smaller but still con- 
