Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 4.djvu/858

Rh t76 CANADA of harvesting. But capital is also successfully applied to fanning, and beautiful large stock farms are now entering into rivalry with those of the United States and even of England. The following table shows the extent of holdings, and the subdivision of land : 10 acres and under 40,281 10 ,, to 50 acres 78,877 50 to 100 141,300 100 ,, to 200 82,176 Above 200 25,228 The greater number of occupiers and owners of hold ings of ten acres and under are to be found in Quebec and the Acadian settlements of the maritime provinces, where a continual subdivision goes on among families under the influence of old custom and the operation of the French law of inheritance. In Quebec the old French seigniories established and perpetuated a large class of landed proprietors with their tenant farmers ; and not withstanding the abolition of the seigniorial tenures in 1854, their influence still survives, so that the number of holders of land above 200 acres is greater in Quebec than in any of the other provinces. The climate and other attrac tions of Upper Canada tend to secure to it the largest share of immigration ; and the rapidly increasing quantity of cultivated land in the province of Ontario is at once an evidence and a guarantee of the substantial progress of the country. In 1842 the population of Upper Canada numbered 486,055, with 1,927,816 acres of land under cultivation. In 1852 the population had increased to 952,004, and the land under cultivation to 3,697,724 acres. According to the census of 1871 the total popula tion of Ontario, as it is now called, numbered 1,620,851, with 16,161,676 acres of land in process of improvement. Besides the grand staple of the cereal grains, the Cana dian farmer derives large returns from his crops of hay, clover, and grass seeds, carrots, mangel wurzel, beans, hops, flax, hemp, and tobacco. In 1852 Upper Canada produced 764,476 Hb of tobacco, the greater portion of which was grown along the western shores of Lake Erie, and on the peninsula between that and Lake St Clair, where the soil and climate specially favoured its growth. At the same date Lower Canada produced 488,652 K&amp;gt; ; but in 1871 the returns for the province of Quebec alone amounted to 1,195,345 Ib of tobacco. Hops are cultivated with still greater success ; and flax and hemp are additional sources of profit to the farmer. The value of the hops, flax, and flax seed exported during the year 1874 amounted to $1 61,908. The following tabular statement of the values of some of the chief agricultural products exported during the year 1874, apart from the amounts retained by Canada for home consumption, will suffice to illustrate the increas ing value of this important branch of native industry: the United States $8,680,997, and the remainder was dis tributed as shown here : Great Britain 9,867,047 United States 8,680,997 Wheat bushels 6 ,581,217 8,886,077 B irley Kyc and Oats &amp;gt; 4 ,746,820 4,532,669 Indian Corn 235,864 81,224 Flour barrels 540,317 3,194,672 Meal 53,162 230,820 Flax cwt. 782,054 113,256 Flax: and other Seeds bushels 19 088 12 306 Peas and Beans Hay ,, 1 tons ,807,208 26.725 1,526,689 293,210 Plops Tb 169,726 40,177 Bran cwt. 13,898 27,992 Tobacco. It) 125,844 3,568 Fruit and Vegetables 460,993 19,403,653 France . Belgium Newfoundland British West Indies. . Spanish West Indies. French West Indies.. Danish West Indies. Dutch West Indies... St Pierre Madeira British Guiana St Domingo .. 189,600 92,000 595,909 37,427 29,343 4,490 7,240 1,373 64,164 1,812 15,617 3,123 The total value of the grain and other agricultural pro duce of Canada exported during the year 1874, apart from the produce for home consumption, was $19,590,142, of which Great Britain received to the amount of $9,867,047, Total 19,590,142 But a false estimate of the actual agricultural resources of Canada is apt to be produced by testing them by its exports. Canada is a country of yeoman farmers tilling their own lands and living in abundance on the produce. The requirements for the table of the farm labourer are on a scale consistent with the resources of the country. The home consumption is accordingly great as compared with the number of the population ; and it is therefore impos sible to estimate, even approximately, the total annual value of all kinds of produce resulting from agricultural labour within the Dominion. Minerals. The mineral resources of Canada have as yet been very partially developed. Quebec and Ontario are devoid of coal, though both have access by convenient transport to rich coal-fields in adjoining provinces or states ; but the maritime provinces, Manitoba, the north west territories, and British Columbia are all rich in coal. Other valuable mineral resources are still turned only to the most partial account ; but as the work of the Geological Survey proceeds, new fields are opening up for enterprise every year. The rich silver ores of Lake Superior have already yielded wonderfully valuable results to the miners ; and the neighbouring districts are now being carefully sur veyed. Extensive tracts of gold-bearing quartz are also reported, and Mr Bell, who took the charge of the Geologi cal Survey on Lake Superior in 1872, states that within the basin of the Neepigon, which extends to about 170 miles in length by 80 in breadth, the upper copper-bearing series obtains the greatest development. Distinct belts of rock extend from thence along the line of the lake coasts by Thunder Bay to Font du Lac ; and in one of those, styled the Lake Shebandowan band, the gold-bearing rock is found. Gold-bearing veins are also reported to occur at Cross Lake on the lied River route ; and far beyond the province of Manitoba, a rich copper region has long been known on the Mackenzie Eiver. As railways are extended, and the great project of a Canadian line from the St Lawrence to the Pacific is gradually made an accomplished fact, the resources of the regions traversed by it will be fully disclosed and turned to account. The vicinity of the great coal-fields of Pennsyl vania and Michigan to Lake Erie and Lake Huron, must always give them an advantage in any competition for the supply of Ontario with fuel. But the development of the railway system of the Dominion cannot fail to render its own mineral resources available to a much larger extent, not only for home consumption but for exportation. The Intercolonial Railway has opened up an extensive country to the coal miners of Nova Scotia ; and the like results will follow both in the north-west and in British Columbia, when the great coal-fields of those regions are traversed by roads and railways, and their fertile prairies and rich alluvial valleys are settled by an industrious population. At present Canada both exports and imports coal, though