29. IMMIGRATION. Opportunities for. The Dominion has witnessed within recent i years a great increase of immigration, more especially from the British Isles and the United States, but also from the Scandinavian king doms, France, Belgium and other countries of Europe. Within the past decade the Dominion has received more than 2,000,000 immigrants, nearly all of a most desirable class, and the large majority devoted to agriculture, ready and able to do their part in developing the practically unlimited wealth of Canada's vast grain-growing area, estimated at 171,000,000 acres, of which about 35,000,000 acres are now under cultivation. During the year 1915, 12, 986,400 acres produced wheat, and the entire wheat crop harvested was more than 393,000,000 bushels, almost double the annual importation of wheat for the British Isles.
The cheapness of land, its unparalleled pro ductiveness, the certainty of comfort and inde pendence as the reward of industry and thrift, and the security of life and property under a well-regulated administration, are the chief in ducements which have already attracted hun dreds of thousands of Britons and Americans to the Canadian West, and which are continuing to bring them.
English-speaking settlers from the British Isles and the United States form the much greater part of the new population. Scandina vians, French, Belgians, Russians, Swiss, Ital ians and other nationalities are also repre sented in the arrivals. The Doukhobors, from Russia, have proved an industrious and valu able addition to Canada's population. They are almost exclusively engaged in farming.
The lands offered to settlers by the Cana dian government are situated west of Lake Superior, and to the north of Minnesota, North Dakota and Montana, and east of the Rocky Mountains, in the provinces of Manitoba, Sas katchewan and Alberta. The land is for the most part prairie, and can be secured abso lutely free from timber and stones, if desired, the soil being the very best alluvial black loam, from one to two feet deep, with a clay sub soil. It is just rolling enough to give it good drainage, and in a great many places there is plenty of timber, and in other places it is underlaid with good coal. The land may be secured by homesteading. The entry fee for a homestead of 160 acres is $10, there being no further money consideration. The settler, be fore receiving his patent, must live upon the land three years, a residence of six months in each year being necessary, and he must also do a small amount of cultivation.
An alien that is a person not a British sub ject, may make application for a free- home stead at once on his arrival in Canada, but he must become naturalized, orgive proof of in tention to become naturalized, before he can obtain a patent for the land. A residence of
five years in British Dominions— the last year Canada — is necessary to acquire naturalization. In the meantime the homesteader may reside on, and exercise every right of, possession, save that he may not mortgage or sell the land until he gets his patent or title.
Though there are tracts of forest in the Canadian Northwest, there are localities where the. quantity of building timber and other build ing material is limited, and the government has made provision for such cases. Should a man settle on a quarter section of land void of tim ber, he can, by making application to the Do minion lands agent in the locality, obtain a per mit to cut on government lands free of charge the following: (1) 3,000 lineal feet of building timber, measuring no more than 12 inches at the butt, or 9,250 feet board measure. (2) 400 roofing poles. (3) 2,000 fencing rails and 500 fence posts, seven feet long, and not exceeding five inches in diameter at the small end. (4) 30 cords of firewood. The settler having all these free of charge has only the expense of cutting and hauling them to his homestead, which cannot cost him a great deal. He is also very likely to have the benefit of cheap coal; there are areas of coal in western Can ada of such an extent as to be practically inex haustible. The principal dislricts of western Canada are within easy reach of firewood, while the settlers of Alberta and Saskatchewan are particularly favored, especially along the vari ous streams, at which they may get all the coal they require, very frequently at the cost of handling and hauling it home. If a settler should desire to go into stock raising, and his quarter section of 160 acres should not prove sufficient to furnish pasturage for his stock, he can make application to the land commissioner for a lease of grazing lands at a very low cost.
The public school system is established all through the country, and there are schools in all the organized school districts. There is a ready market for cereals and other produce; the climate is healthful and agreeable.
The aim of the Dominion government is to attract to Canada industrious, intelligent, ener getic settlers with the purpose and ability to do their part in building up a nation imperial in its natural resources and in the extent of its magnificent territory: in the carrying out of this policy the government is meeting with eminent success. See CANADA - POPULATION, RACIAL DISTRIBUTION AND IMMIGRATION.
W. D. Scorr, • Superintendent of Immigration, Ottawa.