Economic Since the beginning of the present century agriculture in Canada has been profundly influenced by immigration and railway construction. The total number of immigrant arrivals in Canada during the 16 years ended 31 March 1916, was 3,099,348, of whom 1,168,292 came from the United Kingdom, 1,095,375 from the United States and 835,681 from all other countries. The largest number of immigrants in a single year was 402,432, who arrived in 1913. Partly dependent upon immi gration and partly stimulating it there has been during the same period an extraordinary,activ ity in railway construction. Two additional transcontinental lines, the National Transcon tinental, constructed by the Dominion govern ment and the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, and the Canadian Northern, have been added to the previously existing line of the Canadian Pacific Railway opened in 1886. Altogether, during the first 16 years of the present century 19,773 miles have been added to the railway systems of Canada, the total mileage of which on 30 June 1916 stood at 37,430.
With a total land area of 1,401,314413 acres, only 109,948,988 acres, or less than 8 per cent, were returned as occupied farm lands at the census of 1911, this area representing an in crease since 1901 of 46,526,650 acres. Of the occupied area in 1911, 48,733,823 acres were re turned as improved and 61,215,165 acres as un improved land. The unimproved occupied land consists of 17,477,526 acres of natural forest, 4,174,270 acres of marsh land, etc., and the remainder of 39,563,369 acres of unbroken prairie or other land that is gradually being brought under the plough. Of the improved area of 48,733,823 acres, field crops occupy 35, 261,338 acres, orchards and nurseries 403,596 acres, vegetables 206,011 acres, vineyards 9,836 acres and small fruits 17,495 acres. The re maining 12,835,547 acres of improved land con sist of pasture, fallow or otherwise uncropped land. In 1911 the total number of occupiers of land was 714,646, an increase of 169,958, or 31 per cent, since the previous census of 1901. About 74 per cent of the holdings in Canada were over 50 acres in extent as compared with 68 per cent in 1901.
Field During the decade 1900 to 1910 the area under field crops increased from 19,763,740 acres to 30,556,168 acres, a ratio of 54.6 per cent. In 1911 field crops oc
cupied 35,261,338 acres, the increase for the 11 years representing over 78 per cent. During the past five years the total area under field crops has continued to be about 35,000,000 acres; but in 1915, under the stimulus of war, the acreage arose to its highest point, viz., 39,140,460 acres. The recent expansion of area has been chiefly in wheat, oats and flax, and is due to the opening up and settlement of the Prairie provinces — the great feature of Cana dian progress since the beginning of the present century. The area under wheat, which was a little over 4,000,000 acres in 1900, increased to over 10,000000 acres in 1914. Similarly, the acreage under oats has practically doubled, and flaxseed which only occupied 23,000 acres in 1900 occupied over 1,000,000 acres in 1914. During the last 30 years the distribution of the principal crops in Canada has undergone con siderable change. In the 19th century the chief wheat-growing province of Canada was Ontario, and in 1890 the wheat acreage of this province was 1,430,532. But with the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1886 the fertile prairies of the West began to be opened up for wheat growing, and in 1890 the wheat area in Manitoba had grown to 896,622 acres from 51,293 acres in 1880. At the close of the cen tury the wheat area of Manitoba was 1,950,200 acres, as against 1,487,633 acres in Ontario. In the first decade of the 20th century wheat growing in Ontario began to decline, while in the West it progressively increased so that in 1910 wheat in Ontario occupied only 870,354 acres, and in 1914 only 834,_ _000 acres. The ter ritories to the West of Manitoba also pro gressed; and since 1905, when the provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta were formed, the three Prairie provinces have become the great wheat-producing area of the Dominion. The following statement showing the area under the principal grain crops in the Prairie prov inces, as compared with the rest of Canada for the year 1915, will make this point clear: Prairie Rest of provinces, Canada.