Our Northern Districts

mM I I\m . Districts \m §§m n EASTERN ALGOMA, m NORTH NIPISSING, RAINY RIVER and mp I the TEMISCAMING SETTLEMENT n ...«•*• •-.-»- 1 Their CLIMATE, SOIL, PRODUCTS, AGRICULTURAL, TIMBER and MINERAL M RESOURCES and CAPABILITIES, together with STATISTICS SHOWING 1 the PROGRESS MADE, and INFORMATION REGARDING the 1 METHODS of ACQUIRING LANDS. P m PREPARED UNDER INSTRUCTIONS FROM Hon. A. S. HARDY, Commissioner of Crown Lands. m TORONTO : Printed by WARWICK BROS. & RUTTER, 68 and 70 FRONT STREET WEST. i 1894. i Purchased CANAt>lANA from the , , Chancellor COLLeCTION Richardson Q\J£^Q Memorial ^ Fund UNIVeKSlTy AT RlNQSTON ONTARIO CANADA \ *MAP OF* Eastern tygon\2i aqd Northern flipissing TOWNSHIPS OPEN FOR SETTLEMENT. EASTERN ALGOMA. NORTHERN NIPISSING. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2013 http://archive.org/details/ournortherndistrOOonta OUR NORTHERN DISTRICTS EASTERN ALGOMA NORTH NIPISSING, RAINY RIVER AND THE TEMISCAMING SETTLEMENT THEIR CLIMATE, SOIL, PRODUCTS, AGRICULTURAL, TIMBER AND MINERAL. RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES, TOGETHER WITH STATISTICS, SHOWING THE PROGRESS MADE, AND INFORMATION REGARDING THE METHODS OF ACQUIRING LANDS. PREPARED UNDER INSTRUCTIONS FROM Hon. A. S. HARDY, Commissioner of Crown Lands. TORONTO: WARWICK BROS. & RUTTER, PRINTERS, 68 and 70 FRONT ST. WEST. 1894. These pages, while applicable in great measure to the whole of the Free special reference to that part the Algoma Grant Territory , are intended to have of District between Sault Ste Marie and Sudbury, to the part of Nipissing District bordering on the Canadian Pacific Raikvay, to the Temiscaming Settlement, and to the Rainy River District. EASTERN ALGOMA AND NORTH NIPISSING It is the object of this pamphlet to render better known the capabilities of those parts of our undeveloped lands which for brevity's sake we are accustomed to call our Northern Districts, —namely, Eastern Algoma, North Nipissing and the Rainy River country. The statements hereafter made are drawn principally from official sources, or other accurate information, and in most cases the authority is cited. Great pains have been taken in order that an entirely trust- worthy account of the country may be given. And from the testimony adduced and the arguments legitimately based thereon, the reader can scarcely avoid arriving at the following conclusions : 1. That Northern Ontario is the best field now open for settlement by persons of small capital willing and able to work for themselves. 2. That the abundance of well paid employment outside of agriculture renders it easy for a settler to establish himself by his own labor on his own land. Not only are there good wages to be earned in the winter in the lumber camps and elsewhere, but the settler has abundant opportunity to realize ready money all the year round by working on his own account at such industries as Cutting and hauling pulpwood and cordwood. Railway ties, posts and telegraph poles. Tanbark. Getting out pine logs under contract for lumbermen. Contracting for government roads, bridges, etc. 3. That independence can be achieved there by a poor man sooner than the same position can be attained elsewhere. 4. That whether for dairying, stockraising or general agriculture the country presents a combination of advantages that are presented in few localities. 5. That there is as great a range and variety of products there as anywhere. 6. That in yield per acre of the principal crops the Northern Ontario lands actually excel the most fertile states of the American Union. 7. That the advantages of having cheap fuel and building material more than counterbalance the disadvantage of having to clear the land. 8. That the country is near to the great markets of the world and has water communications unrivalled, and railway advantages such as no other country ever possessed in its early days. Hun : 9. That the climate is temperate when compared with that of many thickly inhabited parts of the new and old world. 10. That there is an entire absence of fever and ague, there is no malarial disease whatever, and in fact there is no healthier country under the sun. 11. That our Northern Districts are capable of maintaining hundreds of thousands of people in agriculture, mining, manufacturing and general industries 12. That already a surprising development has ta^en place. 13. And that our Northern Districts possess all the advantages and qualities necessary to render them attractive to, and suit them for the home of the most progressive races, namely Cheapness of land. Fertility of soil. It is a first-class live stock and dairy country. Ability to produce all the crops of the temperate zone. Incalculable forest wealth. Variety of industries. Winter employment. Good wages for labor. Immense mineral resources. Cheap building material. Fuel for the cutting. Fruit for the picking. Fine fisheries. Game plentiful. Great range of products. Water communication. Good railway accommodation. Religious and educational advantages. A healthy country. Pure and plentiful water. Regular rainfall. Temperateness of climate. Local markets. Nearness to foreign markets. Many causes are combining to direct renewed attention to the forest lands of Northern Ontario as a field for settlement. Chief among these causes are the following : The merits of the lands themselves as proved by the experience of those who have settled upon them. The almost complete absorption of the homestead lands of the United States. There is now no agricultural land to be had in the United States, except on payment of all it is worth or more. There are now no large tracts of fertile land anywhere in that country which have not fallen into the possession of railroads, alien landowners, land companies, ^and syndicates or other corporations who hold it for speculative purposes. The dealings of purchasers with these companies and corporations have been extremel}7 unsatisfactory to the purchasers. Many thousands of their purchasers have failed in their attempts to pay oft mortgages given as part payment for their farms and have lost all their substance as well as the most valuable part of their lives. Experience has shown there is a limit to the distance from the seaboard at which exportable crops, or crops whose price is 3ettled in competition with foreign products, can be profitably raised —and this limit has been passed. A very large proportion of the western plains of the United States, which tofore have been supposed to possess inexhaustible fertility are found by experience to be so cursed with drouth as to render agriculture too precarious a calling. Contemporaneously with the discovery of these facts, there has occurred, from cause or causes which are as yet somewhat obscure, a world wide fall in the prices of agricultural produce, of itself sufficient seriously to embarrass all pro- ducers whose farms lie beyond the limit from which their crops can be cheaply transported to the places of consumption. And most important of all it is clear that there has set in a reaction from that rush to the cities which has characterized the last fifteen years. It now looks probable that many of the cities on the continent will have difficulty in maintaining their own populations, and will not for some time to come be able to absorb the surplus population produced by the country districts, to say nothing of the foreign immigration. From the- above, among many other causes, it has come to pass that thousands of industrious, persevering and intelligent men have had it borne in upon them that there is no longer any hope in their present situation. Many have arrived at the conclusion that to go upon the land is the only resource that promises them at once safe present employment for their little savings and the prospect of an independent subsistence for the future. The land being the only visible resource of many thousands of unemployed artisans, struggling traders and starving laborers, and also for the immense yearly output of thrifty farm hands and farmers' sons who cannot possibly find employment in the older settled districts, the question arises, Where is the land to be found ? It must be cheap land for such persons as have been mentioned possess little or no capital. It is a mere aggravation of their anxieties to place before them beautifully printed and illustrated pamphlets showing a well-fed farmer driving a S200 team hitched to a $100 reaper through 303 acres of wheat, while his si,000 barn and $2,000 house smile upon him in the near distance. That is all very well for the skilled farmer with capital. But common sense protests that it requires much capital and a high degree of knowledge to enable one to enter into farming of that class. What is wanted is land that can be had for the performance of settlement duties or for little more than that ; land on which a man possessing good health. strong arms and a resolute heart can go with only a rudimentary knowledge of agriculture, and from which, as can be seen from examples around him, not only a mere living but a competence can be wrested ; land which is not so distant from market that the crops grown on it are valueless to the grower ; and in a district >ssino- all the necessaries and comforts of civilization. AGRICULTURAL CAPABILITIES OF OUR NORTHERN DISTRICTS. At our own doors in the districts of Algoma and Nipissing we have a vast tract of land which possesses all the qualities and advantages just described as necessary. Not only do the lands of Algoma and Nipissing comprise millions of acres in extent, but they are easy of access, cheap, and a very large proportion of them are of remarkable fertility. As will be shown hereafter and proved by the official records of actual achievements, the lands in these districts will yield in abundance almost every article of agricultural produce proper to the temperate zone.

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