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Commission of Conservation
Constituted under "The Conservation Act," 8-9 Edward VII, Chap. 27, 1909, mnd
•mending Acts, 9-10 Edward VII, Chap. 42, 1910, and 3-4
George V, Chap. 12, 191 S.
Chairman:
Sir Clifford Sifton, K.C.M.G.
Members:
Dr. Howard Murray, Dalhousie University, Halifax, N.S.
Dr. Cecil C. Jones, Chancellor, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, N.B.
Mr. William B. Snowball, Chatham, N.B.
Hon. Henri S. Beland, M.D., M.P., St. Joseph de-Beauce, Que.
Dr. Frank D. Adams, Dean, Faculty of Applied Science, McGill University,
Montreal, Que. Mgr. Charles P. Choquette, St. Hyacinthe, Que., Professor, Seminary of
St. Hyacinthe and Member of Faculty, Laval University. Mr. Edward Gohier, St. Laurent, Que. Dr. James W. Robertson, C.M.G., Ottawa, Ont. Hon. Senator William Cameron Edwards, Ottawa, Ont. Mr. Charles A. McCool, Pembroke, Ont. Sir Edmund B. Osler, M.P., Toronto, Ont.
Mr. John F. Mackay, Business Manager, The Globe, Toronto, Ont. Dr. B. E. Fernow, Dean, Faculty of Forestry, University of Toronto, Toronto,
Ont. Dr. George Bryce, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Man. Dr. William J. Rutherford, Member of Faculty, University of Saskatchewan,
Saskatoon, Sask. Dr. Henry M. Tory, President, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alta. Mr. John Pease Babcock, Victoria, B.C.
Members ex-officio :
Hon. Martin Burrell, Minister of Agriculture, Ottawa.
Hon. William J. Roche, Minister of the Interior, Ottawa.
Hon. E. L. Patenaude, Minister of Mines, Ottawa.
Hon. Aubin E. Arsenault, Premier, Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown P.E.I.
Hon. Orlando T. Daniels, Attorney-General, Nova Scotia.
Hon. E. a. Smith, Minister of Lands and Mines, New Brunswick.
Hon. Jules Allard, Minister of Lands and Forests, Quebec.
Hon. G. H. Ferguson, Minister of Lands, Forests and Mines, Ontario.
Hon. a. B. Hudson, Attorney-General, Manitoba.
Hon. George W. Brown, Regina, Saskatchewan.
Hon. Arthur L. Sifton, Premier, Minister of Railways and Telephones, Al- berta.
Hon. T. D. Pattullo, Minister of Lands, British Columbia.
Assistant to Chairman, Deputy Head: Mr. James White.
H9
Commission of Conservation Canada
RURAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT
A Study of Rural Conditions and Problems in Canada
BY
THOMAS ADAMS
Town Planning Adviser, Commission of Conservation.
Past-President of the Town Planning Institute of Great Britain; Fellow of the
Surveyors' Institution; Member of the Board of Governors of the American
City Planning Institute. Formerly — Town Planning Inspector to
the Local Government Board of England and Wales;
Secretary and Manager of Letchworth Garden City.
?S5ont
an U
OTTAWA, 1917 (^ NOV 2 ?^9P ^
-»■< If** T"
To His Excellency, Victor Christian William, Duke of Devon- shire, Marquis of Hartington, Earl of Devonshire, Earl OF Burlington, Baron Cavendish of Hardwicke, Baron Cavendish of Keighley, K.G., P.C., G.C.M.G., G.C.V.O., ETC., ETC., Governor General of Canada.
May it Please Your Excellency :
The undersigned has the honour to lay before Your Excellency the attached report on "Rural Planning and Development" in Canada, by Thomas Adams, Town Planning Adviser to the Commission of Conservation.
Respectfully submitted
CLIFFORD SIFTON
Chairman Ottawa, August 31, 1917
Ottawa, Canada, August 30, 1917
Sir:
I beg to submit herewith a report on the planning and develop- ment of land in Canada, by Thomas Adams, Town Planning Adviser to the Commission. The report deals with the sociai con- ditions and tendencies in rural areas and the prevailing methods of land settlement and development. It indicates the rural problems which are in need of solution in order to secure the proper de- velopment and economic use of land for purposes of efficiency, health, convenience and amenity; and refers to a number of incidental questions, such as the employment and settlement of returned soldiers. It also contains a general outline of proposals and some recommendations as to the first steps that should be taken to secure a solution of the problems dealt with.
The intention is to follow this report by two other reports, the second of the series dealing with the problems of urban planning and development in Canada, and the third with the detailed consideration of the solutions of both rural and urban problems and with the legis- lative and administrative reforms needed in connection with the plan- ning and development of land.
Respectfully submitted
JAMES WHITE
Assistant to Chairman
Sir Clifford Sifton, K.C.M.G. Chairman
Commission of Conservation
CONTENTS
PAGE
Chapter I. Introductory ^ 1
Chapter II. Rural Population and Production in Can- ada 15
Chapter III. Present Systems of Surveying and Plan- ning Land in Rural Areas 45
Chapter IV. Rural Transportation and Distribution
— Railways and Highways 72
Chapter V. Rural Problems that Arise in Connection
WITH Land Development 102
Chapter VI. Organization of Rural Life and Rural
Industries 142
Chapter VII. Government Policies and Land Develop- ment 177
Chapter VIII. Returned Soldiers and Land Settlement.... 207
Chapter IX. Provincial Planning and Development
Legislation. 217
Chapter X. Outline of Proposals and General Con- clusions.... 236
Appendices —
A. Existing Methods of Making Surveys and Dividing
Rural Lands. By H. L. Seymour, D.L.S., O.L.S., Etc. 253
B. Colonization Operations of the Canadian Pacific
Railway Company. By Allan Cameron, General Superintendent of Lands, Can. Pac. Ry. Co 261
C. The Manufacture of Munitions in Canada as a Per-
manent Asset to Canadian Industry. By Colonel David Carnegie, Member and Ordnance Adviser, Imperial Munitions Board 263
D. Economic Loss Caused by Neglect of Public Health.
By Dr. Chas. J. Hastings, M.D.,L.R.C.P.I., Toronto 266
E. Land Settlement and After-war Employment Prob-
lems. By J. H. T. Falk, Secretary Social Welfare Commission, Winnipeg.... 268
FIGURES
FACING NUMBER PAGE
1. Percentage of Rural and Urban Population in 1911 20
2. Land Conditions in Prairie Provinces 21
3. Workers in Industries in Canada, 1901-1911 42
4. Growth of Population in Small Cities, Towns, and
Rural Districts Compared with Growth in Larger
Cities 43
5. Increase of Population in Suburban Zones in the
United States 43
6. Anomalies of Rectangular System of Farm Divisions 50
7. Clute, District of Sudbury, Ont., showing Road
Reservations _ 51
8. Division of Township in Railway Belt, showing
Allotment to Railway Company, Hudson's Bay
Company and Schools 54
9. Sir William Van Horne's Scheme for Dividing a
Township of 36 Sq. Miles 54
11. Plan of Community Scheme in Northern Ontario 55
12. Birch River Rural Community Settlement (Greater
Winnipeg Water District) 58
13. Plan of Utopian Community Centre 59
14. Plan for Agricultural Settlement 62
15. do do 63
16. Plan of Chaplin, Sask _ 64
17. TiMGAD, Ancient Rectangular Plan, A.D. 100 65
18. Lille, Irregular Plan of Medieval Period 65
19. Preliminary Plan of Proposed New Town — . 66
20. Rectangular Plan of Area included in Fig. 19 67
20a. Comparative Profiles showing Gradients of Main
Street 67
21. Map of the City of Hereford, Eng 66
22. Section of Ordnance Map of Edinburgh, Scotland 67
23. Portion of a Plan of Greenfield Park, Que 68
24. Amos Village, Que 69
FIGURES — Continued
FACING NUMBER PAGB
25. Township Settlement Plan Adapted to the Topo-
graphy 70
26. Sunlight Curves in Streets 71
27. Diagram of Traffic Accumulation 80
28. Diagram of Traffic Accumulation 81
29. Alternative Plans of Sub-Divisions 96
30. Alternative Plans of Sub-Divisions 97
31. Variation of Road Widths and Sections to Suit
Traffic 100
32. Plan of Madge Lake, Sask., showing Curved Streets 101
33. Plan of Woodlands Mining Village 128
34. Plan of Part of Iroquois Falls, Ont 129
35. Map of Letchworth Garden City, Eng 170
36. Plan of Development of Knebworth, Eng 171
37. Plan of Woolwich Arsenal Housing Scheme, Kent, Eng. 204
38. Plans of Houses in Woolwich Arsenal Housing
Scheme, Kent, Eng 205
39. Map of Ruislip-Northwood Town Planning Area.Eng. 218
40. Map of Greater London 219
41. Sections of Road Widths — Quinton Scheme 220
42. Map of St. John Town Planning Area, St. John, N.B. 221
FIGURES IN APPENDIX A
A. Plan of Part of Township of Augusta, Ont 254
B. " Township of Figuery, Que 254
C. " Township of Fournier, Ont 255
D. " Township 62, Range 20, Alberta 258
E. Hexagonal Plan 259
PLATES
Plate No. Facing Page
I. Richmond, Que., Blend of Country and Town
Frontispiece
II. Overcrowding 16
Isolation 16
III. The Beginning. Homestead in Trent Watershed . . 26 The End, Abandoned Farm in Trent Watershed. , 26
IV. Demorestville, Ont 34
Field of Celery on an Ontario Farm 34
V. Bolton Pass, Que. Typical Topographical Con- ditions 48
VI. Plan of Philadelphia 64
VII. Ugly and Dangerous Slum Conditions Adjoining
A Railway 74
Boulevard Paralleling a Railway 74
VIII. Roads with Easy Curvfs 84
IX. Wilson Ave., St. Thomas, Ont 92
Street in Roland Park, Baltimore, Md 92
X. Planning Followed by Bad Development 98
XI. Contrast of Suburban Conditions 108
XII. Results of Injurious Speculation 112
XIII. Fire and Disease Trap, Endangering Life and.
Property 134
Remains of Settler's Home. After Forest Fire . . . 136
XIV. Woodstock, N.B. Cultivation of Suburban Land 166 XV. A Canadian Farm 172
XVI. Fruit Ranch, Vernon, B.C 188
Maitland Dairy Farm, Antigonish, N.S 188
XVII. Conditions Resulting from Lack of Control of
Development 196
XVIII. Prairie Gardens. Indian Head, Sask 204
XIX. Public Buildings, Charlottetown, P.E.I 226
Residential Development at Caulfield, B.C 226
XX. Public Park, Stratford, Ont 232
MAPS
No. I. Ottawa and Environs 110
No. II. Toronto and Environs 116
No. III. Watershed Sub-divisions of Canada 242
RURAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT IN CANADA
CHAPTER I
Introductory
Old problems and a new perspective. Social problems that need empha- sis. Conservation and development. Readjustment after the war.- Kind of results to be aimed at. Necessity for planning for the purpose of proper development. British and Canadian condi- tions. Land settlement in Canada. The object of production.
Old Problems and a New Perspective
A FTER the great war, European nations will need restoration
yrA and re-construction, but Canada will need conservation and
■^ development. There never was a greater opportunity for wise
statesmanship — for the exercise of prescience and sound judgment
by the men who lead in national affairs.
The period of pioneer achievement is not over in Canada, but it has entered upon a new phase, mainly because we see things in a dif- ferent light after the crowded experience of recent years. We recog- nize that, in the future, science and clean government must march side by side with enterprise and energy in building up national and indi- vidual prosperity. The problems we have to solve are old but our perspective is new.
We are at the opening of a new era of social construction and national expansion, and the question is not whether we will grow but how we will grow. The mistakes of the past must be ignored, except as a guide for the future. On some things, it is possible, we have spent too much of our wealth as a nation, and on other things we have spent too little. Those things on which we have spent too much are easy to criticize, because we see them and can count the cost; those thmgs on which we have spent too little may have caused greater losses, but they are not so apparent. Economic loss may be greater as a result of leaving some things undone than as a result o f doing other things extravagantly. It is not certain that we would
a COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
have gained by being less spendthrift in some directions, for it does not follow that we would have been more enterprising in others.
The war, and a combination of circumstances surrounding it, has brought new ideas to our minds, and none more vividly than this — that the strength of a nation depends neither on the physical, intellectual and moral character of its citizens, nor on the stability and freedom of its institutions, nor on the efficiency of its organiza- tion, but on the existence of all of these things.
We share the growing consciousness, which is everywhere appar- ent, that national prosperity depends on the character, stability, freedom and efficiency of the human resources of a nation, rather than on the amount of its exports or imports, or the gold it may have to its credit at a given time.* For lack of that consciousness in the past we have placed the sanctity of property on a higher level than human life and civic welfare. In that matter democratic nations are not the least blameworthy, for they are prone to exalt individual liberty above social justice, and to treat liberty as an end in itself, instead of as a means to attain the end of equal opportunity for all its citizens. t
The self-styled practical man, who has lacked ideals and vision in his outlook on life — and prided himself on the fact — has been perhaps the most potent factor in building up the organization and system in peace which has in part caused this war and been dis- credited by this war. To-day the same man is claiming that the loss of material wealth in the war will be small as compared with the strength of soul we will gain as a result. Whatever be the truth as regards the claim, we have the important fact that the "man in the street" and the "man in the trench" have undergone a change of attitude that will have its effect in profoundly altering the course of history in the next generation. It is certain that that change will result in demands for more justice in our human relations, more efficient organization, more scientific training and higher ethica 1
• While the conservation of natural resources and the promotion of industries are important and the development of trade has possibilities of benefit, the conser- vation of life and ability in the individual workers is supreme. ^ Next to that comes the provision of conservation of opportunity for satisfactory employment. — Report of Royal Commission on Industrial Training and Technical Education.
t There is nothing more fatal to a people than that it should narrow its vision to the material needs of the hour. National ideals without imagination are but as the thistles of the wilderness, fit neither for food nor fuel. A nation that depends upon them must perish. We shall need, at the end of the war, better workshops, but we shall also need more than ever every institution that will exalt the vision of the people above and beyond the workshop and the counting-house. We shall need every national tradition that will remind them that men cannot live by bread alone. — The Right Hon. Lloyd George.
RURAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT 3
standards in public affairs, than have hitherto prevailed. We have indications that the tendency of governing bodies in Canada is to give a lead to human activity along these lines, and we may be sure that, in so far as government policies fail to recognize the growing sentiment in favour of scientific methods, as opposed to the hap- hazard methods of the past, they will fail in result.
Rural Problems that Need Emphasis
Broadly speaking, we require to lay emphasis on the following needs as a means of conserving human and natural resources in con- nection with any policy inaugurated in the future :
(1) The planning and development of land by methods which will secure health, amenity, convenience and efficiency, and the rejection of those methods that lead to injurious speculation.
(2) The promotion of scientific training, improved educational facilities and means of social intercourse.
(3) The establishment of an efficient government organization and improved facilities for securing co-operation, rural credit, and development of rural industries.
We have to deal primarily with the first of these needs, and only incidentally and partially with the other two — but all of them are inter- dependent and cannot be separated in any sound scheme for improving rural conditions.
Conservation and Development
It is perhaps necessary to explain briefly why such matters, as are dealt with in this report, are regarded as problems of conservation. Briefly, the answer may be given that the land question, and all ques- tions of conservation of natural resources, are fundamental questions, because they have to do with life. "The final aim of all effort, whe- ther individual or social, is life itself, its preservation and increase in quantity or quality or both."* We have to ask ourselves whether the rural policy in Canada in the past has had conservation and de- velopment of life as its final aim. Conservation means economy and development at the same time. To conserve the forests means to prevent waste — for without that prevention there cannot be economy — ^and, simultaneously, to develop new growth. To conserve land resources means to prevent deterioration of the productive uses of the land that has already been equipped and improved, and simul- taneously to develop more intensive use of such land, as well as to
• The Land and the People. — Times Series
4 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
open up and improve new lands. To conserve human resources means to increase the quantity and quality of human activity that can be appHed to production; to lessen social evils and injury to health under established conditions — a matter of economy — and simul- taneously to develop conditions in the future which will remove the causes of such evils, a matter of still greater economy. Hence to conserve human and natural resources means not only to prevent waste in what we have but also to plan and develop for future growth. Considered in that sense nearly every social problem -in Canada Is a problem of conservation.
Out of the total area of 2,306,502,153 acres of land in Canada, it is computed that 358,162,190 acres of land are capable of being used for productive purposes.* The population of the Dominion in 1911 was 7,206,643, or 1 -9 persons to each square mile of territory. We have 35,582 miles of railway, or about one mile to every 200 persons, pro- viding means of distribution by railway in advance of the needs of commerce. The natural resources may be said to be unlimited in extent, subject to proper conservation and development; and the means of distribution by main railways may be regarded as capable of no limitation in meeting demands for many years to come. But, while there is practically an unlimited quantity of natural resources, and of railways to distribute them, we are limited in the economic use to which we can put them. Wealth is produced not from the existence of natural resources but from the conversion of these resources into some form for human use. Canada is seriously limited in actual resources by the extent to which it lacks sufficient population to apply the human activity necessary to adequately use and distribute its resources. Hence there is nothing so vital in the interests of production in Canada as to conserve and develop human life — not merely to conserve the phy- sical qualities, but also to develop the intellectual qualities.
We have, perhaps, made the error that all that matters as re- gards population is increase in quantity. But productivity depends on quality as well as on quantity of human material — on intelligence and organization as well as on physique. If, by increase of popula- tion, we can secure a higher level of prosperity per capita we should strive for that increase; if a lower level of prosperity we should strive against it. History shows that it is possible for a population to grow in a country of ample resources and yet to diminish in productivity and prosperity as it grows. With improved methods and organiza-
Censusfor 1911, Vol. IV, p. 7
RURAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT 5
tion, the average level of prosperity in Ireland is probably greater today than ever in its history, notwithstanding its depleted popula- tion. Notwithstanding the withdrawal of a large proportion of the productive workers of Great Britain from peaceful industries during the past three years, the volume of exports from that country appears to have greatly increased during that period.* Conservation of life, so far as it implies the development of the qualities of efficiency and of the capacity to make the best economic use of the resources on the part of the people, counts most largely in increasing production. There was a period in the history of England when improved methods alone resulted in enormously developing natural resources. Accord- ing to the census of 1851, the intelligence and capital devoted to the improvement of landed estates and farm stock, the formation of agricultural societies, the adoption of new processes, the drainage of marshes, the introduction of machinery, etc., and the impulse given to agricultural science in the middle of the 19th century, caused a great increase in production and population.
Whether such improvements are a cause or an effect of increase in population the country benefits, but when an increase takes place without improvements and without proper development and organ- ization, the increase may be injurious. Even on the basis of its present population, if Canada could retain its natural increase and properly safeguard the health of its citizens, and if it could develop its educational system and keep at home those whom it educated, it would soon enormously increase in wealth.
But do we, as a nation, pay sufficient regard to the value of pro- moting healthy living conditions, developing skill and conserving our educational resources? Are the rural and urban conditions of Canada such as to provide the most ample protection possible of the most valuable asset of the country — healthy and active human life? In face of the fact that labout is so limited in proportion to the natural resources at its command, is the organization of labour and of the means of production, capable of improvement? Is the system of planning and developing land, and of utilizing science and expert knowledge, such as to secure the greatest industrial efficiency, and the fullest opportunity for obtaining healthy conditions, amenity, and
* With millions of men called to the colours, British exports in 1916 were valued at 507 millions, as compared with 525 millions in 1913, the last full year of peace. It is true that values have risen enormously and that the figures of 1916 do not represent anything like the same quantity of goods. But the new figures do not include the huge quantities of supplies sent wherever the British army is fighting. On the balance we have probably produced more goods than in the last year of peace. — Westminster Gazette, Jan'y 8, 1917.
6 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
convenience for the inhabitants? We need a national stocktaking to enable adequate answers to be given to these questions, but suf- ficient is known to justify the attempt which is made in this report to deal with them in a preliminary way.
Re-adjustment after the War
In addition to the question of conservation as a permanent prob- lem, we have the transitory problems of re-adjustment and reorganiza- tion that will have to be faced in Canada at the close of the war. In Europe, these problems are only less important and grave than those of the war itself; in Canada they can be made of secondary import- ance if we proceed at once to work out a constructive policy of rural and urban development. We will have new questions to deal with, like that of reinstating the returned soldiers into the social and industrial life of the community and providing for the maimed. We will also have old questions which are the outcome of the defective organization and unhealthy speculation that existed before the war, questions which, to a large extent, have been saved from coming to a head by reason of the activities and public expenditures caused by the war itself. In the war we have been made to see that even military strength must rest, in the final analysis, on a strong civil and econo- mic foundation; how much more then must this be the case with in- dustrial strength. A comparatively small number — 7 per cent — of our citizens are likely to be engaged in the direct work of warfare. The able bodied citizens among the other 93 per cent are assisting the nation in proportion as they are engaged in the task of production, or in that of preparation and organization for times of peace, or in providing healthy living conditions and education for the young who will form the source of human activity for the future. During the war, and after, a great majority of the citizens of the country must continue to live in their well-administered or mal-administered towns, villages, and rural districts; must pursue their daily tasks; must wor- ship their domestic gods in their palaces or slums; must see their chil- dren grow in strength or in weakness, and must continue to look into the future in hope or in despair. And the country will grow in wealth and prosperity in proportion as the human activities of the great body of the citizens are conserved and properly directed.
Kind of Results to be Aimed at
In Canada we seem to have suffered, not so much from lack of organization as from lack of scientific methods applied to organiza- tion as a means of making the most of our limited human activities.
RURAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT 7
The necessarily crude methods of the pioneer stage of development and civilization still prevail in many phases of government. Getting results still counts more with some men than getting the right results m the most efficient and economic way. We lay out towns and town- ships, construct buildings, roads and bridges, and colonize land with- out proper development schemes, on the theory that get- ting things done quickly is more important than getting things done eflficiently and well. This theory of going blindly for results, on the principle of "hustling," is the refuge of the unscientific and unimagin- ative mind that is impatient of expert advice or plans, because they are presumed to waste time in preparation which ought to be given to constructive work.
Necessity for Planning for Purposes of Proper Development Yet, of all the constructive work that is done in peace or war, there is none that counts more in obtaining good results than the planning and preparation that goes before the actual performance. To those who hold fast to the theories that nothing is practical that has not been tried by experience, that immediately tangible results must be obtained whatever the outcome, that preliminary financial success must be secured whatever the ultimate effect, it is possible that many of the lessons of recent years will be lost, and that sound schemes will be dismissed as visionary and impracticable. It is hoped that the theories advanced and the suggestions made in this report are both visionary and practicable, for there is no greater heresy than that which regards these two elements as necessarily opposed to one another. It is true statesmanship to look into the future and plan for the future in the light of experience gained from the past, and there are signs that Canada is not lacking in that statesmanship, and that suggestions which are put forward to improve conditions will not be despised because they involve the exercise of some imagi- nation. The main consideration to be borne in mind in this regard is that the planning of territory shall not be an end in itself, but only a means by which the end is to be achieved. That end shall be the proper development of land for the purpose of securing the best re- sults from the application of human activity to natural resources.
British and Canadian Conditions
Broadly speaking, the land question is at the root of all social
problems, both in rural and in urban territory. It is so in Great
Britain, and it is so in Canada. In a recent article T. P. O'Connor,
M.P., writing of the present situation in England, describes the pro-
• COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
bable change of outlook which will occur after the war in regard to the land question. He sums up the situation by saying that they have in England the evidences of a "land revolution as already an effect of the war." He quotes Lord NorthclifTe as a witness to what he calls the dawn of a new era, as follows : —
Tommy Wants His Land. — In one of the chapters he (Lord Northcliffe) uses these remarkable words, talking of the conversa- tion he had with the Tommies. The speaker in this instance had been a gamekeeper and a Tory when he was in civil life; but this is what he said :
"The men in the dug-outs talk of a good many subjects, but there is one on which they are all agreed. That is the land question. They are not going back as labourers, or as tenants, but as owners. Lots of them have used their eyes and learned much about small farming here."
And this is what another Tommy said :
"Many will go to Canada, some to Australia, I dare say; but I am one of those who mean to have a little bit of ' blighty ' for myself. We see enough in France to know that a man and his family can man- age a bit of land for themselves and live well on it."
The remarkable effects of the system of peasant proprietorship in France, which had impressed this "Tommy," are referred to in a later chapter, which goes to show that the success of that system is due as much to the rural industries and social opportunities in the rural districts of France as to the fact of ownership. It is possible that "Tommy" ascribed to mere ownership advantages which did not belong to it, although they accompany it. Ownership can be obtained in Canada as well as in France, but, in this country of wide spaces, and with the markets and social facilities so far distant from the farmer, more than mere ownership is needed. If a successful system of peasant ownership is set up in Britain after the war, and all signs point to this being achieved, the chances of securing British immigrants to Canada will lessen in proportion as Canada does not seek to provide facilities for proper planning, for co-operation, for marketing, and social intercourse.
In Great Britain the mistake which has been made in the past has been that the user of the land has not been sufficiently encouraged to own it or to improve it; he has lacked security of tenure and scope to make the most of his own improvements. We have drawn large numbers of British farmers and labourers to Canada by offering free homesteads, and this has, till recently, persuaded many to migrate to this country who were attracted by getting something which was not available at home. But in course of time the farmer has recog-
RURAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT f
nized that ownership is not everything, and that he has only ex- changed a condition of one form of servitude for another.
Improved land in Great Britain can be rented at a sum which represents nothing more than a reasonable interest on the cost of improvements made by the owner. The writer has had personal experience in Scotland as a farmer, and spent ten years managing, inspecting and valuing rural land in England on behalf of large owners and purchasers. In 1908 he surveyed the rural conditions of three counties for the Board of Agriculture. That experience proved that bare agricultural land frequently produced no revenue to the owner. Apart, therefore, from the "magic of property," which, it is agreed, has a great value, farms can be had as cheaply in Britain as in Canada.
The British landowner has recognized that he can only keep his tenants by helping them to obtain good roads, social opportunities and cheap money, and by encouraging co-operation and improving the methods of husbandry. Moreover, he has acted as a partner with the far- mer, in keeping up the productive quality of the soil by requiring proper crop rotation, in getting facilities for cheap transportation, and in ob- taining government assistance to keep up a high quality of stock. In areas available for new settlers, the Canadian farmer gets ownership, but he loses other advantages which he regarded too cheaply while he had them. To make farm settlement in this country successful, therefore, we must not only give opportunities to obtain ownership, but the facilities and social conditions which go with tenancy in other countries. Thus, ownership will become an addition to the attractions which are available in these other countries, and not, as at present, an alternative.
It is as important to Great Britain as it is to Canada that more men and women of British blood, and possessing the ideals and cour- age of British citizens, should be attracted to Canada at the close of the war. It is important to Britain because her outlook in regard to food supply, and in regard to other matters connected with the future destiny of the British Empire, cannot be circumscribed within the narrow limits of the British Isles. Whatever Great Britain may do to improve agricultural development and to make herself more independent of foreign supplies of food it is only in a limited degree that she can artificially promote and carry out that improvement; and owing to the limited area of her land resources she must look more and more to her overseas Dominions for increased production.
It is in the direction of more intensive cultivation and more scientific production of dairy food, rather than an increased acreage of wheat, that there is most hope of building up agricultural develop-
10 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
ment and a sound land policy in Britain, and for reducing importations from foreign countries without lessening demands on the overseas Dominions.
There can be no greater loyalty to Great Britain than that of persuading her to send of her best to build up Greater Britain, In the past it is probably true that the British people have not done jus- tice to Canada, and few of them know or appreciate what Canada stands for in the Empire. They have sent too few of their fittest and best educated citizens to help in building up this country. Surely when the war is over there must be a stronger and more united effort made, both by Britain and Canada, to look more on each other as integral parts of a great whole, in which no part can benefit to the injury of the other, and no part be injured to the benefit of the other. All parts of the Empire must unite in a scheme of things in which there will be co-operation with independence; in which there will be a blending of ideals and ideas, and an interchange of citizenship. Why should there not be a greater interchange of population between Canada and Great Britain? Why should the university trained men of both countries not come and go and find a welcome in their diver- sified fields of labour? Perhaps Britain has revealed in connection with the war a strength and a power which Canadians who have never closely studied her institutions and her social conditions, scarcely realized as possible. Perhaps Canada has revealed resour- ces and potency little dreamt of in Britain. Britain has had a great quality of keeping her most skilled and able men at home, and those who have gone abroad have not always done her justice, but in the future the maintenance of her strength will largely depend on spread- ing her talents into wider fields. On the other hand, there are men of great parts and resourcefulness in the Dominion who could find scope for their skill and energy in the Old Country. The splendidly organized means of transportation between Britain and Canada which existed before the war must be surpassed by greatly improved transportation in the future, and the linking up of the two peoples must be made more real and intimate. Canada needs the kind of human energy that Britain can give and which Britain will find it best to spare, and Britain needs the resources of the lands, the mines and the forests of which Canada has superabundance, when the labour is available to work them.
Whatever may be done in other belligerent countries to con- serve population after the war, it seems as if the people of the British Empire will have to spread themselves over wider fields. But it must be done after careful thought and preparation is given to the
RURAL PLANNI NG AND DEVELOPMENT 11
scheme of distributioa of human and material resources. Vigilance in preventing selfish exploitation of these resources, science in the system of planning and developing them for right use and, above all, conservation and development of the energy and intelligence of the people must underlie our imperial and social policies.
Land Settlement in Canada
The development of the land resources of Canada, and the skill and constructive ability which have been applied to the building up of the population and industries of the country during the past twenty years, combine to make one of the most remarkable achievements in the modern history of nations. The enormous increase in popula- tion and the settlement of the Western provinces between the years 1891 and 1914 were the result of a combination of circumstances, among which two of the most important were the development of the transportation system of the country and the skillful organiza- tion of the Canadian governments. This has to be recognized no matter to what extent it may now be found that the absence of pro- per planning and a more scientific organization of settlement might have secured a greater measure of success in connection with the de- velopment that has taken place.
The defects in the system of land settlement in Canada have only become evident or at least pronounced in recent years. Even in the United States, where a similar system has been in operation for a much longer period of time, it is only lately that the people have begun to recognize the fact that a scientific plan of development prepared in advance of settlement is essential to enable a sound economic structure to be built up.
Whatever may be said as to the success of the system of land settlement in Canada up to a certain point, the time has come to abandon careless methods of placing people on the land without pro- per organization and careful planning. If the farmer is to be kept on the land he must have the kind of organization and facilities provided for him to enable him to make profitable use of the land.
In other words, the farmer requires a stronger tie than what is provided by the "magic of property " to keep him on the land. He re- quires the facilities and means to live as well as to exist; the enjoy- ment of better social conditions for his wife and family as well as for himself; the use of capital at a reasonable rate of interest, and the satisfaction that the facilities for distributing his products and for utilizing the natural resources of the country are not controlled to the disadvantage of his class. We have relied too much on the magnet
IB COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
of ownership to attract the labouring farmer to the soil of Canada and too little on the more enduring magnets of social amenities and efficient organization of the actual development of the land.
To keep the farmers on the land when they get there has become a greater problem than that of first attracting them to the land. They are said to be leaving the land in thousands at the present time, and we are told that millions of acres of land, which had been occupied at one time, are now deserted, and that the present system of land settlement is productive of much poverty and degradation.* Whether these statements are exaggerated or not, the fact that they are made by responsible people indicates a state of affairs that demands a remedy. Why do men now hesitate to go on the land in the first place, and find it uncongenial to stay in the second place? Why do women stay away, with the injurious consequences to rural life which is caused by their absence? The three outstanding reasons are:
First, the numerous ills caused by the holding of large areas of the best and most accessible land by speculators and the want of proper plans for the economic use and development of the land.
Second, the compelling social attractions and the educational facilities of the cities and towns, and,
Third, the lack of ready money and of adequate return for the labour of the farmer, because of want of co-operation, rural credit and of facilities for distribution of his products.
To secure any real improvement in rural life and conditions we must try to bring tracts of land held for speculative purposes into use, prepare development schemes of the land in advance of settlement, try to take part, at least, of the social and educa- tional facilities of the cities into the lural areas, and, simul- taneously, provide the co-operative financial and distributive conveniences that are necessary to give the farmer a larger share of the profits of production.
The Object of Production
But before embarking on any scheme of improvement, of our rural as well as of our urban conditions, we must have regard to the object we have in view in increasing production as well as the method by which we seek to attain the increase. We have, in the historic case of Germany, an instance of what appears to have been an effi- cient organization directed to the achievement of a bad object, with
• Millions of acres of land homesteaded in Western Canada have been aban- doned by men who failed as farmers. — Farmers Advocate.
RURAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT 13
the result that forty years of wrongly directed effort in production have been largely wasted. Conservation and development under such conditions are worse than useless, for they are merely instruments in a scheme which has destruction as its ultimate aim; the aim of Germany or rather of its military party, being to destroy the development of other peoples at the risk of de- stroying its own. There is no danger in our democratic coun- try of such a disaster as is befalling Germany, but the pursuit of material gain as a sole object is dangerous and futile, whether the aim be accretion of wealth or of military power. When the object of development in a state is to secure the greatest freedom and equality of opportunity for the greatest number of its citizens to enjoy the results of human labour, then the accumulation of wealth follows as a result of that freedom, and history shows that it ife only on such a foundation that national prosperity can be maintained. But we must direct our policies and measures with that object and notour words only.
Freedom and equality of opportunity cannot be attained on the basis of what is sometimes misnamed individual liberty — the license for each citizen to do as he wills whether or no other citizens suffer from his actions. We recognize the principle of limiting individual liberty to do wrong in regard to certain moral issues but not so freely as we should in regard to matters affecting health and general welfare.
The needs of human life are social as well as individual or per- sonal. The four primary human needs are food, clothing, shelter and social intercourse. All of these are essential to normal existence — although the length of time a human being can dispense with any one of them varies. In a civilized community provision for shelter is more distinctly a social than a personal need; the family being the unit corresponding to the dwelling rather than the individual citizen. Social intercourse is not always regarded as a necessity of human life, and yet no healthy and intelligent human being can do without it for any lengthy period.* If our object be to build up real national prosperity we have to see that our citizens have not only the bare necessities of food, clothing and shelter; but we must also direct the ends of government so as to secure that the shelter shall be healthy and that the desire for social intercourse, for recreation and educa- tion shall be gratified. It is after these needs are met that a pro-
*MarshalI in Economics of Industry makes a distinction between "necessaries for existence " and "necessaries for efficiency," defining the latter as including good sanitary conditions, some education and recreation, etc. Social intercourse is in some degree necessary for existence and in a greater degree necessary for efficiency.
14 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
gressive country obtains surplus wealth by the barter of its surplus production for things its citizens desire but cannot themselves pro- duce. If we are only able to secure a surplus by withholding the necessities for well-being from our own people we shall lose more than we gain, in the end.
A community exists by reason of its industry in production — whether the industry be agriculture or manufacture. That is the condition of its being. But in modern life it needs also healthy en- vironment, efficient organization, convenience for distribution and social amenities. These are the conditions of its well-being. The aim of all government and all planning should be to promote, simul- taneously, the being and the well-being of the community.
Particularly in our rural districts the conditions of well-being of the community have not been sufficiently respected in Canada — and until they are we shall lack in the essentials of real progress. Therefore, whatever scheme may be put forward to improve the methods of laying out and developing land, or to in- crease production, should have regard to these fundamental considerations.
CHAPTER II
Rural Population and Production in Canada
Urban increase and rural decrease. Depopulation of homestead land. Female population. Movement of population, had conditions in Ontario. Physical and moral deterioration. Good condi- tions in Ontario. Conditions in Western Provinces. Distribu- tion of lands. Profits of farming and values of farm products. Rural production. Mining, lumbering and fishing industries. New developments of rural industries. Water-powers. Past ten- dencies in industrial growth.
Urban Increase and Rural Decrease
THE rapid growth of urban populations need not be an evil, if the urban development is properly directed and controlled, and if the urban conditions are made as healthy as the rural conditions. Neither growth of cities nor depletion of rural population is necessarily an unhealthy tendency. If the movement from the country to the town is the result of desires for greater opportunities and educational facilities and for obtaining better sanitary and social conditions, who can say that a movement so inspired is an evil? If every city and town were as healthy as the rural districts, as they could be under proper conditions of develop- ment, why deplore the natural tendency of population to migrate to the most profitable industries, so long as they remain the most pro- fitable. We may deplore rural depopulation, but it will be futile to fight against it so long as manufacturing produces a better return to labour and capital than agriculture, and so long as there are urban opportunities for human betterment superior to those in rural dis- tricts. Indeed, we cannot have national prosperity unless human activity is applied to the most profitable fields of production — whe- ther they be growing food, or making clothes, or building ships. One of the men who failed to make a farm pay in Northern Ontario is today managing a large and successful motor industry in Canada, and there are hundred of others who have gone through the same experience. Indirectly, that man, in making cheap motors, is a great agricultural producer; if he had remained on the soil he would
16 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
have practically been a non-producer, as he would be wasting his efforts on an unprofitable business.
But what is wrong is not that that man and thousands of others have left the soil, but that the opportunities for making profitable use of their skill were not present in the country. What is wrong is that wasteful and inefficient methods have driven the most intelli- gent and energetic men into the towns, and, as a consequence, the absence of these men has perpetuated the wastefulness and ineffi- ciency. What is wrong is not that people go to the cities and towns to find social opportunity, but that they are not able to get that op- portunity on the farm. What is causing deterioration of mind and body in urban communities is not the growth of cities and towns, but the unnecessary overcrowding and bad sanitation which accom- panies that growth as the result of laxity of government. What makes rural depopulation in Canada most serious to the rural dis- tricts themselves is the quality, rather than the quantity, of those who leave the land, and the fact that the capital and energy which have been spent to artificially promote settlement have been so largely wasted.
As a rural area becomes thinner in population the causes of migration become accentuated, social opportunities and facilities for co-operation and distribution are further lessened, and there is a con- sequent further lowering of the profits of production. It is usually the best of the rural population that is drawn to the city for these reasons and, where the land is of poor quality, the residue becomes more and more impaired in physique, intelligence and morals as the process of depopulation continues. The small wage of the agri- cultural labourer in England, which was first a cause of the best men leaving the rural districts, has become an effect of the lowered efficiency of those who have remained. May not the alleged lack of business capacity of the farmers in some of the older provinces of Canada be an effect of the low profits of the industry, before it becomes a cause? Parallel with low profits to the producer is the anomaly of high costs to the consumer. The high cost of living is a premium paid for lack of efficient development and organization of production.
It is difficult to determine to what extent Canada as a whole has suffered from movement of population. In so far as it has been en- couraged by injurious speculation, by the sale of farms at high prices for purposes of sub-division, or by the opportunities of making easy money in land-gambling, it has been wholly injurious. In so far as it is the result of the settlement of land which was unsuited for
Plate II
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OVERCROWDING Four-storey tenement house in a Canadian city occupied by eight families.
ISOLATION
Neither city life nor country life need be unhealthy. Unhealthy conditions arise from overcrowding in the
city and Isolation in the country, largely due to want of proper control of the development
of land in both urban and rural areas.
RURAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT 17
agriculture and could not be put to economic use it has also been injur- ious. On the other hand, in so far as it may have increased pro- duction in the city at the expense of diminished production in the coun- try, it may not have been entirely an evil; on the contrary, it may have been a benefit if it has meant the transfer of labour from an un- profitable to a profitable industry. Within proper limits the develop- ment of manufacturing is as important as the development of agri- culture, and over-production in agriculture has to be guarded against as well as under-production. There must be a proper equilibrium maintained between the two kinds of industry. Unfortunately for the country at present the production of food has not been commen- surate with the demand; because the equilibrium between the rural and the urban industries and populations has not been properly maintained.
While, however, it is wrong to jump to the conclusion that the movement of population from rural to urban districts is necessarily injurious to a country, there is no gainsaying that a large proportion of this movement in Canada has resulted from a play of forces which has left us weaker and poorer as a nation. If, by Government sub- sidy or other artificial means, we were to succeed in temporarily in- creasing rural settlement in the future, without revising our methods of planning and arranging agricultural holdings so as to improve farm revenues and obtain opportunities for better social conditions, and if we were not, at the same time, to place difficulties in the way of land-gambling, we would not succeed in arresting such injurious results as follow from the migratory tendencies of the population.
Sir Horace Plunkett has stated that the city on the American continent has been developing at the expense of the country. Would it not be more correct to say that neither the city nor the country has developed properly because of their neglect of each other? Both have suffered, because of lack of recognition of their inter-dependence.
Depopulation of Homesteaded Land
Whatever question there may be as to the effects of rural depopu- lation, on health and production as a whole, there can be no question as to the deplorable national and social waste which must result from any failure to secure permanent rural settlement, after public money has been expended and public property has been alienated to secure that settlement under a system of free homesteading. If a costly and artificial method of opening up new territory is resorted to, if settlers have to be secured by immigration at considerable public
18 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
cost,* if railways and roads have to be built and public lands alien- ated to assist the process, if the private capital of settlers is sunk in improvements, and several years of energy is applied to the task of development — if all that is done, what must be the loss if the result is anything short of permanent settlement under conditions which not only increase production, but make production profitable to the producer?
The evidence of population and other statistics, supported by the evidence of observers of social conditions in rural territory, is that all the efforts and expenditures enumerated above have been employed in developing certain areas, and that, instead of permanent settlement, there are to be found in many of these areas depleted population and unoccupied homesteads. A primary cause of this condition appears to have been the forcing into settlement of areas unsuitable for settlement. Where settlement has been successful in Canada, in spite of an indifferent system of planning and settlement, it has been largely because of three factors, first, the great fertility of the soil in areas suitable for agriculture; second, the energy and enterprise of the governments and administrations, and, third, the fine qualities of the settlers. When, as a result of these things, success has come, it has proved the best means of secur- ing additional settlers of the right kind. When, however, in spite of these things, perhaps because of the placing of settlers on poor land, the scattered nature of settlement and the absence of co-operative and dis- tributive facilities owing to forced homesteading, there has been failure, is it not likely that the real causes of that failure will be misunder- stood and that outsiders will assume that the causes lie deeper than inefficiency of organization — that they lie in the general unproductive character of the industry?
Canada need not fear comparison with any country as a field for successful farming, if its soil and other natural resources get a chance to be properly used, but, for lack of a proper system of development, the capacity of these resources is apt to be and is being underestimated. Whatever the defects of land settle- ment in Canada may be, they are not natural defects of the country or its resources, they are not defects of its settlers as a whole, they are not caused by mal-administration, but they are due to the absence of a proper system of planning and development. Being no deeper than that, they are capable of artificial treatment if we are prepared to learn from the mistakes of the past.
* In five years ending 1914, the Dominion Government spent $6,725,216 to get 1,661,425 immigrants, or an expenditure of about $4 per head.
RURAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT 19
Our governments have already used the wisdom that comes from experience to control such natural resources as our water-powers, and have made advances in the direction of guaranteeing the proper util- ization and development of our forests. Indiscriminate use of mineral resources in Canada cannot now be made without considera- tion of the public welfare. Generally in respect of these water-powers, mines and forests great progress has been made in regard to reason- able government control, and in regard to scientific development and efficiency in utilizing the products. It is in respect of the land — the greatest and most valuable of our natural resources — that we are most backward in our system of directing and organizing development.
It might be more profitable for the government of the country, and in any event the matter is worthy of earnest consideration, to adopt the policy which is being pursued in Australia, of purchasing private lands near to railways and re-settling them, in preference to pushing the development of new territory. Corporations like the Southern Alberta Land Company and the Western Canada Land Company, which own large areas of western lands, and are now in liquidation, might be prepared to sell out at a reasonable price. If such lands can be acquired and settled on a profitable basis would it not be better to suspend the free homestead system in remote dis- tricts for a time? Homesteads should only be given where there is a certainty that they can be put to profitable use. Abandoned lands should be carefully surveyed, and, where they are forsaken solely for want of capital to improve them, they might first be improved and then re-settled. These questions, together with that of the sizes of holdings for homestead purposes, should be the subject of careful investigation at least ; and all such land should be classified and plan- ned to make it adaptable to the best use.
In 1909 the then President Roosevelt of the United States ap- pointed a commission to enquire into the conditions of country life in that country. In the summary of its proposed remedies for the most prominent deficiencies, it made the following as its first recom- mendation :*
"The encouragement of a system of thoroughgoing surveys of all agricultural regions in order to take stock and to collect local facts, with the idea of providing a basis on which to develop a scien- tifically and economically sound country life."
A similar thoroughgoing survey is needed in Canada, but it is necessary, if good results are to be secured, that such a survey should
* Report of Commission on Country Life, page 20.
20 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
not only be prepared with respect to existing conditions, but should be made in respect of all new territory in advance of settlement.
Female Population
The absence of social attractions in the rural districts helps to encourage the migration of females from these districts-a wholly injur- ious form of migration, when we consider the need for improving family life in the country, and when we have regard to the valuable part which the woman plays in the economy of the farm and in the building up of a co-operative organization. As Sir Horace Piunkett has so well put it, "Woman is needed in the country to make co-operation suc- cessful; home life is impossible without her; social organization needs her." In the older provinces Ontario had the lowest ratio of females to males in rural divisions in 1911, the percentage being 86.73, as against 93.69 for Quebec, and an average of 93.88 for the three Mari- time Provinces.*
In the western provinces the deficiency of female popula- tion in 1911 was not much greater in the rural than in tjie urban dis- tricts. In the three Prairie Provinces the ratio of females to males in rural and urban divisions in 1911 was 71.9 and 73.9 per cent, respectively. Women are needed in the towns of Western Canada just as much as in the rural districts.
Movement of Population
In the census for 1911, it is set forth that the population of Can- ada was divided into 3,280,964, or 45.5 per cent, urban and 3,925,679, or 54.5 per cent, rural. t These figures, however, are based on a di- vision which includes in the urban population a large number of what are practically small agricultural villages. J
In 1911 there were 142 towns in Canada with a population of 500 or over which were either not in existence or whose populations were below 500 in 1901. A great many of these will never really be more than rural villages, and in any event they are not at present urban in character. The rural population of the Dominion might very properly be regarded as consisting of the population outside of the cities, towns and villages of 1,500 inhabitants and over. All towns of less than 1,500, which are not immediately adjacent to large cities, are more or less rural in character, and it is not unreasonable to include them in the rural class.
♦ Table 12, Canada Year Book, 1915. t Table 9, Canada Year Book, 1915. t Table 8, Canada Year Book, 1915.
Coffimission of Conservation Town-Plannirt^ Branch
Fig. 1
RURAL POPULATION IN 1911 ON BASIS WHICH INCLUDES ALL CITIES TOWNS &VJLLAGES HAVING 1.500 OR LESS OF POPULATION.
INCREASE OF POPULATION ON SAME BASIS AS ABOVE IN 10 YEARS - 1901 - IST. See Page 21
Cemmission of Conservation Town-Planning Branch
F.S?
LAND CONDITIONS
PROVINCES
Note the Comparison between the Land Surveyed or Disposed of and the Land Under Crop. See Page 30.
RURAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT 21
In the United States, all unincorporated and incorporated places of less than 2,500 are classed as rural; the corresponding figures for Ireland and Scotland are 2,000 and 1,000; while in England the popu- lation of many towns and villages is counted as part of the rural popu- lation.
The urban population in cities, towns and villages of Canada, having a population of 1,500 or over, increased from 1,771,435 in 1901 to 2,845,073 in 1911, whereas the rural population outside of these towns increased from 3,599,880 to 4,361,570 in the same period.*
On the basis of these figures the rural population of the Do- minion comprises 60.5 of the total, instead of 54.5, the figure usually quoted. The rate of increase of the rural population for the ten years is 21 per cent as against 60.6 per cent for the urban popula- tion— the actual increases being 761,690 and 1,073,638 respectively, (Figure l). This is not a bad showing for a rural population, having regard to the rapid growth of urban manufacturing industries and the lack of organization of rural industries; it practically means that the small towns under about 6,000 in population, together with rural districts, in the ten years had an increase nearly as great as the cities and larger towns. The principal falling off in rural population was in Ontario and Nova Scotia, which, so far as the older provinces were concerned, was largely counterbalanced by a substantial increase in rural Quebec. The increase in Quebec was significant, since it was largely an internal growth, and was apparently, to a great extent, the result of the closer settlement and planning of the land in the lower province, t Much remains to be done in Quebec to raise the standards of sanitation and of building construction (the absence of which has been strikingly illustrated in the disastrous fires in the pro- vince) and to remove the causes of the high death rate of 17.02 per 1,000; but in regard to its system of planning land in the past and its highway policy, which is assisted by that system, it has reason to claim better results than the other eastern provinces. J
The advantage of internal growth of population, as compared with growth from the outside by means of immigration, is being demonstrat- ed during the present war; the sources from which new population is
* Census of Canada, Vol. IH,' Page XV.
f'The closer settlement of the agricultural population (in Quebec), due to the early French system of planning the land, has been one of the factors preventing rural depopulation." — J. A. Grenier, Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Quebec.
JThe growth of Quebec during 1914-15-16 is indicated by the fact, quoted in The Monetary Times, that in these years no less than 297 branches and sub-branches «f banks were opened in the province as against 72 closed. The totals for all the •ther provinces were 212 opened and 254 closed.
22 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
drawn from the outside of the provinces are cut off, while the internal growth continues. More attention should be given than in the past to keeping the population on the land that is already settled and encourag- ing its healthy growth. Indirectly that will assist the right kind of im- migration, for nothing counts so much as a feature in developing a country as the health, contentment and prosperity of the citizens already settled in the country. At the same time the Canadian settlers are, as a rule, better than immigrants, and we need to pay more atten- tion to the conservation of our existing population.*
Bad Conditions in Ontario
While it is claimed that the rural decrease has not been so great as it is made to appear in the census figures, i.e., when the agricultural village and small industrial town is included in the rural category, the revised classification does not afford much satisfaction when we come to consider actual conditions in some of the older provinces. Reports have been written with regard to conditions in Ontario, and these are referred to here merely as illustrations and not to show that conditions in Ontario are worse than in other provinces.
Rev. John McDougall, in Rural Life in Canada, points out that, while the census of 1911 shows a decrease in the rural population of Ontario of 52,184, or 4.19 per cent, there was, during the decen- nium, a rural gain of 44,940 in five new districts in that province. Therefore, on the census basis, the rural loss in the remaining terri- tory was 97,124, He also shows that the natural increase of the popu- lation of Ontario during the 10 years was 1.5 per cent, which, if it had been retained, would have accounted for an increase of 200,183 in rural population; so that, according to his estimate, the actual decrease in rural Ontario amounted to 373,567, instead of 52,184. In Grenville county, alone, the falling off was from 21,021 to 17,545 between 1901 and 1911.
The effect of this diminution on the educational system is very bad. One school district in Ontario, Mr. McDougall says, had only three children on the roll one year, and during three months only one child was in attendance, although the school register, about 40 years ago, showed an average attendance of 45 children. The average school attendance in the rural schools of Ontario in 1913 was only 22.9, as against 329.1 in the cities.
* In an investigation made by the Commission of Conservation in the county of Dundas, Ontario, the satisfactory condition was found that over 98.7 per cent of 400 farmers visited were born in Ontario.
RURAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT 23
In one hamlet in Grenville there were seven farms which had once been occupied but were without occupants in 1913, while in the whole county 352, or 9.17 per cent, of the dwelling houses became unoccupied in the ten years prior to 1911.
A report of a Survey of the Trent Watershed, prepared for the Commission of Conservation in 1913, by Dr. B. E. Fernow, Dr. C. D. Howe and Mr. J. H. White, contains some interesting data regard- ing the social and industrial conditions in the counties of Hastings, Peterborough, Haliburton and Victoria.
The main object of the survey was to deal with forestry condi- tions, but Dr. Fernow gives as another reason for its prosecution the fact that a portion of the population of the watershed appeared, on preliminary inspection, to be occupying farms unfit for sustaining civilized conditions. "Not only," he says, "have many farms been abandoned by the removal of their occupants to more hopeful condi- tions, but a considerable number that should be abandoned remain oc- cupied by those who lack the means and energy to move, thus forming a poverty-stricken community. A far-reaching policy for the manage- ment of this region must include a plan for the removal of this degen- erating population."
This shows that he regards the problem as more serious than is represented by mere figures of depopulation; and he advocates the formation of a broad and far-reaching scheme of development and recuperation. "The waterflow should be safeguarded and industries should be developed to utilize such small resources as are left and to contribute freight to the canal, thus assuring a better future for this area than can be anticipated under the present policy of indifference and neglect."
In the area of 2,100 square miles with which the report deals there are now less than 15,000 people, although it is over 50 years since settlement first took place; hardly 10 per cent of the area of all the 35 townships has been cleared for farm purposes. That this condition is due to the fact that the greater part of the area is not suitable for agriculture is evident by the abandoned farms "which are found throughout the whole region in large numbers, and which are sold from time to time for non-payment of taxes at an average of less than six cents per acre.* In consequence, during the last decade the decrease in population has been 15 per cent in this area, as against 5 per cent decrease of rural population in the whole province."
* A total of 194 farms, comprising 18,085 acres, appeared on the official lists for 1912 to be sold for three years' back taxes, aggregating $3,178.29, or at the rate of less than six cents per acre per year.
24 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
This is an instance where rural depopulation is a benefit, not an injury, to the country as a whole, although, of course, it is injurious to the people who remain behind in the depleted area. As Dr. Fernow states, "It is to be expected that those who left are elsewhere doing better than merely eking out a precarious existence; the land which they left, being fit for nothing else but forest growth, gradually re- forests itself."*
The following is a summary of the facts set out in Part III of the report relating to the economic and industrial conditions of the area: —
(1) The geological origin and nature of the soil of the region is for the most part unsuited to agriculture, yet the bulk of the popu- lation is engaged in farming.
(2) In two of the townships in the area less than two per cent of the land is cleared, and in the whole area of 1,171,614 acres only about 11.4 per cent was cleared land.
(3) Where land was found to be in possession of considerable settlement, despite the unsuitable character of the soil, this was no doubt owing to accessibility of railway transportation. Specific refer- ence is made to instances of this kind in Hastings and Haliburton counties. At Minden and Monmouth, in the latter county, farming is mostly confined to the vicinity of the railway.
(4) In spite of the difficulties with which the farmers have to contend, it is found heroic efforts are made to buildup a system of co-operative dairying, and in each settlement there is a farmers' co- operative cheese factory or creamery.
(5) The prevailing explanation given for farms being aban- doned was inability to make a living.
(6) Often the abandoned farms were among the best in the set- tlement, but their owners could not continue getting a mere subsist- ence despite their best efforts.
(7) It was usually the more progressive settlers, and the young people who had fewer ties, who were not content to stay.
(8) It is explicitly stated in the report that the settlers through- out were an energetic, hard-working, resourceful people, who had been attracted to the district years ago by the offer of free land, but who are face to face with an impossible proposition. Much of the land was patented for the timber it carried, and not on account of its agricultural suitability.
* In another report prepared for the Government of Nova Scotia on "Forest Conditions in Nova Scotia," Dr. Fernow estimates that 80 per cent of the Maritime Province — when not barren — is forest country, and practically destined to re- main so.
RURAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT 25
(9) The economic conditions were associated with a certain amount of social degeneracy, and the low moral tone and mental defects of some communities were traceable to the unsound economic conditions.
(10) The amount of human energy unavailingly expended in this attempt to settle land unsuitable for agriculture represents an incalculable asset lost to the province.
Two significant quotations are given in the report, from reports made in 1855 and 1865, which show that the settlement of unsuit- able areas was carried out in spite of advice giving warning of its dangers. The Hon. A. T. Gait, chairman of a Committee of the Legislative Assembly, e.g., reported, in 1855, as follows:
"It appears from the evidence that settlement has been unrea- sonably forced in some localities quite unfit to become the permanent residence of an agricultural population . . . Your committee would refer to the evidence, and recommend that the Government should in all cases ascertain positively the character of the country before throwing open any tract of land for settlement."
Supplementing the inquiry into the conditions of the Trent Watershed, Dr. C. D. Howe also made a more detailed investiga- tion of the townships of Burleigh and Methuen, Peterborough county, in 1913. In this report* he advocated a classification and segregation of the lands which were capable of agricultural use from those which should be forever given over for timber. Much of the land was too poor for successful farming, but other areas were fertile. At least one quarter was composed of marshes and swamps suitable for growing hay and raising cattle — and, if drained, for conversion into market gardens. He claimed that the soil of the marshes was so rich that 10 acres devoted to garden crops could support a family, and there were 15,000 acres which might eventually be used for this purpose in Methuen alone. Co-operative methods of distri- bution would however be necessary, as well as large expenditure in drainage and improvement schemes to make such holdings success- ful.
The conditions prevailing in parts of Grenville and in the Trent watershed show us that what we have to deplore in certain districts is not that people are leaving the land but that they have been per- mitted to go on the land under such circumstances. When millions of acres of , fertile land are lying uncultivated in Ontario and many more millions in the Dominion — many thou- sands of these acres being in the suburbs of our cities and near
* Forest Protection in Canada, page 205-206.
26 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
to our railways — and when the greatest need of Canada is for more human energy to cultivate these fertile acres, it is unfortunate, to say the least, that settlement has been encouraged where failure was Inevitable. Although efforts are now being made, in Ontario and other provinces, to stop the settlement of land which is unsuit- able for agriculture,* it is questionable if the organization which is endeavouring to accomplish this task can do more than touch the fringe of the problem. Having regard to its seriousness, and to the train of evils which follow as a result of failure in land settlement, everything possible should be done to safeguard the country against such consequences. The wasted energy and capital of settlers who break down in a losing fight against natural obstacles is only a small part of the loss to themselves and their country; there is also the phy- sical and moral deterioration which seems to set in, in every peer agricultural district; there is the loss of hope in themselves and their broken faith in the capacity of the land to give them a living. Child- ren who grow up under such conditions are often worse housed, worse cared for and worse educated than children in the city slums. When people reach this condition they warn other people off the land, both by their appearance and by the accounts they give of their hopeless struggles.
Physical and Moral Deterioration
That there is physical and moral deterioration going on in some of the rural districts in Canada appears to be only too well estab- lished. This is said to be the case, not only in the old settled parts of the older provinces but also in new regions which are being opened up for settlement. Further evidence regarding Ontario districts is given in a report on conditions existing in a part of the county of Peter- borough, prepared at the request of Sir Wm. Mulock, the presiding judge at the assizes held in the city of. Peterborough, in February, 1916. In the press report of the remarks made by the presiding judge he is credited with having said:
"Attention was drawn to the degenerate condition of people in the back townships of this and the county of Hastings. These people were in poverty, living on unproductive land and the children brought up in an immoral atmosphere. The grand jury was asked
* "Having seen the folly of opening for settlement townships which are rough and which contain only a small percentage of good land, the Government of Ontario has provided that, before a township is opened for settlement, it must be inspected by a competent officer to ascertain (a) the percentage of good land in it; (b) the quantity and varieties of timber; (c) whether it is chiefly valuable for its mines and minerals. ' ' — Hon. Frank Cochrane, Minister of Lands, Forests and Mines of Ontario, in address to Commission of Conservation, 1910. First Annual Report, p. 75.
Plate III
THE BEGINNING
With the exception of patches containing a few square feet, there is no soil on this prospective
farm that approaches a loam in texture. It is mostly gravel and sand. Trent Watershed, Ont.
THE END One of the many abandoned farms in the Trent Watershed. The amount of human energy expended in attempting to make a living from such areas has been, and still is, enormous. Under proper- schemes of development this land would be absolutely closed to settlement.
From Trent Watershed Report
RURAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT 27
to make a recommendation as to their opinions in the matter. Jurors, he said, would be more familiar with the conditions than he could gain from hearsay evidence. If the land was rocky and barren would it not be proper for the Government to transport the people to more productive land, and hand the present ground over to the Conservation Commission for forestry production. There was no question that the people were in a wretched condition."
At a subsequent conference the grand jury made its present- ment, and stated that the condition of affairs alluded to by the judge was, to some extent, abnorm.al in the history of the district, that the jury agreed that environment and conditions of living in the sparsely settled and unproductive districts were factors in inducing a relaxa- tion of moral observance and were to be regretted. They also agreed with the assumption of the judge, that the lands in the district alluded to were not suitable to adequately support a population in reason- able comfort, nor to afford the necessary municipal expenditure to provide what was necessary for the life of the people.
Following the presentment of the grand jury, Chief Justice Mulock adjourned the session until the April following, and asked the jury to make a report to the judge on April 25th. In the report then presented the grand jury stated that they had been unable to make an inspection of the district, on account of the roads and incle- ment weather, but they submitted a number of opinions of people who were acquainted with the district and expressed the view, as a jury, that there should be a modified system of consolidated schools and improved police patrol of the districts.
The opinions regarding the conditions showed a great diversity of view, but, in the words of the report, showed, conclusively that some action should be taken. The revelations made in the report by some local witnesses were astounding, and, if social crime exists to the extent alleged, drastic steps should be taken at once to arrest the evil. Having regard to the lessons taught by these conditions, the first responsibility of any government and its administrators is to prevent similar conditions where new settlement is taking place. That is the greater responsibility, because, in the first place, the government is directly in control of the new settlement and cannot blame past administrations, and, in the second place, it is always practicable to prevent the beginning of bad conditions, although sometimes almost impracticable to cure them.
Whatever may be the extent of degeneration, or whether or not it exists in any greater measure in Peterborough than in other coun- ties, the serious thing is that such an enquiry should have been neces-
28 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
sary at all, and that there is such poverty, as is here indicated, because of the fact that the unoccupied land was incapable of being put to economic use. Poverty itself is not, however, a cause of social crimes, as is proved in the case of the congested rural districts of Ireland and other places; it is when poverty is accompanied, on the one hand, by isolation and the absence of social and religious institutions, or, on the other hand, when it has to be faced in the crowded slum dis- tricts of large cities, that it produces the worst evils.
Taken side by side with the report of the Trent watershed, the Peterborough enquiry suggests that there is a serious problem in con- nection with land development in Canada — ^.n other provinces as well as in Ontario — which requires to be faced without delay. If it be true, as alleged, that similar conditions already exist in territory which has been opened up for settlement during recent years, steps should be taken, even at considerable public expense, to revise the system of land settlement which makes them possible.
Good Conditions in Ontario
Notwithstanding the above evidence regarding bad conditions in certain districts it is necessary to bear in mind that many parts of these districts contain good agricultural land, and that many of the citizens are upright, hard-working and intelligent. It would be a grave injury to these districts, and to the people who live in them, if it were as- sumed that what might be true of a part were equally true of the whole. The fact that this population is so scattered causes great difficulties in ascertaining the exact condition of affairs and in preventing a few undesirable citizens from giving a bad name to a whole township or district.
We have an indication from these reports of the importance ot dealing with causes and the futility of trying to solve such social problems by lessening or removing effects. The causes must be ascertained and removed. It is unfair to assume that any great part of the territory in review would not be suitable for economic use in some form, or that a greater part of the present popu- lation could not be comfortably settled in the counties where they are now living, if a thorough investigation of the circumstances were made and a practical remedy devised to re-plan the townships, to classify the land, and to set aside the least fertile portions for pur- poses of afforestation.
The social investigator is usually employed to make enquiries when something is wrong. As a consequence, reports too often deal with bad conditions with a view to suggesting how to remove them
RURAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT 29
and not with good conditions with a view to showing how to extend them. In a large part of the settled regions in Ontario the land is of the most fertile kind, and farming is being made to pay in a way which can favourably compare with any country. There are still millions of acres of good land unsettled or unimproved. In some of the Ontario counties the area under cultivation and the number of occupiers per square mile is as satisfactory as in the best parts of some older countries. For instance, the district of Essex N. has a popu- lation of 158.84 per square mile, and Waterloo N. has 123.06. Out of a total occupied area of 311,754 acres in Waterloo N. and S. it is estimated that no less than 252,253 acres, or 80 per cent, are under cultivation. The corresponding acreage for Dundas is estimated at 75 per cent, for Northumberland 73 per cent, and for Carleton 59 per cent. Even in these districts, however, a large part of the land which is stated to be under cultivation is practically sterile for want of capital and labour to use it. It would be desirable to make a sur- vey of conditions in good counties so as to show a better side to the picture than that which is presented by the investigations which have been made in the poorer counties. To ascertain causes of failure one must also investigate and ascertain causes of success. Investiga- tion is needed as to why some areas of fertile land in Canada, with good means of communication, have not been so successfully set- tled as other areas of the same character and location.
A large part of Ontario has all the appearance and features of a highly cultivated English countryside. It possesses these fea- tures without having had a rich landlord class to subsidize the development of the land; it possesses them because of good soil, good climatic conditions and good settlers. What has been achieved in the best Ontario counties is practicable on millions of acres of unsettled or partially settled territory in Canada. Perhaps Essex, Waterloo and other counties have succeeded because of circum- stances which could not be repeated in other counties, and no doubt different methods will be necessary to secure similar results elsewhere. Greater government stimulus will have to be given in some areas than in others, but with organized effort and careful planning an enormous improvement could be made in many dis- tricts. It may be argued that some of the best counties enjoy their pros- perity because they include thriving towns within their areas. This condition may indeed be largely responsible for the fact that they have maintained their population while counties like Huron and Wellington have lost as much as 17 per cent in ten years. So far, however, as prox- imity to cities has conferred any benefit on these counties, it proves the
30 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
advantage of social attractions as a means of keeping people on the land, and preventing deterioration, and goes to show the need for blending the agricultural and manufacturing population to a greater extent than hitherto in the interests of both classes of industry and population. It also emphasizes the need for some measures being taken to prevent the wholesale sub-division of productive land around cities, where such land is lying idle nearest to the markets.
Conditions in Western Provinces
In the western provinces we do not find much satisfaction from
statistics, as the following particulars show:
The scope for filling up the fertile regions of the western provinces is indicated by the following low density of population per square mile in 1911: Manitoba, 6.18; Saskatchewan, 1.95; Alberta, 1.47; British Columbia, 1.09.
The rural percentage fell in Manitoba from 72.4 in 1901 to 56 in 1911 and 44 (estimated) in 1914; in Saskatchewan from 80.7 in 1901 to 73.3 in 1911 and 73 (estimated) in 1914; in Alberta from 71.8 in 1901 to 62.1 in 1911 and 60 (estimated) in 1914; in British Columbia from 49.5 in 1901 to 48.1 in 1911 and 44.6 (estimated) in 1914.*
The land area of the three Prairie Provinces (Manitoba, Saskat- chewan and Alberta) is said to comprise 371,658,698 acres. Of this area about 187,504,678 acres have been surveyed and about 121,710,- 680 acres disposed of, including over 60,000,000 acres given in home- steads and pre-emptions and about 38,000,000 of railway and Hudson's Bay Company's lands. Of the land disposed of 16.9 per cent being 27 acres in each quarter section, and comprising a total of 20,577,230 acres, are stated to be under crop in the three provinces. It is estimated that there are still vacant and surveyed lands within 20 miles of the railways as follows: — Within 20 miles, 15,443,200; within 15 miles, 12,705,440; within 10 miles, 8,914,240; within five miles, 4,491,680. (Figure 2.)
The total extent of land in Canada within about 15 miles of the railways has been estimated to amount to the enormous area of 261,783,000 acres.
The Canadian Pacific Railway Company obtained grants of 28,737,399 acres, of which 23,057,227 acres have been disposed of, and 5,680,171 acres are still unsold.
* These figures are based on the census classification, and a number of rural villages are excluded from the rural population, although the inhabitants of these villages are engaged in rural pursuits.
RURAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT
31
The total area of land granted to railway companies by Dominion and Provincial governments amounts to 55,740,249 acres, comprising some of the best and most accessible land in the country, a large portion being still unused.
It is unnecessary to go on adding to these figures. They show how great are the areas of land which lie within a short distance of existing means of communication; how deplorable it is that fertile sections of these lands remain unsettled and unproductive for some reason, while settlers are abandoning remote territory because of the social isolation and distance from railways; how wasteful it is that such a great extent of territory is uninhabited where a farm popula- tion could thrive and obtain social advantages, and how many and how extensive are the opportunities for preparing a variety of schemes of development which would secure permanent settlement under sound economic conditions.
The soil in the western provinces, of which so much is lying idle in the hands of absentee speculators, has been described by a high authority as worth "more than all the mines and mountains from Alaska to Mexico and more than all the forests from the United States boundary to the Arctic sea. . . . The worth of the soil and subsoil cannot be measured in acres. The measure of its value is the amount of nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash which it contains; in other words in its producing power." But there are also large areas of poor, stony and muskeg land in the western pro- vinces which are unsuitable for agriculture. A great deal of the land near to the railways is barren and rocky and much of even the prairie land is of poor quality. Care in classifying and planning the vacant land near to the railways is required to enable economic use to be made of it, just as in the case of more remote territory.
Distribution of Land in Canada Turning to another phase of the subject, the following table regarding distribution of land in Canada will be found to be of inter- est:
DISTRIBUTION OF LAND IN CANADA IN 1901-1911.*
|
Total areat in acres |
Occupied |
Owned |
• Leased or rented |
Improved |
Unimproved |
|
|
1901 |
988,321,700 |
63,422,338 |
57,522,441 |
5,899,897 |
30,166,033 |
33,256,306 |
|
1911 |
977,585,763 |
109,777,085 |
98,730,249 |
11,046,836 |
48,503,660 |
61,273,426 |
* Canada Year Book, 1913, p. 146.
t The total areas in the above table do not include the Yukon and Northwest Territories and certain territory in Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba and British Columbia..
32 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
The number of farms in 1901 was 544,688, and by 1911 they in- creased to 711,681. Thus the new farms occupied during the ten years amounted to 166,993 of an average size of 277 acres. The greater part of this increase took place in the western provinces, and there was an actual decrease of 2,427 farms in Nova Scotia.
It will be observed from these figures that, whereas the number of farms increased by 166,993, or about 30 per cent, the acreage of land occupied increased by 46,354,747, or over 73 per cent, indicating a considerable increase in the size of ownerships. Three thousand townships, of 36 square miles (23,040 acres) each, have a total area of 69,120,000 acres, and, allowing for forest, swamp, etc., this area would probably have accommodated the increase of farms. Thus, with the rapid growth between 1901 and 1910, about three hundred townships, or an average of fifty in each of the six largest provinces, would require to be surveyed and settled each year. The num- ber of farms surveyed by the Dominion Government alone in the above period was 401,246, comprising a total area of 64,199,360 acres. It is estimated that an area equal to this has been surveyed in excess of the area in occupation. An effort should be made to limit the surveys to an area approximating to the area likely to be settled each year and to use the surveying stafif in making a detailed topogra- phical survey and land classification of the territory as it is opened up.
The changes which have taken place in the ownership of land and the extent of speculation is indicated by the estimate which has been made that out of 129,710,680 acres disposed of about 42,058,400 acres have been cancelled. This figure is the total, and includes lands which have been cancelled more than once.
A more concentrated and detailed survey, and the proper plan- ning of the roads and farm boundaries, would probably involve an increased staff and expenditure, but the advantage to be gained would be enormous.* By this means a valuable topographical map of the areas could be gradually prepared, which would enable government departments to exercise better control over the development of the land, and save large sums in isolated surveys.
Out of the total area of 977,585,513 acres in the nine provinces in 1911, t 109,777,085 acres were occupied as farm land, and 358,-
* A great many returned soldiers, especially those with engineering experience, could be employed in making topographical surveys with great profit to the coun- try. The valuable ordnance survey maps of Great Britain were prepared from surveys made by military men and no work has been carried out in the Old Country which has been more appreciated or of greater utility in connection with land de- velopment.
t This area was increased to 1,401,316,413 acres in 1912, and the possible farm land is now computed to be 440,951, (XX) acres.
RURAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT
33
162,190 acres was the estimate of possible farm land. These figures indicate how great are the land resources of the Dominion, and give some idea of the scope and need there is for efficient government organ- ization, so as to secure the best conditions of settlement for such vast regions, and how the lack of such organization may lead to great loss.
Profits of Farming and Values of Farm Products
The most direct cause of rural depopulation in all countries is the fact that farming does not yield enough profit to the farmer to make the industry attractive. Unless a farm yields interest on the capital invested, combined with a satisfactory wage to the farmer, it cannot be regarded as being put to economic use. The farmer is often blamed for this unsatisfactory condition where it exists, but he is to a large extent helpless to improve it. In so far as he has lack of capital and experience the same may be said of many who start industries in the cities and succeed in spite of their deficiencies. Can- ada has a large population of men who have succeeded as farmers, although possessing little or no experience or capital at the outset. Until better conditions of settlement and improved organization are provided to control and direct land settlement it is not right to blame the farmer for a situation that is due to want of opportunity.
The following comparative table shows values in three lead- ing industries in 1911 : — *
Total value of farm property and of capital in manufactures and railways
Total value of products and earn- ings
Agriculture
$4,231,840,636
Products (Cereals, etc.)
$597,926,000
(Stock,) $615,457,833
Manufactures
$1,247,583,609 Products
$1,165,975,639
Railways
(Steam and
electric)
$1,640,221,548 Earnings
$209,090,446
Between 1901 and 1911 the total value of farm property other than land more than doubled, indicating a general prosperity which disposes of any suggestion that the industry of agriculture, taken as a whole, has suffered from depression in Canada. The develop- ment of the dairy industry has also been satisfactory, the total value of cheese, butter and condensed milk produced
* Canada Year B»«k.
34 COMMISSIONOFCONSERVATION
being $39,047,840 in 1910, compared with $29,731,922 in 1900. The increase was partly due to advanced prices but to a greater extent to increased production.
That there have been periods during which production has been stationary, and has even fallen off in parts of the country, that there have been good lands abandoned or left unused, and that rural deter- ioration has taken place, only indicate that there are certain causes at work which prevent us from obtaining the full measure of prosperity which should come to the country. That we do not receive that full measure, even with our available population and capital, is due to the fact that the human activity and human skill which we possess is not being applied to the best advantage in the conversion of our natural resources to human use.
As an agricultural authority has said, the profits of farming are probably greater than the average farmer thinks they are and less than the city dweller believes them to be. It seems to be taken for granted and is probably true that the earnings of the farmer are less than the earnings in other fields of labour. No accurate figures are available to enable an estimate to be made with regard to farm incom-cs in Canada, but some information has been collected on this subject in the United States.
Professor G. F. Warren, of Cornell University, found, after investigation, that in the best townships in Jeffersoncounty the farmer and his family, with an average capital of $9,006, made $1,155 above the business expenses of the farm. In addition, they had the use of a house and some farm products. At 5 per cent the use of the capital is v/orth $450, and unpaid farm work done by members of the family was valued at $96, so that the pay for the farmer's work or his labour income was $609, besides the use of a house and some farm products. He says this is considerably above the aver- age for the States, a statement which is confirmed by Professor W. J. Spillman, of the United States Department of Agriculture. In an article* on the farmer's income the latter gives $640 as the aver- age income obtained in the United States after deducting total ex- penses from the total receipts. He estimates that at 5 per cent as the rate of interest this should be distributed between interest and labour income, as follows:
Interest on investm.ent _ $322
Labour income 318
Another United States authority shows that the average income of 2,090 farmers operating their own farms in eight States was $439.
* "The Farmer's Income", in Selected Readings in Rural Economics.
Plate IV
Photo by courtesy of Immigration Branch, Dept, of Interior
DEMORESTVILLE, ONTARIO
"A large part of Ontario has all the appearance and features of a highly cultivated English
country-side." (Page 29.)
Photo by courtesy of Immigration Branch, Dept. of Interior
FIELD OF CELERY ON AN ONTARIO FARM While this land is producing wealth for the nation and profit for the farmer, there are hundreds of thousands of acres of equally accessible and fertile land lying idle as a result of land speculation and want of proper planning.
RURAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT
35
These figures correspond with rough estimates made in regard to earnings in Canada, and are probably reliable as approximate estimates for one year. But it has to be remembered that the far- mer's earnings vary as the seasons vary; also that the unknown fac- tors, including the value of farm products used in the farmer's home, would make a considerable addition to the income, when compari- sons are made with those who pay town prices for food and high rents for their dwellings. In any case the general conclusion which may be arrived at in regard to this matter is that the opportunities of the farmer to accumulate wealth are too few, otherwise more men of ability would be attracted to the industry of agriculture. What- ever we can do by improved methods and organization to increase farm earnings without adding to the cost of the products to the con- sumer needs to be done in the national interest. Considering the small margin available in the farmer's total income to pay interest on loans, and to meet freight charges on small shipments of produce, it is evidently important that he should have facilities for obtaining cheap capital and improved means of distribution.
Rural Production
In the 1911 Census the following figures are given, showing the capital, earnings and products of manufacturing industries in the urban and rural districts of Canada for 1910 and 1900: —
|
1910 |
1900 |
|||||
|
Capital |
Earnings |
Products |
Capital |
Earnings |
Products |
|
|
Urban Rural |
928,939,482 318,647,127 |
193,355,373 47,653,043 |
901,770,217 264,205,422 |
347,435,241 99,481,264 |
90,347,067 22,902,283 |
361,354,833 119,698,542 |
We have also seen that the total value of cereals produced in 1911 amounted to $597,926,000. In addition there is the stock on agricul- tural holdings of Canada of a total value of $615,457,883 — a large portion of which value is converted into cash each year and forms a product from the farm.
We thus see the relatively great importance of production in rural areas and have an indication of close connection between that production and manufacturing in the urban centres. In the United States, 42 per cent of the materials used in manufacture arc said to come from the farm, which also contributes 70 per cent of the coun- try's exports. The fact that during the year 1911, Canada imported $72,315,243 in value of agricultural produce and fish is
36 COMMISSIONOFCONSERVATION
not a matter which can be regarded with complacency, especially in view of the extent of the agricultural areas, on which large sums have been spent for development, still unused, in close proximity to railways and towns. Where there is good land lying idle in the vicinity of existing means of transportation, and in a state of partial improvement, it is unsound either to con- tinue to import what might be produced on such land or to spend money in new equipment to open up remote regions which can be allowed to wait till the equipment already available is put to greater use. This is an additional reason for encouraging greater production and the settlement of more population in the older parts of the pro- vinces near to railways and towns. The fact that most of this terri- tory has been alienated from the Crown presents a difficulty in con- nection with its more intensive settlement and improvement; but it is not an insuperable difficulty and it should be faced.
If the figures in the above tables regarding production are attainable under present conditions how much greater may production become with proper organization and with the fuller opportunities which are capable of being provided? How much greater might have been the production in past years if the rural population had not been attracted in such large numbers to other lands, and how much greater may it be in future if we make a real effort to conserve our population and to artificially increase the fertility of the soil. As the Chairman of the Commission of Con- servation has pointed out, Canada is in need of intelligent applica- tion of scientific methods to increase output from the land if it is going to successfully compete with other nations. Even in regard to wheat, which is the staple product of the western lands, we only produced an average of 22.29 bushels per acre in 1914 and 1915, as against 32.25 bushels in Great Britain.
The migration of the farming population has also resulted in the desertion of the rural villages in many counties. In Rural Life in Canada,^ev. John McDougall refers to his early experi- ence in the county of Grenville, where, 40 years ago," each hamlet had its corps of trained and skilled workmen, with sturdily built homes, making the rich contribution to community life that skilled craftsmen bring. The essential industries were everywhere represented. The village had a fairly self sufficing economic life."|^The re-creation of the rural village in the older counties and the creation of rural villages in the new territory being opened up are needed to give stability to rural life in Canada.
RURAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT 87
Mining, Lumbering and Fishing Industries While the greatest volume of production in Canada comes from agriculture and rural manufacturing, and while these industries employ the great majority of workers, there are other important industries which may be classified as rural. These include mining, lumbering and fishing. The workers engaged in agriculture, according to the census of 1911, number 933,735,* and in fishing, hunting, forestry and mining 217,097.. Those engaged in manufacture, trade and merchandising amount to 708,886. Of the workers in the building trades (246,201), civil and municipal government (76,604), profes- sions (120,616), and transportation (217,544), a considerable pro- portion belong to the rural population. (Figure 3). It may, therefore, be computed that more than half the workers in Canada in 1911 were directly engaged in rural production and, of the other half, a large proportion were employed as middlemen and distribu- tors for the farmers, the miners, the woodmen and the fishermen. The manufacturers and distributors are better organized than those engaged in producing food and raw materials and no doubt this ac- counts, in a considerable measure, for the relatively large share which the two former receive in the profits of production. The remedy for this is not to be found in lessening the efficiency and weakening the organization of those engaged in manufacture and distribution, but in improving the efficiency and organization of those engaged in sup- plying the raw materials.
In so far as the cost of living has been increased as a result of the falling off in production it can only be reduced by increasing production. But increased production can only be obtained as a permanent condition if the profits of the pro- ducer provide the stimuli necessary to encourage him to produce. These profits will only be obtained if he is better organized and enjoys the benefit of co-operation and greater convenience for distribution to enable him to lessen the cost of production on the one hand and to secure a larger share of the price paid by the consumer on the other hand.f This applies more to agriculture than to the other rural industries. The industries of mining and lumbering are, for the most part, in the hands of large corporations who can obtain cheap transportation and cheap capital, and organize their own dis- tribution.
• Table 26, page 91, Canada Year Book, 1915.
t It is usually assumed that excessive profits are made by middlemen, but lack of co-operative organization and defective methods of distribution probably absorb most of the difference between the price received by the producer and that paid by the consumer.
38 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
The following are the values of the fisheries and minerals pro- duced in Canada in 1915:*
Fisheries..^ $31,264,631
Minerals 138,513,750
The total value of the forest products in 1915 is given as $172,- 880,000; the amount exported in 1915 is given as $42,650,683, against which lumber, etc., of a value of $9,613,891 was imported. An un- satisfactory feature is that more minerals are imported than exported, the respective figures being $51,740,989 and $54,171,002. This is due to the fact that the most thickly populated parts of Canada rely for fuel on imported coal — this being responsible for no less than 137,063,459 of the amount of mineral imports. How to lessen the reliance of Canada on coal imports, and how to put its great water- powers to more use is one of the great problems to be faced in Canada. Recent events have shown how serious it is and how much more seri- ous it might become.
We thus see that rural development in Canada covers a much wider field than is covered by agriculture and rural manufacturing, and that regard has also to be paid to the important and rapidly growing industries connected with the produce of the mines, the forest and the fisheries. t
New Developments of Rural Industries
Particularly in connection with the mines, enormous develop- ments are likely to take place in the future. New towns are likely to be created and new demands made for more population. In the past, mining operations have been carried on with too little regard to the standard of comfort and living conditions of those engaged in them. The housing conditions at Cobalt, Sudbury, and in the min- ing valleys of the western provinces have hardly been satisfactory from any point of view. One result of this is that fewer Canadian or British born workers are attracted to mining than to other indus- tries, and reliance has to be placed on a less efficient class of workers than might be obtained if the employers were made responsible for providing better living conditions. Compared with 72 per cent of the workers engaged in agriculture, there are little over 46 per cent of the miners born in Canada. This is both a cause and an effect of
* Canada Year Book, 1915.
t The resources of Canada in soil, in mine, and in forest, have scarcely been scratched. The grasp of Canada upon their responsibilities has hardly been felt. The time is coming, and is near at hand, when the Dominion will experience the onrush of new and powerful energies that only a mighty struggle with self, and a victory over self, could have awakened. — Christian Science Monitor, Boston, U.S.A.
RURAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT 39
bad living conditions. The death rate among miners in Canada is higher than in any other country. A mining population needs more government control than the population of the cities and agricultural districts and they usually suffer from having a low standard of hous- ing and sanitary conditions, and an absence of social facilities which diminishes their producing power and moral stability.* The respon- sibility for securing improvement of these conditions rests partly with the mining corporations, but in a greater degree with the govern- ing authorities who are primarily interested in the public welfare. Where mining is carried on in the neighbourhood of fertile land, such as in the valleys of British Columbia, there are opportunities for creating healthy and permanent towns without much aid from the government or the mining operators; but in more barren regions, where mining is profitable, but where farming cannot be made suc- cessful, it is more difficult to secure healthy conditions of settlement, and it is in such areas that the responsibility of the government and the operating companies are greatest. In recent years some mining corporations have recognized the need for improved housing con- ditions and have laid out and built model villages around their mines.
New developments are also taking place in connection with the lumber industry which seem likely to revive its prosperity on lines which will be productive of permanent settlement. With the growth of the pulp industry and the building of new mills in proximity to the available timber limits, and at points where ample water- power is available, many opportunities are now arising for plann- ing and developing new towns in rural territory. Under the old conditions the workers engaged in this industry lived in temporary lumber camps in the winter and migrated to the saw-mill in the town or worked on the farms in the summer. As is shown in the investigation made into the Trent Watershed regions the forest areas are poorly adapted for successful farming and the combination of lumbering and farming in such areas often produces poverty and degeneration. On the other hand the unsettled and migratory ten- dencies of the lumber worker who, after having accumulated the savings of a winter's work in the bush, returns to the city, cause him
* The problem presented to the operator (of mines) is how to obtain labour, and, after obtaining it, make it efficient and keep it contented. One of the great drawbacks to this is due in a great measure to the fact that mining operations are usually carried on in out of the way and unattractive places; again, as the life of the mine is limited, there is little or nothing to encourage the labouring-man to settle down and establish a home. — W. J. Dick, in the Eighth Annual Report of the Com- mission of Conservation.
40 COMMISSIONOFCONSERVATION
to be more or less of a spendthrift and a less efficient citizen than he would be with more stable and regular employment.
The pulp industry will involve a more elaborate process of manu- facturing than the saw-mill and will lead to the creation of large village communities with opportunities for creating a healthy social life.
The pulp manufacturers who are developing these new industries are showing an enlightened self-interest in planning and developing the towns around their mills so that healthy and attractive housing conditions will be provided for their employees. One of the reasons for this is, as one of the largest manufacturers has stated, that experi- ence has taught them that the best workers can only be secured if the living conditions are satisfactory. When such industries are established without proper provision being made for housing it has been found that good engineers, chemists and foremen are difficu t to obtain even on the offer of higher wages than are available in towns possessing better environment. It is no longer regarded as good business policy to make money out of the sub-division of the land which is required for the homes of the workers, nor to leave the building of these homes and the lay-out of the towns to the haphazard and greedy methods of land speculators.
Where new mills are being established the planning and regula- tion of the building development needs to be accompanied by measures to prevent the wholesale destruction of forest growth; and reason- able restriction of the use of water-powers to prevent deterioration of forest floors and agricultural lands.
Improvement of fishing villages presents a difficult problem, but much can be done by more education of the fishermen and better leadership on the part of those who administer public affairs of fish- ing communities. Greater attention is likely to be given in the future to the creation of small manufacturing industries in fishing villages, particularly in connection with the utilization of fish waste for com- mercial purposes, and this will result in securing an increase of popu- lation and in creating a demand on the part of fishermen for improved facilities for distribution and better social conditions. The better- ment of agricultural conditions round fishing centres and the making of good roads will react on these centres and result in their improve- ment. In any event it is evident that there is need for improved conditions and for more efficient municipal control in such centres.
Water- Powers Extensive developments may be expected in the future in the utilization of the immense reserves of water-power in the Dominion,
RURAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT 41
and in the potentialities which they possess for creating rural indus- tries and new towns. In a report on the Water-Powers of Can- ada* published by the Commission of Conservation in 1911, the following is the first of the conclusions summarized in the introduc- tory survey :
"Water-power is dependent, primarily, upon precipitation. Other interests, such as municipal and domestic water supply, navi- gation, agriculture and irrigation are likewise dependent upon the same source. The subject of water-powers, therefore, can not be properly considered without making fair allowances for the demands of the other interests that have just claims upon water as a natural resource."
The importance of making an adequate survey and an intelli- gent classification of the water-powers and of the physical circum- stances associated with them is referred to in the above report. The authors point out that it is as unreasonable not to differentiate be- tween water-powers as it would be not to differentiate between tim- ber tracts, mineral lands, etc. This is the same claim that is made by authorities in regard to all natural resources and that is made in this report in regard to land resources.
Underground waters are essential to sustain the forests and the general fertility of the soil for agricultural purposes and no scheme of survey or classification of land would be complete without a study being made of the sources of supply of water and the uses to which the water-power could safely be put. "The water is necessary to the soil and the soil, with its plant growth, is necessary to the econo- mical distribution of the water."
In selecting sites for new towns more regard should be paid to the possibilities of using water-power to generate electricity for in- dustrial purposes.
The great irrigation schemes carried out by the Canadian Pacific Railway and other companies in the western provinces indicate the enormous possibilities of the use of water in promoting successful and more intensive land settlement.
Past Tendencies of Industrial Growth in Small Towns and
Rural Areas
Reference has already been made to the desertion of rural vil- lages as a result of agricultural depression in certain districts. The
* Report on " Water-Powers of Canada," by Leo. G. Denis, B. Sc, E.E., and Arthur V. White, C.E., Commission of Conservation, 1911.
42 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
conservation of village life by means of the promotion of rural indus- tries is a matter of great importance.
The question of promoting new and extending existing indus- tries in rural areas will be dealt with in a later chapter, but at this point attention may be drs^wn to the great developments which have already taken place in Canada in that direction. We have seen that between 1901 and 1911 no less than 142 new towns were created, having a population of 1,500 or less. Many of these new towns are in rich agricultural regions, where distributive and social centres are needed and where they can obtain the needed staying power from the surrounding territory. Others, howevei, will only succeed in proportion as they have the facilities to enable small manufacturing industries to be promoted, and as they succeed in organizing these industries.
The wealth of old Ontario lies largely in the small indus- trial town, and while great cities like Toronto are no better from a point of view of public health and convenience than some of the great cities of America and Europe, the average small town of Ontario is probably superior in regard to the general average prosperity and living conditions of their citizens to any towns of a similar size in other countries. The creation of small towns in rural areas is a much healthier and more stable form of development than the expansion of large cities. Of the towns having a population of from 1,000 to 5,000 in population in 1911, 233 showed increases in the eight main- land provinces between 1901 and 1911, as follows:
Nova Scotia 15 New Brunswick 9
Quebec _ 81 Ontario 82
Manitoba..._ 9 Saskatchewan 10
Alberta... 15 British Columbia 12
In the eight mainland provinces no less than 529 towns or vil- lages having a population of 1,000 or under were either not in exist- ence in 1901, or increased in population between 1901 and 1911. As against 81 of these towns which increased in population in Quebec, only four showed a decrease.
The growth of these towns represented an accumulated develop- ment of manufacturing and mining industry in each province of great aggregate volume and importance. A few years prior to 1901 the control of the planning and development of a great many of these towns was vested in rural municipalities and their present condition reflects the good or bad management and direction they received in the initial rural stages of growth. During the next twenty or thirty
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CemmisSion of Conservation Town-Planninj^ Branch
7.OOO.OO0
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S.371,315
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Rural Dislricis
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Growth of Population in Small Cities, Towns and Rural Districts, Compared with Growth in the Larger Cities. See Page 43.
f'.;*. 5
Number of workers increased
Lar^e Cities 4(r87o
y^
I Surrounding Zone* 97 7%
Increase of Population in Suburban Zones in the United States.
{From "Satellite Cities" by Graham Romeyn Taylor)
See Page 43
RURAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT 43
years new industrial development in rural areas will take place, — and should be encouraged to take place to a greater extent than hitherto. The better planning and direction of these new develop- ments by rural municipalities is greatly needed in the interest of increased production and rational development.
In addition to the industrial growth which is taking place within rural areas as a natural outcome of rural development, there is a strong tendency in Canada, as in England and America, for large manufacturers to move from large urban centres to rural and semi- rural districts. The improvement in railway systems in territory surrounding large cities, the development of the hydro-radials, and the making of good roads, together with the increased pressure of taxation in congested centres, are all contributing to a new movement of industries and population from large cities to rural and semi-rural areas. The same tendency in Great Britain has influenced urban and rural development in that country for the past 20 years and was the chief argument used to secure the necessary support to enable the first Garden City to be established in England. In the United States the increase of workers in thirteen large cities was only 40.8 per cent in ten years, whereas it was 97.7 per cent, in the semi-rural zones surrounding these cities during the same period. Mr. Graham Romeyn Taylor, in Satellite Cities, describes this movement as a "sweeping current," which is being accelerated by all that is being done to improve transportation. (Figures 4 and 5.)
In Canada the same movement has begun, and we find satellite towns and industrial villages growing up in the open country around the large cities of Montreal and Toronto, and a more rapid increase of population in the outer than in the nearer suburbs. When the United States Steel Corporation came to Canada, it selected a site and purchased farm land in a purely rural area outside of Windsor, Ontario, to erect its plant and build its own town.
This question of industrial decentralization is of importance from the point of view of rural development. It is a natural and grow- ing tendency, and as such indicates the practicability of artificially promoting industrial village centres and rural industries. Under present conditions decentralization does harm to production around cities, since it is accompanied by the worst and most intensive forms of land speculation, which means that great areas of land are sub-divid- ed and exploited for building that should be left in cultivation. It is also harmful from a sanitary point of view, owing to the fact that the rural authorities often look upon these encroachments of urban
44 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
population with disfavour, as causing them added responsibility and expense. Unfortunately they do not think it necessary to apply other than rural standards of sanitation to the urban conditions thus created. Properly organized, however, the movement should help to increase production by bringing consumer and producer nearer to each other, and if proper planning regulations were made and enforced, unhealthy land speculation and improper sanitary conditions in con- nection with these new developments would be prevented.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion it is contended that, notwithstanding the comparatively sound lines on which distribution of population has proceeded in Canada, there is abundant evidence that the settlement of considerable areas of unsuitable or inaccessible land, and the absentee and speculative owner- ship of large areas of fertile and accessible land, have produced serious social and economic problems which urgently need solution; that while there has been a satisfactory increase of population, production and wealth in Canada, there has been an inadequate appreciation of the importance of conserving and developing human resources, and that the great poten- tialities of Canada, in respect of natural resources ; the tendencies which are at work as a result of improved methods of transportation and the opening up of new industries, and the prospects which these afford for obtaining greatly increased population in the near future make it of vital importance that there should be a national stock-taking of all resources and a sound economic foundation laid on which to build the structure of future development.
CHAPTER III
Present Systems of Surveying and Planning Land
in Rural Areas
Present system of surveying land in rural districts. Dominion surveys. Provincial surveys. Township planning. Fixing road reserva- tions. Reservation of land adjoining lakes and watercourses. Object of surveys. Radial plans. Proposed scheme for townsite in Northern Ontario. Manitoba scheme. Practicability of com- munity settlements. Diagrams illustrating certain principles of planning rural areas. Townsite and building sub-division plans in rural areas. Effect of rural on urban planning. Ancient rectangular plans. The beginnings of urban planning. Present control of sub-division surveys. Land classification.
Present System of Surveying Land in Rural Districts
A S a general rule there has been no proper planning of rural and A% urban areas in Canada — merely adherence to a rectangular system of survey. Land has been divided according to cer- tain principles laid down by land surveyors, to whom have been assigned greater responsibilities in defining boundaries of municipal areas and land divisions than in older countries. The system originated in the United States. Both in its inception and development it appears to have been designed to promote speculation — both private and public — rather than the economic use of the land.* From the sur- veyor's point of view it appears to have been influenced in its growth by two main considerations. These were, first, the necessity of mapping out the territory on a geometrical plan, without regard to the physical features of the surface of the land owing to the vastness of the areas to be dealt with, and, second, the need for accuracy and simplicity in defining boundaries of the different units of a geometrical system.
* The intention of the Government of the United States was not to promote speculation but that was the inevitable result of the system. In 1796 a minimum price of $1 was charged per acre, and was later raised to $2, with the purpose of stopping speculation, but this did not prevent wholesale speculation from being carried on. The Homestead Act was not passed till 1862, but no change was made in the system of survey. Over 250,000,000 acres of land were alienated under that Act. See also article on "The Settlement of Public Lands in the United States," in Vol. VI, No. 3, of Bulletin issued by Canadian Commissioner of International Insti- tute of Agriculture.
45
46 COMMISSIONOFCONSERVATION
Another influence was of a political rather than of an engineering character. A regular and comprehensive system had to be adopted to enable large areas to be surveyed in advance of settlement for government purposes. Population had to be attracted by the offer of free homesteads or cheap land, without time and thought being given to the planning and classification of the land for economic use and development, or to the distribution of the population to secure successful and permanent settlement. The population thus attracted or anticipated, gave a stimulus to both private and public speculation in the development of natural resources and means of transportation. Everything that contributed to that stimulus was encouraged, and anything that militated against it became an object of criticism as an interference with the free play of natural forces. Having regard to this speculative tendency, and to the need for meeting the competi- tion of other countries in attracting population, the kind of planning or surveying adopted probably served its purpose. But it permitted no discretion or intelligence to be exercised by the surveyor beyond what was required to accurately define and locate the boundaries according to a rigid and inelastic system.
Proper planning should follow no hard and fast rule. It should intelligently dispose the boundaries of at least the smaller divisions of land to suit industrial requirements, to conform to the natural con- ditions and physical features of the locality, and to provide for the most economical, convenient and healthy development. The Ameri- can system, adopted in Canada, is unsound, to the extent that it falls short of this standard, even if it could claim to be simple and accu- rate and to have succeeded for a time in attracting population by specu- lative means. Of course, it is not claimed that a new country can be developed without speculation, or that properly regulated speculation is injurious.* What is injurious is when speculation is the object of development. Every large railway enterprise is a great specu- lation, but, if the sole object in constructing a railway is to create and speculate in land values, it may become a social pest instead of an instrument of sound development. A government may be a specu- lator of an injurious kind if it stimulates immigration and land settle- ment without proper plans of development, and without proper regard to the social and economic needs of the settlers, although it may re- ceive no actual coin in the process. The proper object of develop- ment should be production based on healthy living conditions, and not the mere accretion of numbers. When that is the object of a
* See Chapter IV.
RURAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT 47
government it will not unduly facilitate land settlement until the land is properly planned and classified for the purpose, and until steps are taken to prevent injurious speculation.
In Appendix A, a description is given by Mr. H. L. Seymour of the systems which are employed in the different provinces. It will be seen that they all involve the use of the straight line and the right angle right down through the whole series of divisions of the land, including the boundaries of provinces, of counties, of townships, of quarter-sections (homestead subdivisions), and of building subdivi- sions or lots, and that the duty of the surveyor consists in following a plan prescribed for him.
Dominion Surveys
Under the Dominion Lands Surveys Act of 1908 land is required to be laid out in quadrilateral townships, each containing 36 sections, and each section divided into quarter sections of 160 acres. While, however, this system is adopted for general purposes, the Surveyor- General has power, with the authority of his Minister, to depart from the system in respect of certain lands. As Mr. Seymour points out, lands bordering on a river or watercourse can be surveyed or laid out in such manner and with such roads as appear desirable. Under such conditions it is provided that, in the case of settlements already in existence, a road 66 ft. wide has to be laid out across the settlement in the most convenient location.
Surveys are now made more accurate and elaborate than for- merly, and a good beginning has been made in recent years in col- lecting information regarding the situation and character of townships. This survey, however, is not sufficient and is too general in character, to provide a basis for classification or a proper system of settlement. A series of reports from surveyors' field books has been published, giving particulars of the nature of the soil, timber, water supplies and powers, climate, etc. It is thus seen that the surveying department of the Dominion Government now recognizes the advantage of obtaining more complete information regarding the character of the land when it is surveyed. The fact that the department reserves to itself and exercises the power to vary the survey for small areas in certain circumstances shows that there would be no difficulty in making a similar variation in respect of larger areas.
Provincial Surveys Writing, in 1906, with regard to the system in vogue in Ontario, Mr. J, F. Whitson, O.L.S., who is now representative of the Pro- vincial Government in Northern Ontario, stated that one-quarter
48 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
of the agricultural land in that province was not then surveyed, and "if changed conditions of agriculture within recent years require some change in the system of survey it is not too late for the govern- ment to make the change." Referring to the advantages of closer settlement in the clay belt Mr. Whitson said : —
In a wooded country, such as Northern Ontario, while it is a great advantage to the settler to have a liberal frontage to his lot, it is of greater importance to have concentrated on one line of road two lines of farms as closely situate as practicable, as clearings are more quickly made. They unite their labour in opening and maintaining the same line of road and combine the more readily in rendering aid to each other when united efforts are required, the population is less scattered, and schools and places of worship can be reached with less incon- venience, and this is one if not the most important feature in a new settlement. Many a farmer with a numerous small family is driven from his backwoods home with its many advantages and prospects, for want of schools, or rather because, for nearly half the year, owing to the bad condition of the roads, the children are unable to attend. . The enormous cost of constructing good roads in a new coun- try— between $750 and $1,000 per mile — makes it imperative to have no more road allowance than is absolutely necessary to accom- modate the public.
It is unnecessary in this report to go into the merits of the dif- ferent systems in vogue in Canada. The Quebec system, with its narrow and deep lots, the 1,000-acre system in Ontario, first adopted by the Canada Land Company in 1829 and later by the province, and the revised system now in force in Ontario, seem to possess great advantages over the Dominion square sectional plan as a means of securing closer settlement. For 100-acre farms the 1,000-acre sec- tion system seems as good as any stereotyped system can be. The new system adopted in Northern Ontario does not depart in a material degree from the older Ontario systems except in regard to the increase of the size of the township from six to nine square miles. There seems to be no doubt that for purposes of local government the six-square- mile township is too small. Townships should be from twice to four times the present area and, as has been proved in some counties, this lessens the cost of administration without any loss of efficiency.
But convenient distribution of the farms and a good road system cannot be obtained with any rigid rectangular lay-out. Nature has pro- vided rivers, lakes, watersheds, swamps, and mixed areas of good and bad land, which should all be allowed to influence municipal and farm boundaries. But even natural boundaries are not always ideal, and any proper system must have regard to employment of intelligence and discretion. In dividing the land for settlement
Plate V
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Photos by courtesy of Immigration Branch, Dept. of Interior
BOLTON PASS, BROME COUNTY, QUEBEC The character of the topography shown in the above illustrations is typical of a great extent of territory in Canada. Such land should be planned so as to obtain the best use of the fertile valleys and make them accessible to the markets. The 'roads in the above views are placed in the proper position, but, under a rectangular plan, their probable direction would be across the steep hills and, in the average case, the farm divisions would include only small areas of productive land and much that is entirely useless.
RURAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT 49
natural boundaries should be used as alternatives to the artificial lines of the surveyor and greater discretion should be employed in deter- mining which boundary to use in the smaller units. It is recognized, how- ever, that there have been certain difficulties to be surmounted in a country where the system of land registration required divisions to be made for large areas for settlement before the land could be surveyed in detail. For county areas, perhaps, the rectangular system could not be greatly improved upon, except by making deviations at the edges of lakes and at river intersections.
Township Planning
It is, however, when we get down to the units or sections that lie within the township that greater room for improvement is found. Whatever excuse there may have been in the past for rigid adherence to the rectangular sections, because of the want of men and organization to plan these sections with some regard to physical conditions and future development, there is no longer any excuse for such adherence — although in the case of purely level land, without river intersections, this kind of plan is satisfactory from some points of view.
In territory to be opened up in future a more elastic system of planning should be followed within township boundaries, and regard should be paid to future development, to existing railways, topo- graphy, character of soil, and other physical considerations, without any sacrifice of accuracy. The increased cost of making more detailed surveys than at present would be small compared with the saving that could be effected in getting roads in the right place, in lessening the length of roads, and in securing economic distribution of the land; and also compared with the advantages which could be obtained in greater convenience and healthier conditions of develop- ment. Moreover, the surveys need not be spread over such large areas and should follow a more concentrated system of land settlement, dealing first with the more fertile lands and with those lying nearest to the means of distribution. It is a fact that, even with the absence of any plan of agricultural areas in older coun- tries like England, the results are better in important respects than in Canada with its rectangular system, because, in the former case, some purpose of using and developing the land has been the primary consideration in its planning, rather than simplicity and accuracy of arrangement to suit a particular mode of placing settlers. There are still enormous areas of new territory in Quebec, Ontario, and in
50 COMMISSIONOFCONSERVATION
the western provinces where some improvement in system might be adopted.
In parts of organized territory already divided and, to a more or less extent, alienated in homesteads, some readjustment is still possible, and in any event control of future development and of areas where cancellation has taken place can be provided. There are large areas of uncleared and swampy land near to towns and rail- ways which can be rendered fertile at reasonable cost for clearance and drainage, and a thorough survey of such land should be made with a view to securing its improvement and development. But any replanning as distinct from regulation of future growth of such territory raises difficulties which can only be partly and slowly overcome under expert advice. The whole matter should be dealt with by a system so designed as to gradually secure closer settlement, better facilities for making farming more attractive and profitable than is practicable under the present method and for the reduction of the unnecessary lengths of road reservations. Every township boundary could be determined under the present system, but no land should be homesteaded, or boundaries fixed, within the township boundary until a proper plan of development for the whole township was prepared and approved by an efficient director of sur- veys acting in collaboration with a skilled director of planning in each province. The farms should be laid out with proper regard to the fullest and best use of the land, to convenience and ease of access, to obtaining facilities for water supply, transportation, health, amenity, etc., while the highway system would accord with a provincial plan of main highways.
A sketch showing the effect of one of the present systems, in causing absurd intersections of land, is shown in figure 0. It shows the boundary of farms in which small pieces of land are cut off on one side of an unfordable river, making them entirely useless to the farmers. In such cases the farmers may sell the isolated portions to adjoining farmers, but that does not lessen the absurdity of the plan. It also shows an area of 160 acres of good farm land surrounded by rock and swamp of no • agricultural value. This area is divided into four sections, which means that the farms have each only a small acreage of land suitable for cultivation, and even then only accessible across a swamp. Whatever may be the proper kind of division in a case of this kind it is obvious that some system should be adopted which would have regard to the use to which the land was to be put.
.€:{)rmnissign of Con Town Planning B
.scrvation Branch
p meat AwH^/ZR^-ifl^"
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ANOMALIES OF RECTANGULAR SYSTEM OF FARM DIVISIONS
Scale 18 chains - I inch
See Page 50
Fig. 7
DISTRICToF SUDBURY -Scale 40 Chains=l Inch-
LEITCH
FOURNIER
Ontario Survey showing Road Reservations, including 66 ft. Reservations along Water Courses. See Page 51.
RURAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT 61
Fixing Road Reservations
There are two principal methods employed in fixing road reser- vations in connection with the surveys. The method employed in the Dominion surveys for western lands fixes the roads as shown on figure D. in 'appendix A. without regard to physical or topographical conditions. The other method, which has been used in Quebec and is now the practice in Northern Ontario, is to reserve five per cent of the land for roads, leaving the exact location to be afterwards deter- mined. Neither system permits of the proper planning of the roads, although the latter method is best in allowing discretion to be exercised. But it does not work out satisfactorily in practice, because vested interests are created in the homesteads before the sites of the roads are fixed, and the planning is largely governed by the sel- fishness and idiosyncrasies of individual farmers, or groups of farm- ers, who are only interested in securing the location of roads to suit their own separate requirements. In either case roads are usually made to follow the straight lines of the farm boundaries, hills are ignored, and stretches of muskeg or swamp are crossed where good road foundations and satisfactory drainage cannot be obtained.
Reservation of Land Adjoining Lakes and Watercourses
In Ontario and other provinces governments now require that a width of 66 feet of land be reserved round lakes and along the banks of rivers. The effect of this reservation is shown on the division plan illustrated in figure 7. It prevents the encroachment of undesirable erections along the edges of watercourses and provides space for road communication between the farms with water frontage. The principle of reserving these strips of land is a sound one, and in time great public benefit will be derived as a result of its application. But so far as securing protection of the waterfront is concerned little advantage seems to be gained, and inconvenience to owners may be caused by fixing an arbitrary width of 66 feet in all cases. The width reserved should be determined according to the nature and situation of the land. In some cases high rocky cliffs and in others great stretches of swamp surround water areas ; such land has no value for private use, and could be retained in public ownership in wide stretches for forest reserves or other purposes. On the other hand the reservation of the strips for road space is frequently of no use owing to the topographical conditions. Even short lengths of road for purely farm purposes cannot be made along steep banks or across swamps. Again when the banks of rivers or lakes consist of hard level land the roads have to wind in and out following every
52 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
bend and twist of the water area, and there is no latitude for improv- ing the alignment to shorten distances or avoid the tortuous windings.
While, therefore, it is desirable to protect the edges of the water areas and to have roads in many cases running nearly parallel with rivers and around lakes, the roads should be designed as part of a plan and should not follow a meaningless and arbitrary line. As at present laid out they are merely an expedient to get over one of the anomalies of the present system of fixing the farm boun- daries. The division of many of the farms shown on figure 7 leads to great waste of land, to the splitting up of homesteads adjoining water areas in shapes and sizes that cannot be used or developed, to the placing of roads in the worst positions to secure bridges over streams, and to cul-de-sac roads running to an end at the water edge or at the foot of steep hills.
The system of land survey in the railway belts of the western provinces is not only unsatisfactory, as a system of planning, but the method which has been adopted, of allocating certain sections to the railway companies and other sections to the Hudson's Bay Company, interspersed with other sections retained by the Dominion Government, makes proper planning impossible — unless by co-oper- ation between the companies and the government before settle- ment takes place. In this case there is not only a hard and fast system of sub-division, but also a separate ownership of alternative sections, which adds to the difficulty of applying any discretion to the planning of the areas. A township allocated according to this system is show on figure 8.
Object of Surveys
In spite of their defects, however, it is probable that no better series of systems of surveying lands could have been devised when we have regard to the object of making the surveys. That object — im- portant in itself — was to secure accurate measurements and divisions of the land for rapid settlement ; and the fact that it did not include a topographical survey, a scheme of classification of the land and plan- ning of the roads was no fault of the surveyor. His duties have been cir- cumscribed within a narrow radius and within that radius he has performed his task with great skill and energy. Under the leader- ship of Dr. Deville, the Surveyor General, the surveyors of Canada have given able and devoted service to the country, and it is necessary to make it quite clear that what is objected to is not the work or methods of the surveyor, nor the rectangular system as a means to secure accurate measurement, but to the scope of the sur-
RURAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT 53
veyor's duties having been too limited, and to the rectangular system as a plan for land settlement. The surveyor should not only measure the land, but make a survey of its conditions in the real sense; and the rectangular survey should not he the plan for settlement, hut only provide the basis on which a proper development plan for each township should be prepared.
Objections have occasionally been made to the system of rec- tangular survey by those who have noted its defects as a plan of land development; but as it is not a plan of land development at all, and as its geometrical and rigid character make it unsuitable for such a plan, the survey should not be objected to on that ground. The objection should be to the facts that a survey designed for one pur- pose is used as a plan for another purpose, that it is so used without regard being paid to the soil, topography and future development, and that farms are divided and roads located without any properly conceived development scheme being prepared for the areas in which they are situated.
Radial Plans
As one of the main objects of a proper land development scheme must be to group the population and design the location of the roads so as to secure the greatest efficiency in production, facilities for co- operation, etc., it follows that, other things being equal, a radial system of laying out roads — in which the roads would converge in a direct line to a common centre in each township or larger area — ^would best serve these objects. But there are serious objections to the radial plan when prepared in geometrical form and without regard to the shape of the farms, which in most radial plans have to be triangular in shape. Farmers prefer to have square farms and square fields and to that extent they are firm believers in the square plan. They have to be persuaded that any departure from the square plan is for a good reason. While not usually opposed to oblong farms designed to give them access to rivers or to give them fewer and better roads, they object to the sharp corners of triangular fields. As a general rule triangular shaped fields should be avoided, but in a properly con- ceived design, which included radial lines for the principal highways, very few triangular fields need be included.
It is unfortunate that farmers seem to imagine that the reser- vation of useless road spaces along the boundaries of their farms is of more advantage than securing good roads in the best positions and affording the most direct access to the railway or village. If a practical experiment could be carried out on a sufficiently large scale,
54 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
and the saving and facilities obtainable under a radial plan could be demonstrated, probably the advantages would be found to outweigh the disadvantages. However that may be, there is not much to choose between the two kinds of plans, if they are merely geometrical de- signs, for general application.
Over twenty years ago Sir William Van Home prepared a radial scheme for a township, but nothing was done to carry it out. This design is illustrated on figure 9, and is taken from a sketch prepared from memory by Dr. Deville. The lengths of roads and fences required to be provided under this scheme did not differ materially from those which are necessary in the rectangular plan. Under this radial scheme, however, the greatest distance which the settler requires to travel is 2.8 miles and for more than half of the set- tlers, the distance dees not exceed two miles. In the typical rectangu- lar plan the settler has to travel as much as five miles to reach the centre of the township.
In a letter addressed to Mr. James A. Smart, of the Depart- ment of the Interior, in 1897, Dr. Deville makes the following com- ment on this scheme :
The saving in the cost of survey would be considerable.
No reason occurs to me why, in fiat prairie, all the advantages claimed for the proposed plan should not be realized. The only serious objection is that, in a rolling country, the central village and the small hamlets might fall in undesirable places. An eligible site may, however, always be found at some section corner which can be taken as the central point and from which the system can be extended in all directions, but this would involve some sacrifice in the general regularity of the plan.
I am inclined to believe that the Governor in Council has the power, under the Dominion Lands Act, to authorize surveys under the new plan. Surveys already made can be changed to the new plan upon requisition of the Lieutenant Governor with the consent of the Governor in Council; no additional survey is needed.
Dr. Deville's objection to the possible location of the central village is one which can be raised to survey plans of whatever pattern which are prepared on a definite system of lines without regard to topography or other local conditions. The location of the village should be one of the first considerations in planning an agricultural area; the village should be placed most conveniently to the railway, or so located as to enable a good road to connect it with the railway, and such questions as those of water and power supplies should be considered. No preconceived plan should prevent these matters being taken into account. When areas are planned to secure effi-
Commission of Conservation Town- Planning Branch
Fig. 8
Division of Township in'Railway Belt showing allotments to Railway Company, Hudson Ba^ Company and Schools.
Government Lands. I ■ I
Canadian Pacific Railway Lands y//yyy>i
Hudaon Bay Lands. _
Fig. 9
Scheme for dividing a Township of 36 Sq.Miles, as proposed b^ the late Sir Wiliiam Van Home, President of the Canadian Paci'fic" Railway Co.
See Pages 52 and 53
Fig. 11
C L E R G V E
Plan of Community Scheme in Northern Ontario. See Page 56
W A L 1^ E R'*'i»« /■"?**-' €r
RURAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT 55
ciency and the economic use and development of the land, it will be found that every district will have to be considered on its merits. Even on flat prairie land there are local considerations, position of railways and rivers, etc., which prevent acceptance of a fixed and general system as a means of making the best use of the land.
Australia also suffers as the result of the adoption of the rectangu- lar system of survey as a basis of land division and subdivision. The need for some change is expressed in a letter addressed to the Premier of Western Australia by Mr. G. M. Nunn, president of the Institution of Surveyors of that state, from which the following quotation is taken :
When providing for settlement in groups, it would be advisable to abandon our present rectangular chess-board designs for subdivision, and to adopt a system providing for radial centres, where a few village lots could be set out, and where the settlers could live closer together, and thus enjoy a more sociable life. This system would be specially appli- cable to the south coast country, where the farms would be small in area. It would give better opportunities for visiting experts to impart advice. It would stimulate the settler to greater effort and would attract tradesmen, storekeepers, etc.
No doubt there would be the same objections to a radial plan as a fixed form of sub-division in Australia as in Canada. As already stated, we should get away from any kind of fixed system — radial or rectangular — ^which is independent of natural conditions. The directness 6f route and closer settlement to be obtained by a radial system of roads are only two of the matters to be borne in mind in planning, although, other things being equal, the radial lines are pre- ferable to the zig-zag roads of the right-angled plan.
Mr. W. C. Morham, of New Liskeard, who has farmed for some years in the clay belt of Northern Ontario, and Mr. A. C. Flumerfelt, late Finance Minister of British Columbia, are among those who advocate a radial plan. As a result of experience, both as a farmer and as reeve of his township, Mr. Morham claims that 80 acres is sufficient for a farm, especially for townsmen taking up farming. He writes : —
Such a scheme would make for economy of working and largely solve the problem of the rural school, but no scheme will be successful so long as land is held vacant ... It has taken me some time to arrive at the best plan for laying out the farm communities, and I have adopted the radial system rather than the narrow rectangular lots, with the idea of get- ting the dwellings close enough together to have a water ser- vice to the houses. This, I think, is of immense importance. Wedge shaped farms should not be greatly objected to, as
M COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
the squarest of farms may be crossed by ravines and creeks, which are a law unto themselves.
Proposed Village Scheme in Northern Ontario
A plan of a different type is proposed by Mr. William Hender- son, who has spent a large portion of the last ten years in Northern Ontario and has travelled many thousands of miles through it. The significance of Mr. Henderson's scheme lies in the fact that he ap- proaches the question from the point of view of the social student, interested primarily in the moral and physical improvement of the rural population, and that, having studied the question from that point of view, he has come to the conclusion that proper planning is the first thing necessary to secure an effective remedy for unsatisfactory social conditions. Whatever the merits or demerits of the details of his scheme, it has unquestionable value as indicating some directions in which improvement is needed and can be found.
A plan of Mr. Henderson's scheme, prepared by H. B. and L. A, Dunnington Grubb of Toronto, is shown on figure 10. This plan has been prepared without regard to the topographical or soil conditions, as it is merely intended for illustration of the prin- ciples underlying the scheme. Mr. Henderson gives the following description of his proposal and of the reasons which led him to put it forward :
The hundreds of deserted homesteads seen everywhere in Northern Ontario, the apparent poverty of a great many of the remaining settlers, and, above all, the dissatis- faction with existing conditions, together with a desire for the amenities of city life, can lead to only one conclusion. If the great clay belt, with its vast potential agricultural wealth is ever to support a thriving population, a policy in regard to land settlement, differing widely to that obtaining in the past, must be put into force.
Until the government and people of Ontario are prepared to face the fact that conditions obtaining one hundred years ago no longer apply, all future schemes for land settlement like those which have been attempted in the past will fail. A day has arrived when intelligent and ambitious young people, with the experience of a past generation before them, will no longer face the privations of pioneer life. The woman will no longer be induced to leave the social amenities of the city for the isolation and slavery of a backwoods farm and, without the woman's help, the man is impotent. The man is unable to see sufficient reward for the years of drudgery and toil held out to him.
When stock farming is not made a specialty, the far- mer can operate as efficiently, when living within easy reach
RURAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT 57
of his farm, as he can when living on his farm. In Northern Ontario, the pioneer farmer will be unable to attempt stock farm- ing for many years, except on a very small scale. If the village were surrounded by community grazing land, the live stock would never need to be taken to the farm at all. All schemes so far proposed for land settlement in Northern Ontario presuppose the construction of a good road for the transpor- tation of farm produce. Given a good road there is no reason why farmers should not live community life in villages with city conveniences, and be taken to and from their farms each day.
In the proposed scheme the cost of building blocks of dwellings and barns in villages would be less than the cost of individual dwellings and barns on each farm. With central heating for the village, water supply, electric light and power, immense economies in the time of the farmer and his family would be effected; with co-operative marketing and supplies, great economies and increased profits could be effected; with a village school within a few minutes'. .walk of every house, the children would have more time to help, and with half the chores eliminated, the farmers' time for the six winter months would be free and could be employed on lumbering or other industries started in the village.
The scheme calls for the construction of 13 miles of good road, giving direct frontage to 171 farms of 80 acres each. It is proposed that half of each farm, 40 acres, nearest the good road should be allotted to each farmer and sufficient cleared and drained to enable him to make a living. A ser- vice of motor trucks travelling at suitable hours^ along the two main roads would carry the farmer to and from his fields and carry produce. Cheap sheds on the fields, to shelter machin- ery and horses, would be the only buildings required.
It is proposed that all village property, pasture lands, allotments, etc., should be the property of a joint stock com- pany, with guaranteed bonds and a fixed rate of interest. The plans show two types of house for varying sized families, the rents to include heating and hot and cold water supply. The central heating plant would be run with unmarketable wood as fuel, of which there will be an abundant supply for some years to come. For the benefit of those with large families, or an inclination for the raising of garden produce, half-acre allotments in the immediate vicinity of the village are shown.
The centre of the village would consist of one main street, on which would be built such public buildings as are essential to any community life. (Figure 12.)
Manitoba Scheme As in Northern Ontario so in Western Canada, there are the same allegations of poverty and deterioration, due to social isolation, be- cause of the failure to recognize that social intercourse is one of the ne-
58 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
cessities of healthy life, and there are the same kinds of proposals being put forward to deal with them, showing the general recognition of the need for better planning as a first step in reform.
Professor A. A. Stoughton, of the University of Manitoba, writes as follows* regarding a settlement scheme proposed to be carried on in that province:
The usual homesteading plan of settling families on sec- tions or quarter sections, using only the rectangular system of road allowance, and marking the centre by a promiscuous group of shacks around the railway platform, may have done in the past for our immigrants, but for people whose spirit has been quickened by the thrilling experiences of the past two years, whether in the fighting line or as non-combatants, something more than this is necessary. Otherwise our settlers will be- come embruited with the loneliness of their isolation and the deadening influence of their surroundings, without alleviation of any socializing agency.
It has been amply proved in the discussions of the recent Social Welfare Congress that if people living on the land are not to degenerate, there must be some sort of community life and the opportunity aud the impulse toward a social spirit. There must be an incentive to get together.
It may well be questioned whether any such common ac- tivity could be long maintained in the centre of the usual sort, utterly deformed, squalid and ugly, and lacking the barest necessities for the inspiration of a civic spirit. The whole area settled must be properly planned to make the easiest access from the furthest farm to the centre ; the centre must be laid out and the building and other features planned with the same sort of care and respect for appearance and the require- ments of the situation as is exercised in the civic centres of towns and cities.
To improve this situation, two things are involved. The first concerns the general plan. The deadly rectangle of sec- tion lines must be replaced by diagonal or other roads adjusted to the particular conditions, as indicated in the report of the Commission of Conservation, by which distances to travel and the mileage of roads to construct and maintain are greatly reduced, and account must be taken of the topography, streams, woods, or other natural features, in order to make the most convenient and effective plan.
A suitable area should be devoted to community purposes ; sites for the school and the community hall; locations for the hotel, the store, the creamery, and all this properly related to the railway station, freight shed, elevator, and other build- ings. Around and near the school might be school gardens,
* Manitoba Free Press, February, 1917.
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RURAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT 59
through the care of which the children would not only learn about plants and cultivation, but they would cultivate an interest in their parents' chief concern.
The planting of trees along all the roads is very desir- able, for shade in summer, a windbreak in winter, and at all seasons for the beauty of the landscape. In places not purely rural, where villages might grow up and where small shops or manufacturing plants might be located, a further de- velopment of the centre would include the planning of these industrial sites, and possibly a group of houses for the opera- tives, on the lines of the English garden cities.
The necessity of thus providing the setting must be grasped by someone of sufficient vision to read the signs of the times and appreciate the needs of rural life.
Such a scheme is about to be carried out not far from Win- nipeg. (Figure 12.) The Greater Winnipeg Water District is plan- ning a settlement at Mile 79, which will fulfil, as far as the con- ditions permit, most of the requirements suggested above, and a group of homesteaders are now waiting for the whistle to blow in order to enter upon this promised land.
The Dominion Government gives the land and consents to a certain deviation from the section lines for the roads. The Provincial Government is to make the physical improve- ments— roads, drainage, etc. The Colonization Department will help in the settling of the men, and will render aid in vari- ous ways in starting them in the development of the land, while the Agricultural Department will give them advice as to the best use of the land and instruction in various horti- cultural processes and methods.
Practicability of Community Settlements
These isolated schemes are interesting and helpful in their sug- gestiveness. Theoretically, a great many of the ideas put forward are sound and are based on a right understanding of the root causes of present difficulties. But every system of planning land has its de- fects, and some which seem to be right in theory do not work out satisfactorily in practice. There is no system which can be put for- ward as suitable for general application. Moreover, it will probably be found that the "promised land" of the communal schemes will not materialize to anything like the extent anticipated. Difficulties of fitting in the new methods with the old will crop up; prejudiced officialdom will be encountered; individual self-seeking will lead to friction in the co-operative enterprises; some part of the machinery will fail. There is also the danger that in trying new methods the promoters may be too fanciful. They will start schemes that will cost too much, and therefore be condemned at their inception before
60 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
proper trial; or they will fail to take advantage of the good qualities of the system which has already been tried, and assume too much per- fection of the ideas that have not been put to a practical test.
One difficulty that has to be met in connection with these schemes is the misunderstanding which is caused by the wrong use of terms. The words "community" and "colonization" have taken on many mean- ings, and to a large number of people they are anathema, because they suggest something of an institutional character or something relating to racial or religious community settlement. It should not be necessary to point out that the proper planning of land will not affect the individual freedom of the settler or the members of his family. But because the present system has the presumed merit of representing the extreme of individualism, and be- cause some "communal schemes" have been socialistic in character, it is unfortunately true that this has prejudiced many settlers against departure from the individualistic method of settlement. The right kind of plan and scheme of development will facilitate but not force social intercourse, will permit but not compel co-opera- tion, and will not affect, in the slightest degree, the individual who wishes complete freedom of action.
^t a "Closer Community" conference held at Regina, in 1915, a scheme to promote the settlement of agricultural communities was put forward by Mr. J. H. Haslam, of the Regina Board of Trade. The scheme seemed to involve too much paternalism on the part of the government and met with a good deal of criticism, on the ground that the artificial promotion of village communities would not solve the real problem, namely, the unfavourable economic conditions underlying the agricultural industry. It was held by some speakers that the village community tended to attract people of the same nationalities to settle in groups, retarding the process of making the foreign settlers into Canadian citizens with Anglo-Saxon ideals; and that the greatest need was to promote the prosperity and the improvement of social conditions for those already on the land rather than for bringing a greater area under cultivation.
On general principles the advantages of closer settlement were not opposed, but only the artificial promotion of that kind of settle- ment by means of government subsidies. The creation of an improved organization to further the agricultural interests and to secure bet- ter means of raising capital for farming purposes was urged. There seemed to be a general agreement as to the injury caused by speculation, the need for filling up the vacant lands held by ab-
RURAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT
61
sentee owners, the desirability of an investigation being made into the social and economic conditions of Western Canada and the value of co-operation underlying the idea of community settlement. What was objected to were the financial details of the scheme and its pater- nalistic character. The conference was attended by leaders of public opinion in the western provinces, and, while it revealed the prejudice of some of these leaders to anyscheme which savoured of "socialism," it showed remarkable unanimity regarding the need for improved eco- nomic and social conditions, and for filling up vacant lands and pro- moting co-operation as a means to obtain that improvement.
The artificial creation of co-operative communities has seldom proved successful as a means of promoting permanent settlement of the land.* In certain instances religious ties have held some commu- nities together for long periods in spite of financial difficulties, but, as a general rule, they have ended in failure. In any scheme of settle- ment there must be full opportunity for the exercise of individual initiative and enterprise and as little reliance as possible on the pater- nalism of governments, if success is to be attained. But, without undue interference with individual freedom, governments of civilized communities must provide the impulse, direction and organization necessary to promote the successful enterprise of the individual citizens. In Canada the governments organize and plan the settlement of land. If the way in which they do it leads to waste, and is not economically sound, it will hamper rather than help individual enter- prise. The land can be planned and settled in a businesslike way, so as to facilitate co-operation and make social intercourse easy, without any greater restraint on the individual, or anything more artificial in the way of organization than we have at present. The merit of co-operation is that it recognizes the individual as an inde- pendent unit and leaves unimpaired his self-reliance and initiative. It may be a harmful thing to create village communities by an arti- ficial process and with financial aid from governments; it is not a harmful thing to so plan and settle the land that the village community will grow up in a natural way. In all these things we want less arti- ficial and stereotyped methods and more room for discretion and the free play of individual and social forces. But we must give expert guidance, and facilities for co-operation, in proportion as we extend individual freedom.
*"The deepest impression left on the mind by a review of their history is that "Se^cl '^o'^^u^ties are a failure." (Figure 13.) Dr. Josiah Strong in Social
62 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
Diagrams Illustrating Certain Principles of Planning Rural
Areas
In the Seventh Annual Report of the Commission of Conservation two diagrams were shown as illustrations of the report of the Town Planning Branch. (Figures 14 and 15.)
The diagrams show eight different methods of planning quarter sections of townships, each method being independent of the others. As stated in the legend accompanying the diagrams imaginary areas are taken and planned so as to secure the necessary conveniences for traffic and the proper classification of good and bad land. Under any of the proposed systems less road would require to be provided than in an ordinary rectangular division, while in country of average physical conditions less land would be wasted and roads could be shorter in length and therefore could be better constructed. The following comment accompanying the diagrams appears on page 123 of the above report :
The proposal is not to substitute a new for an old method of stereotyped development, but to substitute an elastic and scientific method for one which is based on no definite prin- ciples. Each township should be planned as a unit before settlement, and certain principles followed to enable the best re- sults to be obtained. The diagrams are merely an illustration of some of the principles which require to be considered, and are not to be taken as indicating any particular point of view as regards size of farms or how a particular site should be dealt with. Different circumstances and conditions prevail in dif- ferent provinces and in different parts of each province, and it is precisely because of these differences that a less rigid form of land division is needed to encourage and facilitate agricultural settlement.
It cannot be too often emphasized that what is required is the departure entirely from any kind of rigid system, except for measure- ment purposes, so that more discretion may be permitted, and regard paid to topographical and physical conditions. While this is true of areas which are surveyed and laid out for purely agricultural purposes, it is even more true in cases where land is being sub-divided for build- ing.
Townsites and Building Sub-Division Plans in Rural Areas
We are not concerned in this report with the purely urban aspects of land development, but, in so far as the system of laying out new townsites or suburban land in rural areas is defec- tive, it injures such areas and adds to administrative burdens of rural municipalities. Those who advocate "town planning" are sometimes
Fig. 14
Commission of Conse^vaUon H Town Planiinj Branch A
PLAN FOR AGRICULTURAL SETTLEMENT
Area,36 square miles
, Scale
0 >?~
Road$.
TovtnArea^.^^
I Mile Sites of farm Buildings].
^:>JThis and the succeeding diagram show eight different methods of planning quarter sections of townships. Imaginary areas are taken and roads are planned to secure (1) close settlement of the farm buildings, (2) convenience and directness of access to the town area and station, (3)reduction in length of road, (4) use of swampy and rocky land for timber reserves. The buildings are also grouped so as to obtain the best social facilities and economic use of wells for water supply. In the town area it is assumed there would be good facilities for obtaining educa- tion, medical advice, and recreation — and an organized co-operative agency under Government auspices to supply farm implements, seeds, etc., to the farmers and to collect and distribute farm produce. On this diagram the total length of road provided to give access to all the farms is 46 miles, of which 11 miles are secondary and not essential. Under an ordinary rectangular divi- sion plan the total length of road is 54 miles. In addition to the saving in road construction and maintenance, which would be effected by proper planning, there would be the great saving in time and team labour for the farmer, owing to the greater nearness of the farms to the centre. Fewer and more direct roads mean better roads, because it is possible to concentrate a given expenditure on a smaller area.
See Page 62.
Fig. 15
PLAH. FOR
AGRliDULTURAL SETTLLMENT
Area,36 square rhiles
J Scale
<5 ^ I Mile
/foad&^zzz toirn/lreaj^^ Sites of rarm Buildln^^
In this diagram it is assumed that the square forrn of land division for the separate farms must be adhered to as a condition precedent to the planning of the area. Varieties of size of holding from 80 acres (near the town) to 400 acres (remote from the town) are provided for, but all holdings could be made 160 acres if desired. A different plan is shown for each of the quarter sections, adaptable to the imaginary topography of the land, the only feature common to all the quarter sections being the main roads intersecting the township in two directions — one parallel with the railway and the other at right angles thereto. All the farms are grouped so as to give them convenient access to the town, where the same facilities are presumed to exist as are de- scribed in respect of Diagram 2. The total length of road usually provided in a fully developed township is 54 miles. In this plan there are 36§ miles of principal and 3| miles of secondary road, making a total of 40 miles. Every farm has sufficient road frontage, and the same length of boundary road is allowed for in both the above cases.
The object of these diagrams is not to suggest stereotyped or rigid forms of land division, but to show the desirability of abandoning such forms. Every township should be inspected and planned before settlement.
RURAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT 63
met with the argument that a city or town grows and that it is not practicable to artificially direct its growth. To anyone who is ac- quainted with the process of town development on the American continent this argument must sound absurd, since there could be nothing more artificial than the method of laying out and developing cities and towns in the United States and Canada.
Sites for new towns are most frequently selected by the railway companies which, naturally, have regard, in the first place, to the locations most convenient for the area served by the railway, and, in the second place, to what will assist them in selling and developing their own land. The Canadian Pacific Railway Company says its real interest in the settlement of land only begins after the land is sold to the settler, and it has demonstrated this by the way in which it operates demonstration farms and employs expert advice for those who colonize under its system. The business instinct of this and other companies naturally leads them to select the townsites most useful to them — although the selection may not be the best for the public inter- est as a whole.
In the Manual of Instructions to Dominion Land Surveyors the following directions or suggestions have been given to surveyors in regard to the division of townsites: —
54. The streets and avenues of a townsite usually cross each other at right angles. The direction of the streets and ave- nues is made to conform to the natural features of the ground, the avenues following what is expected to be the direction of the main traffic. No street or avenue is less than 66 feet. (Main streets or avenues may be 99 feet).
57. Lots are usually made 66 ft. x 99 ft. or 50 ft. x 150 ft. When lots are laid out less than 66 feet a lane not less than 20 feet wide must be made at the rear of the lots.
While the above appear to be the general rules it is stated that the method may be varied to suit circumstances, and due attention must be given to provincial law. The suggestion that the direction of the streets conform to the natural features need hardly be made, since the surveyor is so prescribed by the right-angled system, and by the width and depth of lots, that he can only consider natural features within very narrow limits.
A townsite plan prepared under the Dominion rules is illus- trated in figure 16. These rectangular plans, with their unnec- essarily wide streets and lanes, after every allowance is made for their advantages, have not led to good results. The wide streets and lanes have not given air space, because the cost of paving and maintaining
64 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
them is so great that the buildings on the lots have to be congested ; and they have not given convenience, because the paving has to be defer- red so long, owing to their great superficial area, that they remain great wildernesses of mud or dust, according to the season of the year. In most cases the lanes remain unlighted, unpaved, and a dumping ground for garbage. Indirectly they produce bad sanitary conditions, because the cost of the streets reduces the amount avail- able to spend on the dwellings.
The chief advantage of the rectangular plan is, unfortunately, that its uniform lot sizes and dimensions assist speculation in land. It suits the interests of speculating owners, who act without regard to the public welfare. Starting with the unit laid out by the surveyors in the first instance, the city or town is gradually developed in separate pieces, without any one piece having a definite relation to the other pieces.
Effect of Rural on Urban Planning
The influence of the system of laying out land for agricultural purposes on the system of laying out land for building purposes is seen in all countries, but probably the most direct connection between the rural and urban systems of survey is to be found on the American continent. The rectangular system of lay-out of the city and town in the United States and Canada has been less a matter of choice, by those who laid out the land for building, than a matter of evolu- tion from the square mile section to the right-angled building lot. Some of the critics of the kind of rectangular plan which has prevailed on this continent seem to overlook this fact. The criticism of Mr. H. R. Aldridge,* that the plans of American cities are "little better than block plans of sites, planned grid-iron fashion to facilitate the operations of speculators in real estate," is largely true. But the origin of the plan seems to have been the rectangular system of sur- vey in rural districts, and this was not deliberately designed to facili- tate speculation although one of its results was to do so.f
We thus see the important connection between rural planning and city or town planning, and between rural planning and speculation in building lots. The greater part of new development in the future will take place on what is now rural territory under the adminis- tration of rural councils. These councils are now layijng the founda- tions of the future extensions of cities. They have the power to
* " The Case for Town Planning" page 109. t See footnote page 45.
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Irregular Plan of Mediaeval Period, A.D. 1550. Note Irregular Design in City and Surrounding Rural Territory.
RURALt PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT 65
prevent most of the bad conditions of development, as by the time the city or town extends its boundaries to include the partially devel- oped areas outside the conditions and planning in these areas are to a large extent fixed.
The city and the town have therefore a direct interest in the planning of the rural districts, and the rural council has a direct responsibility in planning the urban developments in these districts. This joint interest and responsibility is recognized in the City and Suburbs Act of Ontario, which gives the large cities of over 50,000 inhabitants a voice in the planning of the lay-out of streets within a radius extending five miles beyond its boundaries, although it falls far short of what is necessary to control suburban development.
Ancient Rectangular Plans
The earliest known plans of cities were mostly rectangular in form, and in these real estate speculation in the American sense must have been unknown. The plan of Kahun in Egypt, founded about 2500 B.C., that of the Greek city of Priene on the Aegean coast, and that of the Roman city of Timgad (A.D. 100) are typical of the chessboard patterns of ancient times. The early city build- ers carefully selected the sites for their cities, and, owing to their small size, were able to level them when necessary to suit the plan. But neither these plans nor the more irregular plans of the medieval period had any particular relation to the plans of the rural districts adjoining them. Military and other reasons, which have no bearing on planning in the New World, were the do- minant influences guiding the design of the rectangular systems in ancient Greece and Rome, on the one hand, and the irregular and crowded city growth which took place within the circular walls and forti- fications in the middle ages on the other hand. (Figures 17 and 18.)
The Beginnings of Urban Planning
In modern times the rapid growth of large cities over great stretches of rural territory has introduced a factor unknown in ancient history. In Great Britain, the main roads of the counties and rural districts become the arteries of the cities, as the former are ab- sorbed by the latter. These main roads and the well-made secondary roads have their frontages built up before the city grows out of them and help to pre-determine the lines of develoj^ment. The boundaries of agricultural estates and also of fields have their influence on the lay-out for building, while the railways and rivers share in fixing the lines of the streets and building plan to a large extent. As the rectangu-
66 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
lar plan of the farms in Canada lays the foundation of the rectangular plan of the city, so the irregular rural development of the British coun- try side helps to lay the foundation of the irregular city growth. In Germany, the small and narrow farm freeholds around the cities have always influenced the street and building plans. To get over the difficulties and inconvenience caused by these small ownerships, a law* was passed in Frankfort-on-Main to compulsorily adjust and re-arrange the boundaries of the separate parcels of land to fit in with the street plan.
The influence of the rectangular plan of rural territory in the development of the city plan is seen in Penn's plan of Philadelphia, (illustrated on plate VI), which was prepared in 1682. Thomas Holme, the Surveyor General of Pennsylvania, who prepared this plan under Penn's direction, showed that he was probably influenced by the square system of subdividing the farms. The chess- board system is the natural and easiest to follow when the townships and farms form the basis of the town plan, and when it is necessary to consider how to provide for the largest number of building lots with interference to the least number of owners of farms. It will also be seen that the rectangular divisions in the Penn township had no rela- tion to the diagonal roads which formed the means of communica- tion from the city to the surrounding country, and they had still less relation to the physical features of the land.
Although these are urban developments, and will therefore require to be dealt with more fully in the urban report, it has been necessary to refer to them here so as to show that it is while territory is still under the control of the rural municipality that the framework of the plans of cities and towns are determined. In the schemes now being promoted to establish new towns for the workers in new pulp mills, certain choice positions have to be selected, as the mills require to be comparatively close to timber timits, and must have water-power and facilities for transportation. Plans for all such new development should be prepared by competent persons and should be approved by the government authorities. The object of such plans should be to provide healthy conditions for the workers in the factories and mills, together with convenience of arrangement to secure the most efficient methods of carrying on the industry, and not merely blind conformity to mean- ingless division lines of a rectangular division.
A plan of a new town which is proposed to be developed is illus- trated in figure 19, and an alternative plan for the same area, showing
• The "Lex Adickes" passed in 1902.
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See page 67.
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Fig. 21
MAP OF THE CITY OF HEREFORD
Showing the influence of the irregular development of the surrounding rural district on the method of growth and the lines of communication of the city. This irregular development, being influ- enced to a large extent by topographical considerations, affords, in many respects, a more rational basis for development than the rectangular plan, which ignores natural conditions.
See page 67.
Fig. 22
SECTION OF ORDNANCE MAP OF EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND Scale 880 feet to one inch.
This map shows an area of suburban agricultural land within a radius of 2| miles of the centre of the city of Edinburgh. There are no building sub-divisions, as the land is not allotted for building until it is ripe for the purpose. All the land is intensively cultivated and is rented to farmers and nurserymen at from $15 to $25 per acre. It is taxed at half its agricultural value so long as it is used for agriculture. In a large Canadian city this land and thousands of acres further out would be lying practically idle because of speculation in building lots.
The map shows details of buildings, etc., indicated on all small scape maps in Great Britain. Similar maps should be prepared for Canadian cities, a work which would afford a suitable field of employment for many ex-service men.
RURAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT 67
the sub-divisions in conformity with the rectangular system of survey, is shown in figure 20. These two plans prove the point which has been somewhat laboured in this chapter, namely, that no fixed or definite system of planning is desirable and that every plan should vary with the circumstances, conditions and topography. The meaning of this is that planning in all the provinces must be under the control of skilled departments and officials trained to exercise discretion and intelligence in laying out and developing the land. Probably such men could be recruited from the surveying profession, subject to their training being widened to suit them for their new duties; they need not be less accurate in their measurements owing to the fact that they have to take fresh conditions into consideration. We have seen that the influence of the rural plan on the urban plan is not confined to new countries. But it is mostly in the new coun- tries that the rural plan is rectangular and so completely ignores the topography of the ground. The main roads and the farm and field boundaries of Great Britain have some regard to natural conditions, so that, with all their irregularity, they provide a better and more rational foundation for the urban plan than the rectangular survey plan of rural Canada. Farm land should be planned, first, to secure its best economic use for agricultural purposes, and, second, to adapt itself to the natural features of the country-side. If and when this land became adaptable for building purposes, it could then be replan- ned to fit in with the general plan of the city or town. The rural plan, being a topographical plan, would then provide the right basis for the city or town plan. (Figures 21 and 22).
Present Control of Sub-Division Surveys
Apart from those provinces which have town planning Acts in force, to which reference will be made later, a small amount of government control is exercised over the sub-division of lots, particu- larly in unorganized territory, and no general system of planning has yet been Inaugurated in any province with the exception of the begin- ning which has been made in Nova Scotia. The requirement in some western provinces that five per cent of all new townsites or sub-divi- sions must be reserved for open space is of great value, but it would be more so if the space was reserved as a part of a proper plan of development.
We have seen that some of the worst results of the present rec- tangular system, as a basis of development, are shown in the building: subdivisions in rural areas lying adjacent to cities and towns. It is there that the plan of the country and the plan of the city influence
eg COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
and control each other; and it is there that the most inconvenient forms of development and some of the worst sanitary conditions are to be found in Canada. The same is true of the outer suburbs of cities in the United States.* The proper planning of these subur- ban areas is of the utmost importance in connection with the future development of Canadian life. These are the districts which are more in need of control under proper planning and development schemes than any other. At present sub-divisions are laid out without regard being paid to the best lines and widths of main lines of communi- cation, to physical conditions or to convenience. (Figures 23 and 24). But even if we were tied to the rectangular system for township and farm boundaries, that is no reason for not re-planning within these boundaries to suit proper and economic building development as soon as the time arrives for the farm land to be converted into building land. In settled districts we may be compelled to continue to put up with the inconvenience caused by farm roads approaching lakes, hills and escarpments at right angles, and crossing ravines where the maximum of cost is required to be incurred to overcome physical obstacles; but, as soon as building sub-division takes place, a new set of conditions arise and an entire change of plan is needed. Proper planning will give more convenient means of communication between the country and the town, a matter of great importance in connection with cheapening the cost of production and making farming more profitable. This question of communication by road is part of the large problem of transportation and distribution which is dealt with in the succeeding chapter.
Land Classification
Side by side with proper planning for agricultural and building purposes a more extensive system of land classification is needed. A beginning has been made in some of the older provinces to secure the classification and selection of suitable land for farming and the setting aside of unsuitable lands for afforestation, etc. Reference is made on page 26, to the 'provision adopted some years ago by the Ontario Government to prevent settlement of bad land. If a
* Here and there on the outskirts of the village or on the back streets and alleys and even in the open country there can be seen old houses and shacks which exhibit all the characteristics of the worst city slum, as insanitary and filthy and overcrowd- ed as any building in the North End of Boston or on the East Side of New York. More or less bad housing is to be found in the country all over the United States. — Elmer S. Forbes, Chairman State Housing Com. Mass. Civic League.
* It is a curious fact in connection with suburban housing that nearly every time we enlarge the boundary of a city we take in an embryo slum. — Otto W. Davis, Minneapolis.
Fig. 23
PORTION OF PLAN OF GREENFIELD PARK Scale, fJnch^ 300 feet
See footnote to Figure 24.
Fig. 24
Mil, mm jt t
AMOS VILLAGE— DALQU I ER AND FIGUERY, TIMISCAMING COUNTY.
Figures 23 and 24. — These figures illustrate two township plans in Quebec. Greenfield Park in Figure 23 shows the grotesque length to which rectangular planning can go. Formerly subdivided into small market garden holdings it is now being "planned" by each separate owner with numerous cul-de-dacs, absurd variations in street widths, meaningless straight lines and apparent disregard to the public convenience. Streets vary in width from 30 to 66 feet, the nar- rowest streets being the most important thoroughfares. Edward Boulevard is not a highway and at present there is no means of through communication in one direction across the town for a length of one and a half miles.
Amos Village goes to the opposite extreme in having too much road space and too many main thoroughfares. It is characteristic of the more elaborately planned Quebec townsite, made to fit in with the regulation provincial survey, without regard to natural conditions. The streets vary in width from 70 feet to 100 foet, and in all cases there are lanes 20 feet wide. Over 35 per cent of the land is taken up with road space, of which about half would be adequate for traffic needs, if properly planned, and would be as much as the in- habitants of the average town could afford to construct and maintain.
See page 68.
RURAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT 69
township contains less than 40 per cent of good land the policy of the Ontario Government is to keep it closed from settlement for the growing of timber. The declared object of the Government is to keep the lands of the Crown for the use for which they are best adap- ted. Owing, however, to the great area of the province and the scattered nature of the settlement it must be well-nigh impossible to secure adequate inspection. There are 140,000,000 acres in Ontario. In 1910 the Minister of Lands, Forests and Mines announced that 46,000,000 acres in the province had been surveyed and 24,000,000 acres alienated or located. Classification and inspection of such a large area cannot be effectively performed unless preceded by more elaborate and detailed plans of the land than are now prepared.
The Immigration and Colonization Branch of the Manitoba Government is now engaged in compiling information with a view to classifying land in the province, and is making efforts to locate settlers on the land best adapted for the class of farming they wish to take up.
In New Brunswick a survey of Crown lands for the purpose of classification was inaugurated in 1916. The object of the survey was to estimate the amount of timber on the land and to delineate the land suitable for agricultural development.* An Act passed in New Brunswick in 1912 created a Farm Settlement Board, which is authorized to purchase abandoned farms, improve them and erect buildings thereon, afterwards selling them to bona fide settlers.
In British Columbia the need for better classification and bet- ter planning was voiced at a meeting of the Advisory Board of the Farmers' Institutes, held recently in Victoria. The board came to the conclusion that the pre-emption system of land now in force in the province was a failure and recommended that:
Suitable areas of land in different portions of the province be selected by competent agriculturists, the same to be avail- able for homestead entry, and that other agricultural areas not already alienated should be closed for settlement till fur- ther lands are needed. It was argued that this would, in addi- tion to assisting the individual farmer, be more economical from the point of view of the administration of moneys, in road and bridge building.
Under the present system, pre-emptors often are isolated altogether or are in small communities, and the government must, if these farmers are to be taken care of, construct roads for them and look after their transportation requirements.
* "The Classification of the Crown Lands in New Brunswick," by P. Z. Caver- hill, Eighih Annual Report, Commission of Conservation.
70 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
This, the board says, in a resolution which was adopted, would be a change for the better all round, would be favour- able to social conditions and tend toward the more successful settlement of the farming lands. The board, in this connec- tion, discussed the return of the soldiers and endorsed the co- operation land settlement scheme for them along the lines laid down in the report of the Returned Soldiers' Commission.
The value of the surveys being made for purposes of classifying land will depend on their accuracy. When complete surveys have to be made, and railways, roads, lakes, creeks, swamps, and other physical features have to be correctly delineated, great labour and expense is involved. It will be many years before any province in Canada can face the expense of making a complete survey of all or any considerable part of their territory. What is more practicable is a partial survey and classification of all the land, with a complete topographical survey of the more valuable and thickly settled areas, and the preparatioji of development schemes by all municipalities. There is also urgent need for complete surveys of areas within and adjoining cities and towns.
In the Australian system of surveying land regard is paid to the physical conditions in fixing the sizes and boundaries of the farms, to the purpose for which they are to be used, and to their boundaries. For instance, the Land Acts of Victoria, dealing with the Crown lands, while dividing the colony into arbitrary divisions for purposes of administration, enables the unalienated lands within these divisions to be divided into classes for purposes of agricultural use, such as agricultural or grazing lands, pastoral lands, swamp or reclaimed lands, auriferous lands, state forest, timber and water resources.
In each large district there is a Lands Classification Board, each board consisting of three persons competent to classify the land. Even the tenure under which the land is leased or its suitability for sale varies according to the class under which it comes. The farms range in size from 200 acres of first class agricultural land to 1,280 acres of third class grazing land. There is a limit to the area of land which may be leased by one person, varying from 640 acres of first class land to 1,000 acres of second class land.
The Board of Land and Works of Victoria can also purchase and replan or reclaim areas of good agricultural land, and dispose of it to settlers after improvement. A similar scheme of purchase, of such land as is not being put to adequate or proper use, is needed in Canada. The re-planning of such land would encourage its re- settlement, would enable fewer roads to be set apart and better roads to be made, and would permit of development schemes being pre-
Fig. 25
TOWNSHIP SETTLEMENT PLAN
Adapted to the Topography of Township 63, Range 20, west of the Third Meridian, Sasl<atchewan
Scale, 100 chains to an inch.
This plan by W. A. Begg, D. & S.L.S., shows roads and lots designed to suit heavily rolling and much broken country, with adaptability to the existing system of survey. The plan illus- trates the second of the three stages which have to be followed to properly plan a township. These are: (1) Survey to index and describe the land; (2) Survey of topography and preliminary planning of roads and lots, and (3) Final planning of proposed development to classify the land and to secure, inter alia, that the roads will avoid steep grades and sudden deflections rather than slight curves, and that the sites of the village and farm buildings will be planned in the most con- venient and healthy positions.
See page 71 .
Fig. 26
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The three upper diagrams are for a street running north and south, the three middle dia- grams for a street running east and west, and the three lower diagrams for a street running at an angle of 45 degrees with the meridian. The diagrams of the left-hand column are drawn for the winter solstice; of the centre column for the vernal and autumnal equinox; and of the right- hand column for the summer solstice. The zones between the curves are shaded in a series of tints, the lightest zone being in sunlight between eight and nine hours, and the solid black being without sunlight. The diagrams give the complete series of sunlight curves at typical seasons for streets running north-south, east-west, and at an angle of 45 degrees with the meridian. The height of the buildings is represented as one and one-half times the width of the street. In the north-south street the distribution is symmetrical, the buildings on either side receiving an equal amount. In the east-west street the surface of the street receives no sunlight at all during six months of the year, and the buildings on the south side are in perpetual shadow during the same period. In planning towns the east-west street should be avoided as far as possible and, where unavoidable, the buildings should be of moderate height and built in detached blocks. In the checkerboard plan the best distribution of sunlight