favoured localities are there practical agricultural possi-
bilities. One such locality is the lower Liard River basin.
This locality appears to enjoy the most equable climate of
any of the far northern valleys and along this river and its
principal tributary, the Fort Nelson River (in British
Columbia), there are long stretches of alluvial terraces with
good to excellent soils for agricultural purposes. Here, also,
some of the upper terraces and even the uplands—mostly
heavily wooded—have agricultural possibilities and there
is some fair to good land around Fort Simpson on the
Mackenzie River. Another promising area further south
is the section southwest of Great Slave Lake around the
entrance of the Hay River and in the Hay River Valley,
particularly in the vicinity of Hay Lake, a section that may
be developed somewhat by the highway under construction
from Grimshaw to Hay River Post. These two sections
are of more than ordinary importance as promising agri-
cultural support for future mineral or other industrial
developments in the Mackenzie Valley. It is noteworthy

that they lie along present and indicated future main lines
of transportation.

Along the Alaska Highway, there are pockets of
agricultural land, some fairly extensive, as in the Toad,
Prophet, Muskwa, and lower Kechika Valleys, capable of
serving any local requirements that might be visualized as
developing along that route.

In southern and south-central Yukon, the agricultural
land is mostly on the lower terraces of the river valleys.
Here there is enough cultivable land to support a normal
influx of mining population, though, at present, gardening
is tné only agricultural activity. The only section that
might be developed into an agricultural community is the
Takhini-Dezadeash area in southwestern Yukon,
crossed by the Alaska Highway.

which is

Queen Charlotte Islands.—In considering areas which,
from a view-point of accessibility, are suited, or may be
made suitable for agricultural settlement, mention should
be made of the Queen Charlotte Islands—specifically
Graham Island, the largest and most northerly of the group.
Here there is what has been described as the largest con-
tinuous area of agricultural land on the coast of British
Columbia, estimated at 825,000 acres. This land is
presently undeveloped, poorly drained, and largely covered
with moss and scrub, but the cost of bringing it to cultivable
condition would appear small compared with that of
similarly bringing in timbered lands.

There is probably no part of the British Empire more
similar in precipitation, temperature, topography, and
original soil types to Holland and Denmark than the eastern
section of Graham Island. Like Holland, it has a fishing
industry, but one of immense variety and potentiality;
it has such timber as no country of Europe has ever seen:

it offers coal and other mineral wealth

, including promising
oil areas.

No part of the agricultural section is more

than a few miles from deep-water harbours. The proximity

of the area to Prince Rupert, the North Pacific terminal
of the Canadian National Railways, and to the direct
Ocean route to the Orient will be of great importance in
the economic development of these islands.

While this land may be somewhat more expensive to
bring into agricultural production by clearing and draining
than the parklands of the Canadian interior, its maritime
situation, assuring easy water transport, its equable climate
and freedom from drought and extremes of weather,
coupled with its great range of natural wealth, suggest its
consideration in any future plan for assisted colonization.

Future settlement of land in the North Pacific Region,
so far as it can be ordered or directed, should proceed as
follows:

Settlement of suitable and available lands in areas
now partially settled and accessible to present means
of transportation.

Settlement of areas offering the best vacant land
in present unsettled sections that are accessible or close
to present means of transportation and not too remote
from present settlement.

Settlement, when the pressure of demand for

agricultural land may be more urgent, of less accessible
areas. ;

While the above may be put forward as an expression
of broad settlement policy, the incidence of new trans-
portation projects may furnish a place utility for marginal
lands that may outweigh the advantage of prime soils and
the social advantage of contiguous settlement.

Soil surveys, with land classification showing present
Occupancy and disposition of land, should be continued
to cover the unsurveyed portion of the Peace River area
in Alberta, the Peace River Block in British Columbia,
the valleys of the Parsnip and lower Finlay Rivers, Hay
River Valley, the Musqua Valley, and the valleys of the
Nelson and Liard Rivers. Work in the Dezadeash Valley
is proceeding.

In view of the prospect of increased port and industrial
activity at Prince Rupert, soil surveys should be undertaken
in the Nass Valley and in valleys tributary to the lower
Skeena River. Surveys should be made of Graham Island in
the Queen Charlotte Islands to establish definitely the
extent of the areas suited to agricultural development and
the characteristics of the soils, to plan a system of drainage,

and to establish the cost of bringing such lands to a condition
suitable for settlement.

In the far northern zone, agricultural opportunity
would appear, at best, to be marginal, and any agricultural
development other than home gardens can only be comple-
mentary to the development of its prime resources. With
this in view, mindful also of the broad publicity the northern
regions have received through the war projects carried out
there, a careful control should be exe
settlement through the release onl
economically suitable, the

reised over agricultural
y of lands regarded as
acceptance only of types well

115}