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whole of it is oceupied by cultivable lapa’ So far as our incomplete knowledge
of the country will allow us to draw any conclusions it may be said that the
northern limit to which cultivation of the land may proceed in a large way is
the line formed by Great Slave lake, Mackenzie river to the mouth of the Liard
river, and Liard river up to the mountains. This is approximately along the line
of latitude 61 degrees north.

North of this line excellent crops of garden vegetables (Plate V) and barley
have been raised along the valley of the Mackenzie at Wrigley and Norman,
and even as far north as Good Hope on the edge of the Arctic circle. Similar
crops might be grown in favourable localities in the country back from the river.
In general, however, it may be said that the greater part of this portion of the
basin inland from the streams is made up of spruce muskegs with little or no
drainage and a permanent frost only a few inches beneath the surface, which
would make farming impossible.

South of Great Slave and Liard river is an area within the Mackenzie basin
covering about 200,000 square miles of the Great Central plain, which from the
operations that have been carried on for years at the various trading posts of
Fort Nelson, Fort Liard, Simpson, Providence, Resolution, Fort Smith, and
Fort Vermilion, we know to be capable of supporting a population mainly by -
agriculture wherever the soil is suitable. Parts of this region are no doubt too
high above sea-level and other areas are low-lying spruce muskegs incapable
of drainage, and cannot be considered as possible agricultural land. How great
a part of this 200,000 square miles is to be considered unsuitable it is impossible
to say, but it is no doubt large. The best part of it is believed to be that portion
immediately adjoining the Peace river and its tributaries, especially Smoky river,
and referred to generally as the Peace River country.

' Within the limits of the Peace River country it has been edtinitited that
there are areas totalling in all some 10,000,000 acres of prairie or slightly wooded
country on which crops of vegetables and hardy grains can be successfully grown.
The remainder of the country is more heavily wooded with poplar, spruce, or
jackpine, and although the soil and climatic conditions are similar to those
which obtain in the prairie portions it will necessarily be more difficult to clear -
and much longer before it is taken up by settlers.

Of the Peace River region the northern area which centres about Fort
Vermilion is:apparently the most generally favourable for agriculture. Though
more than two degrees farther north than Peace River Crossing, where so much
settlement is now going on, the climatic conditions seem to be somewhat more
favourable, due no doubt,to the lower altitude, the country about Vermilion being
about 1,000 feet above the sea and the plateau behind Peace River Crossing at
least 1,000 feet higher still.

Fort Vermilion is the centre of a small farming community in which virtut
ally all the vegetables, wheat and other grains, and meat necessary for the sup- |
port of the community are produced. Only a small proportion of the arable
land is, however, cultivated, because lack of transportation facilities prevents
the farmers from getting their produce to a market. :

In the upper Peace River region an active immigration of settlers has been
going on for the last few years. Land is being taken up about a number iof
centres, mainly about Grande Prairie, Spirit River, Peace River Crossing, and
Dunvegan. Both farming and ranching are snocessfully carried on and since
the entry of the Edmonton, Dunvegan, and British Columbia railway into that
region in the summer of 1915 the settlers are able to sell their produce in the