IN BRITISH COLUMBIA

~ Cultivable Open
: Land Grazing
Surveyed Districts Suited and Wild
to Meadow
Settlement Lands
acres acres
Reace’ Rivers Blockmacmen sass eee a ee 2,000,000 1,400,000
Finlay-Parsnip Valley— |
Along Finlay and Parsnip Rivers....... 600,000 200,000
IMesilinkas Valleys sie arene costs 40,000)
@silinka Walleye vcce nce ao eae 20,000 | 5
@minecasVialley se ace ee eee 30,000 / 120,000
Nations bakestoctn sc eadiee scene ct ce nents 255,000!
Fort Nelson—Liard Section—
$———lower Kechikal acs ee ee eae 200,000)
=—Prophet-Musqua ae”. a ei 150,000)
or HorteNelsoniateass = ane ee eae = 195,000 > 635,000
Pontasshiver er re eee 20,000!
sRoad Rivera steers nts? Sheen 300,000 |
Canadian National Railways belt, including
(SI ANS omeneye natrie sone eee cee ee 800,000 1,400,000
*Queen Charlotte Islands................ 825,000
Total within North Pacific section of British |
(Columbia ote eas Ba ies rae 5,435,000 3,755,000
* Commission of Conservation—-Whitford and Craig.
RECAPITULATION
Total
a Cultivable
Soils
acres
Tne Albertaks kes. 4 eters aon ee ee ee Sau tae Rae cin poke 9,085,400
Ii Biase (COANE ooo oacoedaeanokdc ob esasancosoonl) SHOSHTOO
ineyukonw (estimated) er rrscy cece serreten nae naeneieiclicn 500,000
Grand total land suited to agricultural settlement... .| 15,020,400

It is known that in the Mackenzie Valley there are
areas of possible arable land, or land that may be cultivated
economically in the conditions of scarcity and high freighting
costs that exist there, which conditions will be intensified
with continuing substantial mineral or other development.
In this connection, it might not be too much to suggest
that conditions of production that would be impossible
in a land of agricultural plenty, such as Alberta or Ontario,
might represent economic opportunity in the generally
arid and barren northlands. It seems safe to assume
that there is enough such land in the Mackenzie Valley
and other unreported areas to raise the total of estimated
cultivable land within the North Pacific Region toa figure of
15,400,000 acres.

This estimate is regarded as covering land suited to
cropping and excludes grazing and woodlots: i.e., the
grazing and wooded areas are assumed to be in the lower

[ 44 ]

class soils. It would include ordinary farm pasturage
where farm cattle may be permitted to run seasonally on
fallow lands. It accordingly would correspond fairly
well with the type of land that has in the past been taken
up and settled in the Prairie Provinces and which is classed
by the Dominion Bureau of Statistics (Canada Year Book)

as “Agricultural Land—Occupied”.

The areas of this type of land in the three Prairie
Provinces are estimated as follows:

IManitobameese ts: 20,490 sq. miles — 13,113,600 acres
Saskatchewan...... 81,500 sq. miles — 52,160,000 acres
Albertans ric 54,820 sq. miles — 35,084,800 acres

156,810 sq. miles —100,358,400 acres

It will be seen that the 15,400,000 acres of agricultural
land considered suitable for settlement in the North Pacific
Region amount to about one-seventh of the occupied agri-
cultural land in the three Prairie Provinces, and that nearly
60 per cent of this settlement land in the Region is situated
within the Province of Alberta. It is perhaps not too
much to expect that as the frontiers recede these new lands
of the northwest will offer opportunities for agricultural
development comparable to those of the Prairie Provinces.

It might be argued that these more northerly areas are
less attractive climatically and socially, and are less accessible
than the more heavily settled southern areas. These
questions are open to debate. The section of this report
on Meteorology disproves many popular ideas as to the
climate of the Region. Progress in land and air trans-
portation and in communications is rapidly eliminating
social as well as physical handicaps. On the point of
accessibility, it might be noted that the greater part of the
Region, notably the Peace River district and contiguous
districts in British Columbia, is open to future channels of
transportation that will place it closer to Pacific ports
than almost all of the agricultural lands of the Prairie
Provinces.

Having in mind the fact that the chief development in
the Prairie Provinces has taken place within the present
century, it therefore seems reasonable to assume that the
normal pressure of population on land will, in the discernible
future, operate to bring the northwest agricultural lands,
with their complementary industries, to a population
density similar to the present density of the agricultural
lands of the Prairie Provinces taken as a whole, with their
complementary industries. With land of a quality gener-
ally comparable to that of the average of all sections of the
Prairie Provinces, with overall climatic conditions over
large sections of the area as favourable, with promising
mineral areas, and assuming an adequate development of
transportation facilities, there would seem to be no reason
why the North Pacific Region should not achieve an equi-
valent growth of population.

The population of the Prairie Provinces (1941 Census)
is about 2,420,000 in an area that contains 100,360,000
acres of land classified as “improved agricultural land and