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  HISTORY OF
  FARMING IN
  ONTARIO

  BY

  C. C. JAMES

  [Illustration: Publisher's Device]

  REPRINTED FROM

  CANADA AND ITS PROVINCES

  A HISTORY OF THE CANADIAN PEOPLE
  AND THEIR INSTITUTIONS
  BY ONE HUNDRED ASSOCIATES

  EDITED BY

  ADAM SHORTT AND A. G. DOUGHTY




  HISTORY OF FARMING
  IN ONTARIO

  BY

  C. C. JAMES

  C.M.G.

  [Illustration: Publisher's Device]

  TORONTO
  GLASGOW, BROOK & COMPANY
  1914




This Volume consists of a Reprint, for private circulation only, of the
One Hundred and Sixteenth Signed Contribution contained in CANADA AND
ITS PROVINCES, a History of the Canadian People and their Institutions
by One Hundred Associates.

Adam Shortt and Arthur G. Doughty, General Editors




HISTORY OF FARMING


THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE

From the most southern point of Ontario on Lake Erie, near the 42nd
parallel of latitude, to Moose Factory on James Bay, the distance is
about 750 miles. From the eastern boundary on the Ottawa and St Lawrence
Rivers to Kenora at the Manitoba boundary, the distance is about 1000
miles. The area lying within these extremes is about 220,000 square
miles. In 1912 a northern addition of over 100,000 square miles was made
to the surface area of the province, but it is doubtful whether the
agricultural lands will thereby be increased. Of this large area about
25,000,000 acres are occupied and assessed, including farm lands and
town and city sites. It will be seen, therefore, that only a small
fraction of the province has, as yet, been occupied. Practically all the
occupied area lies south of a line drawn through Montreal, Ottawa, and
Sault Ste Marie, and it forms part of the great productive zone of the
continent.

The next point to be noted is the irregularity of the boundary-line, the
greater portion of which is water--Lakes Superior, Huron, Erie, Ontario,
the St Lawrence River, the Ottawa River, James Bay, and Hudson Bay. The
modifying effect of great bodies of water must be considered in studying
the agricultural possibilities of Ontario.

Across this great area of irregular outline there passes a branch of
the Archaean rocks running in a north-western direction and forming a
watershed, which turns some of the streams to Hudson Bay and the others
to the St Lawrence system. An undulating surface has resulted, more or
less filled with lakes, and almost lavishly supplied with streams, which
are of prime importance for agricultural life and of incalculable value
for commercial purposes. To these old rocks which form the backbone of
the province may be traced the origin of the large stretches of rich
soil with which the province abounds.

An examination of the map, and even a limited knowledge of the
geological history of the province, will lead to the conclusion that in
Ontario there must be a wide range in the nature and composition of the
soils and a great variety in the climatic conditions. These conditions
exist, and they result in a varied natural production. In the extreme
south-western section plants of a semi-tropical nature were to be found
in the early days in luxurious growth; while in the extreme north,
spruce, somewhat stunted in size and toughened in fibre, are still to be
found in vast forests.

It is with the southern section, that lying south of the Laurentian
rocks, that our story is mainly concerned, for the occupation and
exploitation of the northland is a matter only of recent date. Nature
provided conditions for a diversified agriculture. It is to such a land
that for over a hundred years people of different nationalities, with
their varied trainings and inclinations, have been coming to make their
homes. We may expect, therefore, to find a great diversity in the
agricultural growth of various sections, due partly to the variety of
natural conditions and partly to the varied agricultural training of the
settlers in their homelands.


EARLY SETTLEMENT, 1783-1816

Originally this province was covered with forest, varied and extensive,
and was valued only for its game. The hunter and trapper was the
pioneer. To protect and assist him, fortified posts were constructed at
commanding points along the great waterways. In the immediate vicinity
of these posts agriculture, crude in its nature and restricted in its
area, had its beginning.

It was into this wooded wilderness that the United Empire Loyalists,
numbering in all approximately ten thousand people, came in the latter
part of the eighteenth century.[1] They were a people of varied
origins--Highland Scottish, German, Dutch, Irish Palatine, French
Huguenot, English. Most of them had lived on farms in New York State,
and therefore brought with them some knowledge and experience that stood
them in good stead in their arduous work of making new homes in a land
that was heavily wooded. In the year 1783 prospectors were sent into
Western Quebec, the region lying west of the Ottawa River, and
selections were made for them in four districts--along the St Lawrence,
opposite Fort Oswegatchie; around the Bay of Quinte, above Fort
Cataraqui; in the Niagara peninsula, opposite Fort Niagara; and in the
south-western section, within reach of Fort Detroit. Two reasons
determined these locations; first, the necessity of being located on the
water-front, as lake and river were the only highways available; and,
secondly, the advisability of being within the protection of a fortified
post. The dependence of the settlers upon the military will be realized
when we remember that they had neither implements nor seed grain. In
fact, they were dependent at first upon the government stores for their
food. It is difficult at the present time to realize the hardships and
appreciate the conditions under which these United Empire Loyalist
settlers began life in the forest of 1784.

Having been assigned their lots and supplied with a few implements, they
began their work of making small clearings and the erection of rude
log-houses and barns. Among the stumps they sowed the small quantities
of wheat, oats, and potatoes that were furnished from the government
stores. Cattle were for many years few in number, and the settler, to
supply his family with food and clothing, was compelled to add hunting
and trapping to his occupation of felling the trees.

Gradually the clearings became larger and the area sown increased in
size. The trails were improved and took on the semblance of roads, but
the waterways continued to be the principal avenues of communication. In
each of the four districts the government erected mills to grind the
grain for the settlers. These were known as the King's Mills.
Water-power mills were located near Kingston, at Gananoque, at Napanee,
and on the Niagara River. The mill on the Detroit was run by wind power.
An important event in the early years was when the head of the family
set out for the mill with his bag of wheat on his back or in his canoe,
and returned in two or three days, perhaps in a week, with a small
supply of flour. In the early days there was no wheat for export. The
question then may be asked, was there anything to market? Yes; as the
development went on, the settlers found a market for two surplus
products, timber and potash. The larger pine trees were hewn into timber
and floated down the streams to some convenient point where they were
collected into rafts, which were taken down the St Lawrence to Montreal
and Quebec. Black salt or crude potash was obtained by concentrating the
ashes that resulted from burning the brush and trees that were not
suitable for timber.

For the first thirty years of the new settlements the chief concern of
the people was the clearing of their land, the increasing of their field
crops, and the improving of their homes and furnishings. It was slow
going, and had it not been for government assistance, progress, and even
maintenance of life, would have been impossible. That was the heroic age
of Upper Canada, the period of foundation-laying in the province.
Farming was the main occupation, and men, women, and children shared the
burdens in the forest, in the field, and in the home. Roads were few and
poorly built, except the three great military roads planned by
Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe running east, west, and north from the town
of York. Social intercourse was of a limited nature. Here and there a
school was formed when a competent teacher could be secured. Church
services were held once a month, on which occasions the missionary
preacher rode into the district on horseback. Perhaps once or twice in
the summer the weary postman, with his pack on his back, arrived at the
isolated farmhouse to leave a letter, on which heavy toll had to be
collected.

Progress was slow in those days, but after thirty years fair hope of an
agricultural country was beginning to dawn upon the people when the War
of 1812 broke out. By this time the population of the province had
increased to about eighty thousand. During this first thirty years very
little had been done in the way of stimulating public interest in
agricultural work. Conditions were not favourable to organization. The
'town meeting' was concerned mainly with the question of the height of
fences and regulations as to stock running at large. One attempt,
however, was made which should be noted. Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe took
charge of affairs early in 1792, and, immediately after the close of the
first session of the legislature at Newark (Niagara) in the autumn of
that year, organized an agricultural society at the headquarters which
met occasionally to discuss agricultural questions. There are no records
to show whether social intercourse or practical agricultural matters
formed the main business. The struggle for existence was too exacting
and the conditions were not yet favourable for organization to advance
general agricultural matters.

When the War of 1812 broke out the clearings of the original settlers
had been extended, and some of the loyalists still lived, grown grey
with time and hardened by the rough life of the backwoods. Their sons,
many of whom had faint recollection of their early homes across the
line, had grown up in an atmosphere of strictest loyalty to the British
crown, and had put in long years in clearing the farms on which they
lived and adding such comforts to their houses, that to them, perhaps as
to no other generation, their homes meant everything in life. The
summons came to help to defend those homes and their province