was estimated at 600,000, representing a population
directly dependent upon farming of over three millions. The principal
crops in the prairie provinces are oats, wheat, and barley. The total
crop of wheat in 1908 was about 130,000,000 bushels, of oats
270,000,000, and of barley 50,000,000.

In Ontario, Quebec, and the maritime provinces, dairying,
fruit-growing, hog-raising--for bacon and ham--and mixed farming have
taken the place of grain crops. In 1908 Canada had gained a strong
position in the markets of Great Britain for cheese, butter, and canned
goods, a position which was largely due to the work of the Dominion
Agricultural Department in providing cold storage for farm products on
the railways and steamers, and also to the educational work which the
Department had been steadily pushing among the farmers.

The Dominion is rich in metals and minerals, and mining is an important
industry in Nova Scotia, Ontario, and British Columbia. The largest
coal-fields of Canada are in Cape Breton and in Pictou and Cumberland
Counties, Nova Scotia, from which over five million tons of coal are
mined each year. There are no coal measures between New Brunswick and
Manitoba, and the lignite beds of Manitoba yield a much less valuable
coal than that of Nova Scotia. The coal area of the Rocky Mountains,
though not so large as that of the maritime provinces, yields the best
coal so far found in the Dominion. The centre of this formation is at
the Crow's Nest Pass. {424} There is another coal area on the Pacific
Coast in the neighbourhood of Nanaimo and in Queen Charlotte's Island.
The total amount of coal mined in the Dominion in 1908 was 10,510,000.
Besides coal, there are in Canada rich deposits of iron ore, lead,
nickel, copper, silver, and gold, and the non-metallic minerals include
petroleum, asbestos, and corundum. Diamonds have been found in Quebec
in a formation not unlike the diamond fields of Kimberley. Gold is
found chiefly in the Klondike country and in British Columbia; but some
gold is also obtained from Nova Scotia, and a fair amount from Ontario
and Quebec.

Ever since the settlement of the maritime provinces fishing has been an
important industry on their shores, and many of the disputes with the
United States have arisen out of the privileges granted to United
States fishermen in the treaty of 1818. These disputes have, however,
concerned Newfoundland more closely than the Dominion, and the final
set