sane.
During the war, trade union restrictions were subordinated to the
country's {482} need, and now that it is over the one desire in the
ranks is to keep industry on its feet, so that there may be a busy and
contented Dominion. If at times there is a louder outcry against
immigration, it is largely owing to the idea that the new-comers cannot
be assimilated under existing conditions. But every Canadian,
irrespective of class or calling, recognises that if the premier
Dominion is to maintain its position and prestige in the Empire--and
for that matter in the world--there must be more population.

In these days some people are inclined to speak of the near
disappearance of free land in Canada. If by free land it is meant that
there is no longer the liberty to settle at random without any
qualifications for so doing, then there is truth in such a statement.
But the history of Canada during the past two decades proves that if
the Dominion is to prosper, there must be settlers who either have the
necessary farming knowledge or the ability to acquire it. In either
case the Government or the Railways will grant land as near free land
as it can be made.

To train young farmers in the science and practice of agriculture,
colleges and experimental farms have been established, and both
Canadians and new-comers have taken advantage of them. For instance,
in 1874 there were twenty-eight students at the Ontario Agricultural
College at Guelph. To-day the total enrolment is about 2,400. It can
be seen, then, that there is a real desire upon the part of the rising
generation for a scientific knowledge of farming, without which even
virgin {483} soil cannot yield indefinitely. It is admitted that there
may be more comfortable conditions in other countries, but Canada still
remains the land of opportunity towards which the people always extend
a beckoning hand.

When the grain is on the stalk, and the fields of wheat extend as far
as the eye can see, the glowing red sun sinks beneath a golden horizon
at the end of a summer's day. But, like young Canada, it rises again
the next to breathe life on the land and destiny of the Empire's Great
Dominion.

[1] Speech, House of Commons, March 13, 1900.

{484}

INDEX.

Abbott, Sir J. J. C., 415
Abenakis, 114; allies of French, 212
Abercromby, General, defeated by Montcalm, 245
Acadia, meaning; of, 5; its modern divisions, 5; occupied by
De Monts, 50-