Already Michigan has much of its lands parcelled out in 40-acre farms, and if Ontario land gets divided into smaller holdings, so that the maximum of her farms is less than 100 acres, it will support double its present population. This calls to my mind what I have seen in Germany. The lands along the Rhine River were originally surveyed facing the river with a narrow frontage, and running back a long distance, in some instances as much as a mile. Upon the death of the farmer his narrow strip is equally divided lengthwise among his several sons. These are again divided among his sons in their turn. It is not uncommon, as the result of such divisions, to see a strip of land on the Rhine only six rods wide and a mile long. This shows the reader how it comes that Germany is so densely populated. Again, the area of United Germany is near 210,000 square miles, and it supports a population of at least forty millions of people. Ontario has at least half as much more surface, and is only supporting two millions to-day. As to the comparative quantities of waste land and productiveness between us and Germany, Germany is scarcely fit to be compared with us at all, and Ontario has many millions of acres to be brought under cultivation yet, and these added to the smaller farms will soon double our population. Horace Greeley said on 100 acres two men were enough; on 50, four men; on 25, eight men. Without a doubt our fertile soil will quickly be densely populated and every rood cultivated. Investments to-day are as safe in Ontario as in any quarter of the globe, and its farm lands will rise as the population increases.
Some years ago the _Century Magazine_ published a beautifully illustrated article on “Canada as a Winter Resort.” This magazine is widely circulated, and the publishers boasted that they had printed 180,000 copies of that particular number, which was, of course, widely read in Europe. Now, this article was all about snowshoes, toboggans, toques and ice-palaces, and would lead the stranger to infer that Canada is a land of snow and ice. The premises are false, so far as Ontario is concerned, and no one would think of building a snow-palace in Toronto, because during the days required for its construction a thaw would probably occur, which would demolish the ice-palace faster than it was ever built. Out of two millions in Ontario, I think I am safe in asserting that not more than 5,000 of its inhabitants ever stepped upon a snowshoe. As to toques and toboggans, they are scarcely thought of. Our youngsters do some coasting down the hill-sides when we have some snow, and this is the extent of our tobogganing. It is undeniable that we do have some cold weather in Ontario, but such periods are only for a few days, and are invariably followed by mild weather. The four feet of snow on the level, which they consider the proper thing for Quebec and the Maritime Provinces, we know not of in Ontario. Our farmers were ploughing on the 10th of December next before the appearance of the article referred to, and this is not unusual; generally the farmers do not take up their turnips before the middle of November. It is usual for us to have some frost, and perhaps a little snow about the Christmas holidays, and during January we look for our sleighing, if we are to get any, for the season. But even during this midwinter month a thaw is almost certain to take place, and generally clears off the snow, and during this particular January the ponds of water were all open. A small chance, then, for an ice-palace. During February the cold is not so intense, for the days have become longer, and it will almost invariably thaw during the middle of most February days. The month of March is, by all means, the most disagreeable month in Ontario, not on account of its cold, but because it is windy and blustery. Our snow, if we get any in this month, usually drifts at the fences and impedes trade. In April we get freezing nights and thawing days, so that the hubs frozen during the preceding night turn to mud. Some farmers sow in April on land prepared in the fall. It may be that the frost is not quite out of the soil down below the surface, but if the Ontario farmer can get enough loose soil to kindly cover his wheat, he can sow without fear. May is our general seeding month for lands not prepared previously and sown in April. But little chance, the reader will note, for an ice-palace in Ontario.