Paper short abstract:

Using a microdata sample from the First Census of Canada (1871), this paper examines the land use patterns from Ontario to Nova Scotia at confederation. As herds expanded rapidly and reached a peak in 1906, farmers and scientists modified their practices to expand the nation's forage systems.

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines the changing role of forage practices and animal land use in Canada from the mid nineteenth century to the interwar period. Using census manuscripts and farm diaries from Ontario to Nova Scotia, the paper shows how rural Canadians experienced a period of organic intensification, where farmers and non-human animals began to produce more food and traction power for Canadians using diminishing amounts of "new land" and more intensive forage practices. Using a new microdata sample of the agricultural schedules of the First Census of Canada (1871), it is now possible to map the relationships between individual ruminant livestock types and various land use practices such as pasture, woodland, and marsh or other wildlands. This provides a quantitative snapshot of the land use and the landscapes co-created by human agriculturalists and foraging livestock in Canada at the moment of confederation. However, Eastern Canadian livestock herds expanded rapidly over the next three decades, reaching a peak in 1906 and straining the nation's feed and fodder systems. Building on the census records, a more qualitative study of farm practice is available in the reports and scientific correspondence of the Central Experimental Farm in Ottawa, and of the "Merite Agricole" agricultural competition in Quebec (both spanning the decades 1890-1930). In Atlantic Canada, the use of grasses found in salt marshes, sand dunes, and offshore islands, were another important resource for grazing livestock until imported feed grains began to displace the demand for local forage.