CANADA'S INDUSTRIES]

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2579, 29 September 1915, Page 17

CANADA'S INDUSTRIES]

FORGING AHEAD SOMETHING OF THEIR HISTORY Canada, the most populous of the 'Dcminons of the Empire, is nafc.urally, the most adv.mcud on. the industrial' side. In ]iis interesting book "The Doniiiiion of Canada," published by Messrs. Pitmaris lin 1911, Mr. W. L. Griffith lias a valuable chapter on Canada's manufactures. In the four years since Mr. Griffith wrote tho development has been considerable, and the Empire has lately been provided with a striking instance of it in Canada's ability to turn out huge supplies ol' war -material for. Europe. From xeoent figures it appears that the manufacture of munitions is going on in 247 factories in seventy-eight Canadian cities. The number of artisans employed in this work is between sixty and seventy thousand, and it is estimated that the output of shells will total fifty thousand a day.' Orders for munitions for Britain amounting to no less than £46,000,000 have been placed. ■ These figures show how ■valuable an asset are well-developed industries in wartime. Turning to Mr. Griffith's pages,_ we find an account of how these factories have been built up. He says: A country so liberally endowed with natural resources as Canada, and possessing also tho abundant water-power that exists at so many advantageous points, could not fail to become the home of <v number of important industries. Canadians have all'along been fully alive to the importance of utilising the resources at hand, and it is only tho fact of the need of further capital which has prevented .a much more rapid industrial development. Many of the industries, however, have grown beyond the onthusiastic predict tions of those who were in former days most firmly convinced of the great future which lay before the country. .

The Leading Industries. Tho agricultural development of .Canada has attracted so muoli. attention abroad that until comparatively recent times little notice has been devoted to the importance of the manufacturing industries'. _ In 1905,' when an intercensal inquiry was officially undertaken in accordance with the previous Census and Statistics Act that year, it 'was found that there: was no less than 15,796 industrial establishments, .witli a. total capital of 846,585,023 dollars. That these figures have increased in the meantime -is beyond question, and an immense amount of capital has entered the Dominion for investment in industrial enterprises of various kinds during the past years. The number of persons employed was 392,530,, ■ their salaries and wages amounted to 165,100,011 dollars* while the value of products was 718,352,603 dollars. Of the employees, no fewer than 308,378, or sev-enty-eight per cent., were in Ontario and Quebec, which indicates very clearly the importance of these two provinces from. the. manufacturing point of view. Indeed,' it may be said that the manufacturing-industries .'of the country are largely centred'in Eastern Canada, and that this'is so is'shown by the following table: — • '

Statistics of. Manufactures of All Establishments in' 1905. Estab- 1 , Value- , lish- Em- of ments. ployees., products. Provinces. No. No. £ Ontario 7,096 189,870 367,850,002 Quebec .. 4,965 119,008 219,861,648 Nova Scotia ... 909' 24/237 32,574,323] New Bruns- • ; wick'. 628 19,426 22,133,951 Brit. Col'mbia 459 23,748 38,288,378 Manitoba 354 10,338 28,155,732 Alberta,. . 120 . 2,045,. 5,116,782 Prince Ed- ■ ward I ..... 285 2,919 1,851,615 Saskatchewan 80 1,444 2,520,172 Taking the various groups of industries, it will be found that the value of products under the heading of "food products" , is highest, being dollars in 1905, and tho number of establishments is also the largest. Of the sum mentioned, 56,703,269'd011ars is represented by the flour and grist milling industry, which is a great and rapidly expanding one. A leading firm: in the business claims- to have a daily capacty of 17,500 barrel's (1961b5.) of flour, with a total elevator capacity of 5,800,000 Another concern has a daily capacity of 21,000 bags. Other milling companies which have been established more recently are prepared to operate on a large scale, while tho number of similar concerns is increasing as the now agricultural areas are being opeiied up throughout Western Canada. ' ,

' The Cheese. Pioneer. Nest jn order of importance comes the making of cheese and butter. The pioneer cheese factory promoter was Mr. Harvey Farrington, who started in Oxford County, Ontario, in 1864. His example was soon copied in the central part of the province, and. a'little later on in the more eastern sections. In Quebec the first factory was started at Durham, -Missisquoi County, in about 1865,' but littlo progress was made in the. industry in Quebec until after the year 1880. _ While the bulk of cheese and butter is produced in Ontario and Quebec, a good deal of attention is being devoted to dairying in the maritime provinces, and there has also been a .gratifying development in Manitoba,Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia. :

The methods of manufacture adopted in the very numerous cheese factories and creameries, and also by individual farmers, have been vastly improved as the result of facilities provided by the Dominion and Provincial Governments for giving instruction in the most approved stylo of manufacture, storage, and transportation. The establishment of cream-gathering creameries, central establishments whose operations can be made to cover a large area, has enabled many districts to take up buttermaking when perhaps, owing, to limited milk production, a cheese factory, could not be adequately, supported.

Salmon Canning. 'A' trade of great importance, and to the province of British Columbia in, particular, is tho canning of salmon for export. Tlie pack cach year is enormous, and the introduction of. machinery of late has'been a, iuartcd feature.. It had been said that one 'might '.visit' a good many factories of similar institutions in any part of the world without finding such an array of machinery as in tho British Columbian canneries. The salmon are taken from the boats by a' huco conveyor to tho inside of the building, where tliey are placed in a machine fitted with an intricate arrangement of knives and cutters, by which thousands of fish are dealt with hourly: The other machinery .used in the process has been so perfected that it may now be claimed that after the fis'f leaves tho boat all handling of it ends. ...

The business of canning lobsters is carried, on principally in Nova Scotia, where there are 236 licensed canneries, Prince Fidward Island 203, New Brunswick 190, and Quebec 94. As a commercial commodity the lobster occupies first place in the fisliories of tho Maritime orovinecs—in 1907 there wore some 8,6fi0,5501b. preserved. Many factories wliero tho canning of fruits, vegetables, and meat is extensively carried on liavo been established, the maority being in the province of Ontario. Largo quantities of apples,

peaches, raspberries, strawberries, pears •and-plums, as well as .tom^ o6S > heans, ■ Indian corn, aua other' Vegetables are grown for pacldug purposes, and the goods are exported to mauy distant markets. Slaughtering and meat packing, and sugar refining, aiid other leading industries are under the same heading of "food products." The Wealth of the Forest. The Canadian'lumber industry ranks second as regards the value of _ products, ' which amounted, in 1905, to 109,500,970 dollars, and it employs the largest number of wage-cahiers (77,968). The export of forest products at the time of - Confederation' amountAl to about 35 per cent, of the total, .and the industry has all along been one of the greatest value and importance to the country. Factories for the manufacture of household, school, asd office furniture, organs, pianos, mouldings, doors, sashes, blinds; woodenware, and many other classes of goods into which lumber enters, have been established in .tho different provinces, and the machinery employed is of a varied and ingenious character: For the production of wood-pulp, chemical and mechanical, there are twenty-two factories'with a total capital of 11,164,768. Tho manufacture of carriages and wagons, railway cars, and other vehicles is carried on extensively, and is ,an industry which is bound to assume greater importance in the immediate future. " ,

ironworkers and Bounties. : Aided by- the payment of bounties the production of iron and steel has attained considerable proportions in Eastern Canada, more particularly in Ontario, Nova Scotia, there being as many as sixteen blast furnaces. The output' of pig-iron in 1908 was 630,835 tons, valued at 8,111,194 dollars, n&t including the products of two electric furnace plants at Wellknd (Ontario), and Buckingham ; (Quebec), making ferro-products. Prior to the year 1896 Canadian pig-iron was made almost exclusively from ore mined in Canada, but since that date nearly six million tons have been imported, largely from Newfoundland, and the south shore of Lako Superior. The ore from Belle Isle can be laid down at Sydney more cheaply than that obtainable locally genoi ally' speaking the reasons for these large importations may be said to bo economic; for there are undoubtedly Humorous, and valuable deposits of iron ore in many parts of the Dominion. The, following are the leading companies owning blast furnaces: —The Dominion and Steel Co., Sydney, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia; The Nova Scotia Steel andrCoal .Co., Ltd., New Glasgow, Nova'Scotiaj'the London Iron Glasgow, Nova Scotia; the Londonderry Nova Scotia; Messrs. John M'Dougail Iron and Mining Co., Ltd 1 ., Londonderry, and Co., Montreal, Quebec; the Canada Iron Furnace Co., . Montreal; Descronto Iron Co., Ltd.; Deseronto, • Ontario; the Atikokan Iron Co., Ltd., Port Arthur, Ontario, Ontario. There is also a furnace at Midland, Ontario. The total daily capacity of the sixteen furnaces is about 2665 tons,. and the number of men employed in '1908 was reported as 1380.. ._ . ' ■ Steel is produced by eight companies, the total output in 1908 being 588,763 tons of ingots and castings, valued at 10,916,602 dollars. Of the steel works and rolling ' mills in- Canada five aro in Nova Scotia, six in Quebec, twelve in Ontario, and one each in New Brunswick and Manitoba.' The total amount, paid in bounties by the Dominion Government on iron nnd steel during 1908 was 1,998,283,058 dollars, which was made up as .follows: Tons. ' Bounty. Pig iron mads from.-- Canadian ore 101,647 ' 213,458.34 Pig iron made from, imported ore : -517,427 569,169.93 Steel ingots 556,289 9.17,876.63 Steel .wire rods... 49,630 297,778.68 1,224,993 1,998,283.58 The consumption of iron and steel in Canada is very large as the result of the railway construction now going 'on, the rapid growth of population, and'the consequent building operations, so that an enormous quantity of iron and steel has still to be imported. It may, therefore, be safely assumed that the iron and steel industry.of the country will continue to expand at an even greater rate than it has done in the past. : A branch of the industry in which' the Canadian makecs have won international fame ,is the manufacture of ■ agricultural implements of various kinds. Stoves and heating apparatus are also turned out in considerable quantities. . In the manufacture of textile fabrics there were in 1905 no fewer than 55,822 wage earners employed, the value of tlio products being, 84,370,099 dollars, anincrease of 16,645,260 dollars over the figures of-1900. These industries 'are well established, and products of . the factories enjoy a high reputation. The capital employed in the manufacture of leather and its finished products' is 27,681',935 dollars, in 321 establishments, 138 of which are devoted to turning out boots and- shoes and supplies for that branch of industry. There arc in addition a number of factories where saddlery, harness, bags, etc., are manufactured. ■' In the paper and printing trade there are over 600 establishments employing some 19,000 persons. The brewing and distilling trades and the' manufacture of tobacco are centred for the most part in Ontario and Quebec, and show a hrge increase in the value of their products in recont • years.

Portland Cement. The production of Portland cement has grown very rapidly within t'he past few years, the figures -for 1904 were 967,172 barrels of the value of 1,338j239 dollars, while those for 1908 were 2,666,333 barrels, valued at 3,709,954 dollars. The total consumption of Portland cement in 1908, including both Canadian and imported cement, was 3,134.338 barrels (of 3501b. net), and tho demand will be an increasing one. In tho year mentioned there were. 23 operating plants, with a total daily capacity of 27,500 barrels, distributed as follows One in Nova Scotia, using blast-furnace slag; one in Manitoba, making only Portland cement; three in Quebec; two in Albort'a; and one in British Columbia, using limestone and clay;' and fifteen in Ontario, in the majority of which marl is used. A good deal of capital has been invested in the cement industry, and' other plants are in course of erection. The ' manufacture of carbide of calcium metallic,roofing and, flooring, abrasivo goods, cooperage, rubber goods, etc., are successfully carried on, and in some instances■ tho -trades have' assumed considerable dimensions. No reference to tho manufactures of Canada would be complete without mention being made of the Canadian Manufacturers' Association, an incorporated body, having its head office at Toronto and branch offices at other groat business centres throughout the_ "ouutry, viz.: Montreal, Quebec,' Winnipeg, Vancouver, and Halifax. This bi'dy watches over the special interests of the various manufacturing industries, and tho proceedings at its annual congress attract wide attention.

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