Making Ontario: Agricultural Colonization and Landscape Re-creation Before the Railway

Bruce Grainger is head of the Public Services Department, Macdonald
Library, McGill University.

The central theme of this book is that the change from woodland to
farmland in Ontario amounted to an ecological revolution. With the aid
of numerous maps, charts, and illustrations, the author traces the
development of the province from the beginning of colonization in the
1780s to the 1850s when the first railways were built.

Among the measures of social and economic development discussed and
graphically represented are population growth and its changing ethnic
composition, the sawmilling industry, the establishment of social
organizations (such as agricultural societies, Orange Lodges, and
Mechanics Institutes), the number of industries by township, and the
spread of railways. Although a useful account of the province’s
overall development is presented, more information could have been
included. For example, the distribution of Native peoples before
European settlement and the location of reserves that had been
established by the 1850s is not mapped or discussed in more than cursory
fashion.

Landscape reorganization and the resulting adverse effects (e.g.,
destruction of plants and wildlife, soil erosion, lowered watershed
levels, and the siltation and pollution of rivers) are discussed only in
very general terms. Also lacking is a description and illustrations of
log farmhouses, farmyards, churches, and one-room schools that were
built during the pioneer phase. Similarly, there are no illustrations of
the tools of the “ecological revolution” (especially the axe) that
were used to clear the land and maintain everyday life on the farm and
in the household. Many of the maps and charts that are included are too
small to be of practical value.