Graduate Students

Bowley, Patricia - M.A

Farmers in Ontario and the Committee on Lands, Conservation Commission, Canada, 1909-1921: Realists and Romantics - Dr. Catharine Wilson, advisor

         The Conservation Commission, Canada (CCC) was formed in 1909, when the North American conservation movement melded with political progressivism to promote the inevitability of human progress and the efficient use of natural resources. The Committee on Lands (CL) was composed of members who were unable to accept or understand contemporary agriculture as the intellectual, businesslike occupation which it was. Therefore their recommendations and projects were inappropriate and often outdated and redundant. Their endeavours were noted and appreciated by farmers, but their work had no lasting effect on agriculture in Ontario, or on Canadian agricultural history. The official concept of 'conservation', defined by the CCC, was based on restoration and preservation of Canadian natural resources, including the soil. In reality, the CL interpreted conservation to mean the preservation of a vanishing rural lifestyle.