Eastern Ontario

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Eastern Ontario

Regional uniformity is an ideal which is rather closely approached over a large part of the area included in Eastern Ontario. A low, and in some places exceedingly fiat plain, it has very definite borders in the St. Lawrence, the Ottawa and the edge of the Shield. However, the latter border is transgressed in a physical way by the waterlaid deposits in Renfrew, Leeds and Frontenac counties to form extensions of the plain. From the standpoint of human relations, also, an even deeper margin of the Shield is added to Eastern Ontario. There are many physical affinities between this area and the St. Lawrence Lowland in the province of Quebec. Moreover, the provincial boundary is only a political boundary and does not entirely separate the two great culture groups of Eastern Canada.

Agriculturally, Eastern Ontario is a unit, being almost entirely a dairy region. The only difference of note is that a small area near Ottawa acts as a milk-shed for that city while the rest of the region finds an outlet through cheese factories and condenseries. The methods of herd management vary greatly. The fluid milk shipper, either to a city market or to a condensery, must attempt to maintain a uniform supply. The traditional method in the cheese making districts was summer dairying and an attempt to winter the cattle as cheaply as possible on hay. To a certain extent this is still the method in submarginal areas of shallow soil. The larger cheese factory with a permanent staff is, however, requiring year-round production of cheese milk.

Tourists are attracted to Eastern Ontario by the scenic values of the Thousand Islands, Rideau Lakes and the Ottawa River as well as the possibilities for sport fishing. Water power developments of the St. Lawrence and of the Ottawa and its tributaries have given rise to the development of manufactures and the growth of towns and cities. Among those which may be mentioned are Ottawa, Kingston, Cornwall, Hawkesbury, Smith's Falls and Pembroke. Eastern Ontario also has a considerable number of small country villages which developed early but have remained small, although changing their functions to suit the demands of modern conditions.