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Canada's first farmers grew corn, beans, and squash. At least 1,500 years before the first European settlers arrived, Native peoples were planting and tending crops in the lower Great Lakes and St. Lawrence regions. They did not depend exclusively on what they grew for survival; they hunted for meat, and picked berries and other wild food.

The first European arrivals brought their own seeds and livestock with them. They were also quick to see advantages in planting some of the crops the Natives were raising. But, before anything could be planted, the land had to be cleared. Cutting down trees and hauling off the logs was back-breaking work; getting out the stumps was even worse.

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In the early 17th century, some land was brought under the plough by draining coastal marshes. No doubt this was easier work than chopping down centuries old trees, grubbing out the roots, and clearing the land of rocks. Others burned the trees down and planted their crops between the stumps until, after many years, they rotted away.

"Linear villages" were a feature of the early landscape of Quebec. The remnants of these settlements can still be seen today, and are a legacy of the "long-lot" system that was favoured in New France. Each early settler needed access to fresh water and a means of getting produce to market. There were few roads so farms were established along the banks of rivers. Taxes were based on the width of a farm so, to keep the tax bill as low as possible, farms were long and narrow and stretched back from a short river frontage - they were linear villages.

During the 19th century, Quebec farmers began to switch from cereal growing to dairying. By 1900, dairying was the leading agricultural sector in Quebec. The province was producing 3.6 million kilos of cheese a year, an eightfold increase since 1851.

During the first half of the 19th century, wheat was king in Ontario. It was the crop most easily grown and marketed and was an important source of cash for settlers. Britain was a major market for this wheat until 1846, when it repealed its Corn Laws. These laws had given preference to cereals from the colonies, and their repeal was a blow to Canadian wheat farmers.

During the last quarter of the 19th century, many significant advances in farming technology took place. The cast-iron plough, horse-powered seeder and reaper, and stationary threshing machine revolutionized agriculture in Central and Eastern Canada. While Quebec and the Maritimes gradually phased out grain cultivation in favour of livestock, Ontario became the country's breadbasket in the years prior to the settlement of the West.

But, farmers had to endure cycle after cycle of boom and bust. Trade shifts, terrible weather, and even a plague of midges prompted many farmers in Upper Canada (Ontario) to switch to livestock and dairying. They were so successful that, by 1900, Canadian cheddar cheese, largely from Ontario, had captured 60% of the English market. This must have caused many a farmer in and around the village of Cheddar in southwest England, where that nippy cheese was first produced, to look with gloom into his mug of cider.

Through the 20th century, the population of southern Ontario grew rapidly, and cities expanded to accommodate the people. Housing developments, highways, and factories were built on prime agricultural land. But, at the same time, the expanding population meant a higher demand for farm produce. Orchard farming grew in the mildest part of the province, the Niagara Peninsula. Dairying developed in the edges of cities, and a thriving vegetable industry was established on the Holland Marsh, north of Toronto. Feed grains and fodder crops also covered more land to satisfy the demand for beef and pork.

Although farming in Western Canada had begun early in the 19th century, it was Confederation in 1867 that really spurred agricultural development.

In 1870, Canada acquired Rupert's Land from the Hudson's Bay Company, in what has been described as the largest real estate transaction in history. It was a vast area of land that was drained by rivers flowing into Hudson Bay, and it was believed to hold great potential for farmers. It was said there was scarcely an acre of poor soil between the Red River and the Rockies.

The Dominion Lands Act of 1872 was modelled on American homestead legislation. It gave the legal framework to the granting of land to settlers. In return for $10, each settler got half a square mile of land, a little less than 65 hectares. But, to get clear title, settlers had to live on it for three years, build a home, and cultivate a certain amount of land.

Wheat quickly became the crop of choice, but farmers had to learn to live with drought, early frost, and grasshoppers. However, there were enough good years to nourish what have become Prairie characteristics - patience and optimism.

A big breakthrough came in 1907. After patient experiments with crossbreeding a new variety of wheat was developed in Canada. It was called Marquis. It ripened early, its head was resistant to strong winds, and the flour it yielded was excellent. Mechanization of the wheat economy with steam, gas tractors, gang ploughs, and threshing machines contributed to huge production surpluses. An unprecedented boom in wheat prices during World War I (1914-18) promoted cultivation of new lands. Between 1901 and 1931, the amount of land under field crop on the Prairies jumped from 1.5 million hectares to 16.4 million hectares.

Farther to the West large-scale cattle ranching dominated. Land in Southern Alberta and Saskatchewan was leased to ranchers. Small-scale irrigation overcame the naturally dry condition of the region.

Across the Rocky Mountains, farming developed to supply food to people engaged in the fur trade and, after 1858, the gold miners. Some ranches were established in the interior, but most new arrivals in B.C. preferred to try to strike it rich in the gold mines.

Large-scale farming continued in districts such as the Cariboo and Similkameen, while smaller-scale specialized agriculture developed in the Okanagan and Fraser valleys. By the 1880s, the Okanagan Valley had developed a specialized fruit industry while market gardening and dairying flourished in the lower Fraser Valley to supply Vancouver and surrounding communities. But, of course, British Columbia has become world renowned for farming in slow motion - forestry.

The Great Depression of the 1930s hit farmers everywhere, but few were hit harder than those on the Prairies.

The economies of most nations in the world collapsed in the 1930s. That meant a dramatic drop in international trade, including Prairie wheat. But, the loss of their market wasn't all Prairie farmers had to contend with.

The rain stopped falling and the Prairie turned into what was called a "Dust Bowl." High winds whipped up black blizzards of topsoil that made it dangerous for children to go to school. The drought lasted from 1929 to 1937 and included most of Southern Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. Then, there were the grasshoppers. Between 1933 and 1935, vast swarms of hungry hoppers flew across the West. A grasshopper plague would completely devour a standing crop, binder twine, clothing, and even wooden handles on ploughs, shovels, and other tools. The ravenous appetite of the grasshopper extended to anything that contained organic matter, including human sweat.

Caterpillars and mice ate whatever crops had survived. As a result of this, many Prairie farmers simply packed up and abandoned the homesteads their families had worked since the boom began. The Great Depression and the other miseries devastated farming communities. The extent of the disaster can be seen in a few statistics.

In Saskatchewan, plagued by crop failures and the lowest price for wheat in recorded history, total provincial income plummeted by 90% within two years, forcing 66% of the rural population onto government assistance. The other western provinces were technically bankrupt from 1932 onwards.

World War II (1939-45) stimulated agriculture, but with so many young men away fighting there was a shortage of labour. Even when the war ended, returning soldiers preferred to live in the city, so the stimulus to mechanize farming grew. Those who continued to work the land bought up their neighbour's farms and their holdings became larger. Increasingly sophisticated machinery was used to work these larger farms. As a result of these economic and social trends, the percentage of Canadians who were involved in farming fell from 33% in 1931 to only four percent by the 1980s.