66 



and seedlings of small fruits, which were gieatlj enjoyed, and many 

 pronounced "excellent" by everyone. 



This done, the party re-assembled at Professor Saunders's house, 

 where refreshments had been generously prepared by Mi-s. Saunders. 

 A very pleasant and social hour was then spent by all, after which a 

 series of addresses was given, in the course of wliich the aims and 

 purposes of the farm, its horticultural, botanical and entomological, 

 as well as geological aspects were considered. 



Professor Saunders being called upon, said that it was cot a 

 dillicult task for him to speak about the farm when he was surrounded 

 on every hand by so many interesting objects. He referred to the 

 progress made in every department of the work, and indicated many 

 ways in which the Experimental Farms were being made practically 

 useful to agriculture in Canada. Referring to the club's visit last year 

 and the warm reception which greeted them at the hands of the 

 mosquitoes on that occasion, Mr. Saunders recalled to mind the ignomin- 

 ious retreat of some of the naturalists, caused by the violent onslaught of 

 vast multitudes of those fearless, winged creatures. There was then 

 a thirty-eight acre swamp in the southwestern portion of the farm 

 where no drainage system existed, and where from one to two feet, of 

 water lay over the greater part of the surface of that area all the year 

 round a perfect paradise and breeding ground for mosquitoes. On the 

 farm to-day there are already six miles of main drains through the 

 swamp, and now we can sit in peace without being disturbed by the 

 melody of these swamp-dwellers. The work on the farm is many-sided. 

 The old snake fences with the boulders alongside have been done away 

 with ; the large boulders which strewed the fields and covered a large 

 area of land have been blown up with dynamite and the fragments 

 utilized as road-metal ; many of them contained rare and interesting 

 fossils. Several roads have been built, consisting of the large boulders 

 at the bottom, smaller ones above, broken macadam above that, and the 

 Leda clays found on the farm capping all. These roads are dry and 

 substantially built, and will be a permanent benefit to the farm. Several 

 buildings have been built since last year, including a large bai n, pro- 

 bably the finest barn in the Dominion, and five houses for the staff". 

 Besides this work there were 1.50 acres of stumpy land, covered with 



