REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST 69 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



Winnipeg on its wny to the lake front for shipment, it was found th.it an iilarnaing 

 amount of the wheat was contaminated with smut, or with the seeds of weeds. In 

 lOOo the ixTcentage of dockage and rejection was only o per cent; in 190i this hatl 

 run up to 5i per cent, or nearly double; but in the crop of 1905 a far worse state of 

 r.tfairs was manifested, and it is probable tliat upwards of 20 per cent of the enormous 

 i-ro]) for the year, of nearly 90 million bushels of wheat, will be graded as "rejected'' 

 by the official inspectors. It was thought that something could and should at once 

 be done to improve this state of aifaii-s. The Canadian Pacific Railway and the 

 Dominion Department of Agriculture consulted together, and invited other influential 

 bodies to join them in a special campaign, the aim of which was to remind farmers 

 liefore the spring wuik began, that more care was necessary than had evidently been 

 shown in preparing their seed grain and caring for the resulting crop. Mr. W. B. 

 Lanigan, of the Canadian Pacific Hallway, and Mr. G. H. Clark, of the Dominion 

 Seed Branch of the Department of Agriculture, were the two leading spirits in this 

 v>-ork. The Canadian Pacific Eailway provided the train, in which the speakers lived 

 entirely during the two months of the campaign, and hauled it over all their lines. 

 The Canadian Northern co-operated with the Canadian Pacific, and all the chief 

 places along both of these railways in the West were visited. 



' The lecturers were for the most part officials of the Dominion Department of 

 Agriculture, and all were under the direction of Mr, Clark, the energetic Chief of 

 tlie Seed Division at Ottawa. Mr. Angus Mackay and Mr. S. A. Bedford, of Bran- 

 uont, the well-known and highly esteemed Superintendents of the W^estern Experi- 

 mental Farms, gave most valuable assistance, as also did Mr. T. N. Willing, the Chief 

 Weed Inspector for the province of Saskatchewan, who probably has a wider and more 

 exact knowledge of the weeds of the West than any one else. Messrs. James Murray, 

 W. C. ]\IcKillican and the writer, all members of the Dominion Department of Agri- 

 culture, also took part in this important work. 



' The Grain Growers' Association of Manitoba and the Northwest Territories 

 ^^ere represented by their head offieials. The Hon. W. R. Motherwell, the Minister of 

 Agriculture for Saskatchewan, who is also president of the Northwest Grain Growers' 

 Association, and Messrs. McCuaig, Henders and McKenzie, of the Manitoba Grain 

 Growers' A.ssociatiou, showed their sympathy with the movement, by accompanying 

 th<> train for the greater part of the time, and delivered many valuable addresses. Mr. 

 John Mooney, of Valley River^ Man., a practical farmer and an expert breeder of pure 

 grain, and Mr. A. Mitchell, Weed Inspector for the province of Alberta, spoke on seed 

 selection and seed testing. 



' The campaign lasted for two months, in which time 20(3 meetings were held, 

 wliieh were attended in all by 28,910 people. A noticeable feature of this campaign 

 was that the railways did their work well, arriving at the advertised points promptly 

 in almost every instance. The speakers showed that they knew thoroiu'hly the sub- 

 jects they were dealing with, and the audiences were invariably appreciative and sym- 

 l)athetic, listening patiently and asking many useful qiiestions concerning those sub- 

 jects of the greatest local interest. Notwithstanding the low temperatTircs which pre- 

 vailed during part of January, the lecture cai-s were always well filled, many farmers 

 driving in to the meetings from ten to twenty miles. The audiences frequently 

 expressed their satisfaction with what they had heard, and the only regrets voiced 

 were that the meetings could not be longer, and that more places could not be visited. 

 For the most part there were two lecturers in each car, and the subjects dealt with 

 W( re practically the same at each place visited, except that prominence was given to 

 the subjects or the weeds which were known to be of greatest int^^rest in each place. 

 At the close of ea;ch meeting the visitors were handed some specially-prepared pamph- 

 lets, in which the subjects dealt with by the lecturers were also treat*>d of in a concise 

 way, and they were requested to take these home and to discuss them with their friends. 



'It was distinctly stated that no effort was being made to teach i"h<j farmers of 

 the West anything new, but simply to remind them that the public records which were 

 appearing in the daily newspapers of the inspections of the wheat going forward 



