HEPORT OF THE AGRICULTURIST. 



(Jas. W. Eobeetson.) 



To Wm, Saunders, Esq., 



Director Dominion Experimental Farms, 

 Ottawa. 



Sir, — I have the honour to report upon the progress of the work which has 

 been under mj charge at the Central Experimental Farm during 1891. The duties 

 of my office, as Dairy Commissioner for the Dominion, engrossed the major share of 

 my attention, and occupied the most of my time during the year. Attendance at 

 conventions of farmers and dairymen — many of them of provincial nature and scope 

 — in the several provinces of Canada, took me from home very frequently. 



Upon the recommendation of the Honourable the Minister of Agriculture, the 

 Government approved of the establishment of Experimental Dairy Stations, (1) for 

 the purpose of investigating, by carefully conducted and repeated experiments, the 

 methods and treatments in the manufacture of cheese during the summer, which 

 yield the finest quality and the greatest quantity of cheese from the milk which is 

 furnished by the patrons of factories, and (2) for the purpose of carrying on the 

 manufacture of creamery butter at the same stations, during the other months of 

 the year, in order to encourage farmers to obtain an income from their cows during 

 every month, by supplying cream or milk to a creamery and by the raising of calves 

 and pigs during the winter season. Parliament made provision for that undertaking 

 in the appropriation for the work of the Dairy Commissioner. Fi-om March, 1891, 

 preparatory arrangements in the different provinces were made. Supervision was 

 given to the work of itinerant instructors in the provinces, where the dairy industry 

 was not developed sufficiently to call for the establishment of Experimental Dairy 

 Stations in 1891; and the management of two Experimental Dairy Stations in 

 Ontario, and some experimental work in Quebec, were undertaken. 



These tasks and duties, together with lectures at conventions of dairymen and 

 farmers' institutes, required my absence from Ottawa for some part of every month, 

 and for the greater part of all the months, except February and November. In all, 

 49 conventions or meetings, of from two to five sessions each, were attended during 

 the year. They were distributed : Ontario, 19 ; Quebec, 8 ; New Brunswick, 2 ; 

 Nova Scotia, 4; Prince Edward Island, 3; Manitoba, 3; North- West Territories, 1; 

 Bi-itish Columbia, 9. My assistants in the Dairy Commissioner's branch of the work 

 attended and gave addresses at 242 meetings. The report of the Dairy Commissioner 

 for 1891 (which can be obtained upon application by farmers and all others who 

 are interested in agriculture), will present a brief yet fairly complete statement of 

 progress. 



The remainder of ray time was available for the Central Experimental Farm, 

 and was given to planning for and superintending experiments in (1) the feeding 

 of steers for beef; (2) the economical feeding of milking cows; (3) the fattening of 

 swine; (4) investigations in the experimental dairy; (5) the management of 40 

 acres of land, to determine how many cattle could be kept economically on that 

 area; and (6) the growth of fodder corn and the making and feeding of ensilage. 



Permit me to refer farmers, and others who may be seeking information on 

 the other branches of the agricultural work — grain-growing, root-growing and general 

 farm management — to your own report. 



For the sake of clearness, and the convenience of those who may be seeking in- 

 formation and guidance from its pages, the matter to be presented has been grouped 

 under the following heads : — 



