REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR. ^ 57 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



lu the nieanlime the occupation of farming has been elevated in the eyes of the 

 community. It is no longer looked upon as a drudgery suited only to the dull and slow 

 going. It is now regarded as a suitable field for the exercise of the higher intelligence . 

 of more culliYattd minds, and is recognised as a calling requiring much skill to 

 conduct it sucoesstully. 



A few figuies will illustrate the progress made along some of the lines referred 

 to. The exports of wheat and Hour have a.'J.sumed large proportions. In 1884 the 

 value of the cheese export from Canada was £1,450,397 ; in 1808 it was £3,512,553. 

 During the san.e period the value of the butter exported has nearly doubled. The 

 exports of cattle have also increased considerably. The trade in pork has made a 

 phenomenal growth. In 1SS4 the value of the exports of hams, bacon, pork and lard 

 was less than £200,000; in 1S9S it amounted to more than £1,600,000. The increase in 

 the exports of many other agricultural products have also been most encouraging. 



DISCUSSION FOLLOWING ADDRESS. 



An interesting discussion followed the reading of this paper from which some 

 extracts are given. 



'Professor Somerville (Professor of Agriculture at Cambridge) thought thsy 

 ■were greatly indebted to Dr. Saunders for an interesting and exhaustive paper, which 

 had come at an extremely opportune time. Many persons in this country had for the 

 past few years been endeavouring to formulate a suitable scheme for the improvement 

 on scientific lines of agriculture in England, Scotland and Ireland, and those who 

 wei-e engaged in this work had kept their eye carefully on what was being done on the 

 other side of the Atlantic — in the United States as well as in Canada. As the head 

 of the experimental work in Canada, Dr. Saunders had given to the world, in his 

 annual report, yearly a volume that described exhaustively the expsrimental work of 

 the Dominion, and they in England had derived great benefit from the perusal of 

 this work. Canada had begun her experimental work on thorough and complete 

 govommental lines, and at first it did not seem as if it would lead to very satisfactory 

 results, for experiment by Act of Parliament looked to be a veiy cast-iron mode of 

 pro'Cedure, but practically the experiment had resulted in an entirely free hand being 

 given to those appointed to carry on the work, with very excellent results. In this 

 country the work had been suported by the government to some extent, and it had 

 greatly benefited from that support. The great difference, however, between Canada 

 and this country was that here they looked more largely to local effort. Practically 

 there was no experimental or educational work of an agricultural character in this 

 country entirely maintained from government sources. One of the conditions under 

 which government support was given was that the localities themselves, where the 

 work was carried on showed sufficient interest in the work to warrant the government 

 in giving substantial support. They knew how difficult it was to excite local interest, 

 especially in an agricultural community, in work of that kind, but if they could get 

 local farmers upon the committees, they would bring them into closer contact with 

 the work, and valuable information would be disseminated throughout the district. 

 Though the work in this, country had only beer, systematised since 1890, a great deal 

 of experimental work had been done as far back as the end of the last century. Indi- 

 vidual workers had carried out an enormous number of experiments in the last 

 quarter of the last century, which had been described in a number of volumes. Then, 

 the old Board of Agriculture came into existence in 1792 and expired in 1319, and 

 the presidents of that Board had always strongly insisted on the value of experimental 

 farms as an aid to ag'riculture. But between the early years of the present century 

 and the year 1890 very little experimental work had been done with government 

 support. In 1890, however, they had started on a new era, and the amount of work 



