REPORT OF THE EXT01I0L0GIST A\D BOTAXIST 207 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



province. This meeting is held in the autumn. Ever since the establishment of the 

 institutes, special speakers have been provided by the provincial Government to ad- 

 dress the meetings upon agricultural subjects at each place at least once or twice a 

 year. In this way, the farmers of the Pacific province have had an opportunity of 

 hearing some of the best institute workers of the East. Among others, series of sev- 

 eral meetings have been held during the last four years, by Messrs. Shutt, Gilbert, 

 Robertson, Hodson, Stewart, Maerker, Ruddick, Drummond, Raynor, &c. 



Comox, August 2. — The first meeting was held at Courtney, near that place. 

 There are few spots better suited to dairying than this. Most luxuriant crops of hay 

 and other fodders are grown, and the pastures are excellent. A butter factory has 

 been lately established, and is doing well. Fruit is also grown to advantage. 



The meeting was well attended and an animated discussion took place. After 

 the meeting we drove to Union Mines. The following day was spent in the Beaufort 

 range of mountains, collecting botanical and entomological specimens. Mr. Walter 

 Anderson accompanied us on this trip and discovered a species of Rub us (R. nivalis 

 of Howell's Flora), new to Canada. Leaving Union early August 4, a most delightful 

 drive of 42 miles through the forest was taken to Parksville, where we were most 

 hospitably welcomed and entertained by Mr. and Mrs. R. F. Hickey. Mrs. Hickey 

 had collected several injurious insects, amongst which I found a few specimens of the 

 Variegated Cutworm. We left Parksville on the morning of August 5, and drove 35 

 miles to Alberni, passing along the beautiful Cameron Lake and through the wonderful 

 forest at the base of Mount Arrowsmith. We arrived at our destination at 5 o'clock. 



Alherni has an active institute, and a good meeting was held at 8 o'clock the same 

 evening. Great interest was evinced in the proposed action of the Department to 

 assist farmers . in the very heavy and expensive work of clearing away the stumps 

 of the gigantic trees which are characteristic of that part of Vancouver Island. It 

 was announced by Mr. Anderson that his Minister had made arrangements by which 

 gunpowder of the most suitable kind would be provided at half the price they could 

 get it themselves, if they would conform to certain conditions. There was an ani- 

 mated discussion on the weeds of hay lands and pastures. My own address was on the 

 great importance of the new educational movement known as Nature Study, which I 

 claimed must be of inestimable value to farmers ; in fact, I consider Nature Study 

 is the common sense of education, whatever may be the chosen vocation of any school- 

 boy or girl, and this is more particularly true of farmers, for all their work has to 

 deal directly with objects, a knowledge of which comes within the limits of natural 

 history. Successful farmers are those who understand their business best. The far' 

 mer who knows how plants grow, feed, and develop, will best understand how to fight 

 weeds, which crops are suitable for certain soils, the way to treat them, their require- 

 ments, and how they can be used to his own greatest advantage. A knowledge of 

 zoology would be of great use to a farmer in caring for and breeding stock. With 

 even an elementary knowledge of entomology, he could cope much better than the 

 farmer of to-day with the many insect enemies which yearly destroy a large propor- 

 tion of every crop. To illustrate this, I referred to Mr. Anderson's good work at 

 the beginning of the cutworm outbreak last year, and showed that much loss had 

 been avoided by his being able to advise promptly what should be done to check the 

 caterpillars in their depredations. 



The benefit of cultivating clovers and other nitrogen-gathering crops was explain- 

 ed, the best time to cut hay, and the advantage of a proper rotation of crops. Speak- 

 ing of the great interest now being created in forestry by the new Canadian Forestry 

 Association, I urged my hearers to do everything in their power to preserve the mag- 

 nificent forest around Cameron Lake, within a few miles of Alberni, which I had 

 driven through when coming to the meeting, and which I believe is one of the finest 

 pieces of standing timber in the world. The very size of the trees, as up to the present 

 there are no railways there, would protect it for many years if they could only keep 



