40 



every person who had any concern in connection with the agriculture of our 

 c*ountry was compelled to give most serious consideration to the depressed con- 

 dition of our farmers. 



Being shut off from this marlcet to the south we naturally had to look across 

 the Atlantic for a market, and by the assistance of our farmers' institute we 

 began to build up a new agriculture in the Province of Ontario. Instead of 

 raising grain for export we began to turn that grain into finished products — 

 to produce beef and bacon and cheese. Gradually we emerged from that slough 

 of despond into which we had been thrown, and I want to give you here the 

 results in a few brief figures. It took some time, of course, to produce results, 

 but here are the results in a few figures, which will show you how successfully 

 the whole agriculture of the Province of Ontario has been changed and how 

 we have had it placed upon a much surer foundation than it Avas before. 



In the year 189G the farmers of tlie Province of Ontario produced in these 

 three products to which I have referred 31 million dollars' ^^■orth — beef, bacon, 

 and cheese. Last year these three products aggregated 65^ million dollars. 

 Now, an industry that will increase its output by 34i million dollars in seven 

 years nuist certaiidy be in a very successful and prosperous condition. 



The effect of that has been that for the last six or seven years — more espe- 

 cially for the last four years — we have enjoyed throughout the Province of 

 Ontario a prosperity that has never been surpassed, that has never been equaled 

 before. We have not had that stress of commercial conditions which I believe 

 you have felt here to the south of the line. The times have been good and they 

 have continued good, and all through our Province at the present day yon will 

 find that these conditions are keeping up and that everybody is in a prosperous 

 and happy state. This we attrilnite, to a large extent, to the change that has 

 been brought about in the agricultural conditions of the country. AVe have 

 changed our condition from that of the production of grain for export to the 

 production of those finished articles to which I have made reference — namely, 

 beef, bacon, and cheese. At the time it seemed to us rather harsh treatment we 

 were receiving, and though darkness and despair seemed to be ahead of the 

 farmers of Ontario at the time you can see now that good has come out of it 

 and our farmers are in a more prosi)erous condition than they ever were liefore. 



Now, how has this been accomplished? How have we been able to turn our 

 farmers from grain production to the production of those finished articles? 

 Mainly, as I have hinted, by means of our general farmers' institute work. 

 Through it we have carried on year by year a missionary enteriirisc which has 

 worked in season and out of season, slow in producing results, but sure ; and 

 from our farmers' institutes we have organized on a similar basis those special 

 associations which have done so much. For instance, we have organized pro- 

 vincial cattle breeders' associations and we have organized sheep breeders' asso- 

 ciations and we have organized swine breeders' associations. These have carried 

 on the work intrusted to them in connection with those three lines, and then 

 they have amalgamated in a successful fair, which we call our winter fair. In 

 refei'ence to our bacon industry, we can attribute success move to the farmers' 

 institute than anything else. There the whole thing was carefully planned and 

 carried out successfully from the beginning. The building up of the great bacon 

 industry to the north of you has been largely due to the missionary work 

 carried out through the farmers* institute. 



The development of our cheese industry can be traced back to a similar line 

 of work. 



And so I say that the position we are in to-day is largely due to the farmers' 

 institute work, which we adopted in its original form from the farmers' insti- 

 tute of the United States and which we adapted to the circumstances and con- 



