128 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



THE ONTARIO AGRICULTURAL AND EXPERIMENTAL 



UNION. 



(Prof. C. A. Zavitz, Ontario Agricultural College.) 



I will speak to you on the work which we have been carrying 

 on in the Province of Ontario during the past few years. I assure 

 you that it is a pleasure to me to meet you who are here in connec- 

 tion with this great institution, you who are connected with the 

 agriculture of this state — to meet you here in convention. I al- 

 ways feel very much at home when I meet those who are endeavor- 

 ing to advance agriculture, whether found in homes throughout 

 the country, or in connection with an institution of this kind, I 

 have been connected with an institution somewhat similar to this 

 during the past twenty-four years. I went from one of the farms 

 of Ontario to our own Agricultural College in 1884. I became con- 

 nected with the work there some two or three years afterwards, 

 and from that time to this I have been trying to do something in 

 connection with the advance of agricultural education and the im- 

 provement of the homes throughout the Province of Ontario, and 

 I think possibly some things have been done which have had an 

 ennobling influence not only upon the farms but also upon those 

 who are connected with the farms. We have an Agricultural Col- 

 lege, started in the year 1884. The experimental work of that 

 institution was started just two years later, in 1886. At that time, 

 we started work in the field in our plots with the object of trying 

 to find out some of the best varieties of farm crops, best methods of 

 cultivation, selection of seed, etc., in a small way. The first year 

 we had some fifty-six plots altogether. That number increased 

 from year to year until we have now about 2,000 plots, field plots, 

 where we are experimenting on different varieties year after year, 

 the results of which experiments we are hoping will be of real value 

 to the farmers who are engaged in farm work throughout the 

 Province of Ontario. After this work had been going on for about 

 ten years — the value of which should be of great service to the 

 farmers, (we sent this information through our reports and bulle- 

 tins and newspaper articles to them) we thought that there was 

 great room for co-operative experiments. Therefore, we started, 

 some twenty years ago, a small system of co-operative experimental 

 work through what is known as the Ontario Agricultural and Ex- 

 perimental Union. I wish to say a few words in regard to that 



