106 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
ean market in the class or grade determined by the Grain Commission. 
Further, the merchant of Europe who cables an order knows that it will 
be filled with grain according to grade, with the endorsement or guaran- 
tee of Canada upon it. No other food product of Canada has received 
quite so much care and supervision from governments, Dominion 
and Provincial, as wheat, for the reason, I suppose, that it has been 
the outstanding export crop of Canada. The question of marketing 
products is being given more attention. Hitherto the increasing of 
production has, to a large extent, absorbed the thought of agricultural 
investigators and the instruction of producers has been considered of 
most importance. Gradually, however, it has come to the attention 
of students of agricultural problems that marketing—transportation 
and distribution—demands immediate attention. Not only to pro- 
ducers but also to consumers it must be apparent that in Canada 
there has developed as an outcome of our mode of life an unnecessarily 
wide ‘‘spread’’ between cost of food production and price to consumer, 
owing to our complicated and expensive methods of distribution. 
Bread is the one great staple of food that has maintained an even price. 
World conditions arising out of the war are directing national thought 
to the more serious consideration of the production and marketing of 
Canadian meats and dairy products. 
This story of the great wheat crop of the Canadian West is only 
a part of the story of the production of 1915. The wheat crop was the 
response of only a portion of the farmers of Canada. It was a grand 
production, but, big as it was in value, it represented hardly one- 
third of the total output of the farms in Canada. When the full story 
comes to be written, beef and bacon, butter and cheese, and eggs, 
and a score of other products will have to be considered, alongside of 
which, so far as money value is concerned, the much-talked-of muni- 
tions output will make a comparatively small showing. 
