144 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL CANADIAN INSTITUTE.  [VOL. XI 
I. CONSERVATION OF RESOURCES AND DEVELOPMENT 
OF INDUSTRIES. 
In dealing with the question of Industrial Research in the brief time 
at my disposal the key note of what I shall have to say will be ‘‘The 
Conservation of our Natural Resources, and the Scientific Development 
of our National Industries”’. 
AGRICULTURE. 
Three of our chief sources of wealth, I may point out, are our agri- 
cultural lands, our cheap electrical power, and our mineral deposits. 
Of these the agricultural industry is by far our greatest national asset. 
The importance of this industry was early perceived by our Govern- 
ments and Legislatures, and due provision has been made already for 
its proper development. Through the agency of the Dominion Experi- 
mental Farms inaugurated by the late Dr. William Saunders and through 
the activities of the Ontario Agricultural College under the Presidential 
guidance of Dr. Mills, and Professor Creelman, as well as by the praise- 
worthy work of the late lamented Dr. C. C. James, great advances have 
been made in the selection of the most suitable seed grains, the best breeds 
of dairy cattle, horses and other farm animals, and vast improvements 
have been made in recent years in the preparation, storage and trans- 
portation of our dairy products. From what has been accomplished so 
far we may safely say that our agricultural industry is now on an emi- 
nently satisfactory basis, and that it is developing on sound lines. Much 
can still be done, however, to ameliorate the disabilities of farm life, by 
improving roads, by increasing facilities for education, by adding to 
the comfort of farm dwellings and the beauty of their surroundings, 
and by a more extensive use of electric power in farm operations. Speak- 
ing generally, too, I may be permitted to say that our agricultural 
lands are not as intensely fertilised as they should be, and production 
is not as much by half as it could easily be by proper treatment of the 
soil. And we have the remedy at hand if we would but use it. The vast 
deposits of calcium, potassium, and phosphate-bearing minerals in 
Canada require but to be worked to furnish us with unlimited supplies 
of mineral fertilising agents. Our electrical power, too, could furnish us 
with vast supplies of nitrates if we would but apply it. At Niagara 
Falls, Ontario, we have already in the American Cyanamide Works, an 
industry of some thirty-thousand horse-power capacity in which thou- 
sands of tons of fertilisers made by the extraction of nitrogen from the 
atmosphere are manufactured each year. But the whole of this output 
goes to the country to the south of us, and is used to increase the pro- 
