202 EXPERIMENTAL FARMS. 
63 VICTORIA, A. 1900 
MANITOBA. 
On July 8, in accordance with an agreement with the Manitoba Government, I 
went to Elkhorn, Man. and addressed a meeting of the Elkhorn Farmers’ Institute. I 
remained at this place till the following day, when I took the train back to Winnipeg 
to. assist in the arrangement of the exhibit of the noxious weeds of Manitoba, shown in 
the Weed Tent of the Provincial Government of Manitoba at the summer Industrial 
Fair. This exhibit was an unqualified success. Almost every kind of the noxious 
weeds of the province was shown, plainly labelled with its English and scientific names, 
and at all times of the day some officials of the department were in attendance to give 
such information as might be desired by the thousands of farmers who visited the exhibit 
every day from early morning till late at night. 
British CoLuMBIA. 
On the morning of July 13, I left Winnipeg and proceeded westward to British 
Columbia by way of the Crow’s Nest Pass, visiting the thrivmg and active towns of 
Nelson and Rossland on the way. I reached Vancouver on July 19, when I joined Mr. 
J. R. Anderson, the Deputy Minister of Agriculture for British Columbia. The after- 
noon was spent in admiring the colossal trees and other plants in Stanley Park. On 
the morning of the 20th New Westminster was visited, and we reached Victoria the 
same evening. The 21st was spent in the Department of Agriculture, examining the 
collections and answering correspondence forwarded from Ottawa. In the evening we 
went out by special train to South Saanich, where a largely attended meeting of the 
Victoria Farmers’ Institute was held ; the subjects treated of at this meeting were weeds 
of the farm and injurious insects. We returned to Victoria the same night, and on the 
morning of July 22 left for Duncan’s, on the Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway. We 
were met at the station by Mr. G. H. Hadwen and driven out to his fruit farm. We 
returned to Duncan’s for a meeting of the Farmers’ Institute held in the afternoon. 
The subject of main interest at this meeting was Hay and Pasture Grasses. Noxious 
Weeds and Agricultural Education were also discussed at some length. After the meet- 
ing a visit was paid to the grounds of Mr. W. C. Duncan to examine a patch, which he 
had had under cultivation for many years, of Bromus virens, Buckl. (b. Hookerianus, 
Thurb.), a grass of much promise closely resembling the Southern Brome grass (Bromus 
Schraderi, Kunth). We returned by the evening train to Langford and drove to a meet- 
ing of the Metchosin Farmers’ Institute. This meeting had been well advertised and 
was largely attended. After the meeting we drove back to Victoria reaching there at 
1.30 a.m. 
On Monday morning, July 24, in company with Mr. Anderson, I started for the 
interior of Vancouver Island ; we arrived at Nanaimo about noon and were joined by 
the Rev. G. W. Taylor, of that place. After lunch we drove 36 miles to Mr. R. F. 
Hickey’s, at French Creek, and later in the evening back to McCarter’s Hotel, where an 
evening meeting was held. This day’s journey was full of interest on account of the 
wonderful forests with which this part of the island is clothed. Objects of great wonder 
were the enormous trees of Arbutus Menziesii, Pursh, many of them over 2 feet in 
diameter and some large specimens reaching even 3 feet. The next morning we started 
at 6 o’clock and drove 30 miles to Alberni, arriving there at 3 o’clock in the afternoon. 
The drive past Cameron Lake and around the foot of Mount Arrowsmith is one of 
the most remarkable drives I have ever taken—the road magnificent, smooth and well 
gravelled the whole way, and through a most wonderful forest, a tract of two miles 
just past Cameron Lake on the Alberni side, particularly shows the Vancouver Island 
forests in perfection: gigantic Douglas Spruces, Hemlocks and Cedars—specimens of 
these trees from 6 to 8 feet in diameter being found by thousands—growing so close 
together, only 30 or 40 feet apart, that the straight trunks rise upover 100 feet before 
a branch is reached. The heads of these giants seem very small compared with their 
towering trunks. The undergrowth beneath these trees is remarkably sparse and consist 
almost entirely of mosses and ferns, with the beautiful and fragrant Achlys triphylla, 
