of her team-mates takes her place and explains the theory 

 of cow-testing and its advantages. The third member 

 then explains the make of the machine, tells something 

 of the inventor, and shows how to use it. 



Co-operation the Key Note 



The members work together with such clock-like 

 regularity that one or other is always speaking and the 

 two are doing the actual mechanical work at the same 

 time, and when the demonstration is completed, the table 

 is cleared and everything packed away. 



Team demonstration work develops co-operation, 

 the ability to speak in public, habits of reading and re- 

 search, neatness, accuracy and speed, local pride in the 

 community and a good practical knowledge of the subject. 



Manitoba has teams on canning, cookery, sewing, 

 garment dyeing, stock judging, vegetable judging and grain 

 inspection. Recently, one section of the district champion 

 demonstration team spent a whole week in Winnipeg in 

 sight-seeing, entertainment and education, as a reward for 

 achievement in club work for their respective districts. 



By these means, agricultural education is being made 

 a joy and entertainment to thousands of Manitoba's boys 

 and girls. The movement will make for better and happier 

 homes and greater agricultural future output. 



The Labor Situation 



A survey of the general labor situation during 

 the month of December exhibits a continued 

 steady decrease in the general average of 

 employment throughout the Do/ninion, but 

 a smaller loss in time due to strikes and indus- 

 trial disputes. The month witnessed a further 

 gratifying decline in the cost of the weekly 

 family budget in comparison with the previous 

 months. 



The decline in the total average volume of 

 employment was fairly general during the month, 

 though in the Maritimes, conditions were favor- 

 ably affected in the early part of the month by 

 the opening of the winter ports. Metals, ma- 

 chinery, and conveyances groups of trades were 

 seriously and widely depressed, this state being 

 observed more seriously in railway car and 

 shipping. Shipbuilding in British Columbia was 

 an exception. In the food and liquor, there was 

 also a decline, this being particularly marked in 

 the Ontario milling industry, and Quebec 

 abattoirs and packing houses. Biscuit and 

 confectionery establishments in the Maritime 

 provinces and Ontario suffered. The textile 

 and clothing industries continued to register 

 substantial declines, especially in the garment, 

 thread, yarn, cloth and knitting factories of 

 Quebec and Ontario. 



Seasonal Slackness Fairly General 



Declines were also fairly general through 

 the pulp and paper industry, the staffs in many 

 mills in Quebec and Ontario being largely 

 reduced. Decline continued in woodworking, 

 clay, glass and stone groups, especially in trades 

 supplying material for building and construction. 

 Employment in connection with transportation, 

 both on railways and by water, was slightly less 

 than in the preceding month, though some 

 activity was noted in the Maritime ports. 



Mining, other than coal, was less active, 

 the decline being most noticeable in British 

 Columbia. The coal mining started the month 

 with gains, but dropped towards the end. The 

 usual period of seasonal slackness affected the 

 sawmills, but work in the woods generally gave 

 added employment. 



There were in existence during the month 

 ten strikes, involving about 1,554 workpeople 

 and resulting in a time loss of 14,654 days. This 

 was less than in the previous month or the 

 corresponding month in 1920. 



The movement of prices continued down- 

 ward, but there were the usual seasonal 

 advances in eggs, though butter, cheese and 

 milk showed unusual declines. In retail prices, 

 the average cost in sixty cities of a list of staple 

 foods at the middle of December was $14.84, as 

 compared with $15.32 at the middle of Novem- 

 ber, and $14.73 in the middle of December, 

 1919. The chief decrease of the month was in 

 sugar, but there were substantial declines in 

 meats, and a slight drop in practically all foods. 



Transport of Fort Norman Oil 



The strike of oil by the Imperial Oil Company 

 at Fort Norman, north of the Peace River 

 country, has aroused wide-world interest in the 

 potentialities of this field. Hundreds of pros- 

 pectors are ready to jump off from the end of the 

 steel with the advent of spring to make their 

 way to this region, whilst others still more 

 enterprising have chartered aeroplanes to steal 

 a march on the mushers and trailers in the 

 anticipated rush. Negotiations are said to be 

 under way for the establishment of an aerial 

 service from Fort Norman to Edmonton, a 

 distance as the crow flies of about 900 miles, 

 which calls for landing stages at intervals en 

 route and the situating, before flying is com- 

 menced, of depots of gasoline, accessories and 

 other requisites for successful flying. 



But stupendous as is the interest the strike 

 has awakened in all prospectors, oil men, and 

 investors, it is scarcely more so than that of 

 devising the most practicable and economic 

 method of transporting the product of the well 

 and others which may be struck in the Mackenzie 

 River basin, over the half-explored region 

 which lies between it and the nearest shipping 

 point by rail. Over this, many able minds are 

 working. The Fort Norman field in the Macken- 

 zie basin is situated about 1,500 miles north of 

 Edmonton, the Alberta capital, and 1,000 miles 

 from Fort McMurray, the most northerly 

 point of railway contact. The country between 

 consists of a vast stretch of rolling, lightly- 

 timbered, well-watered country, hardly yet 

 explored, rich agriculturally but possessing no 

 roads of any kind whatsoever or other means of 

 transportation. To get the oil from the well 

 already struck (which, in itself, it is considered 



36 



