payment must be made within ten years. To 

 date 425 farms have been so purchased, and 

 complete repayments have been made on 171 to 

 the extent of $88,321. In 1918 the Act to 

 Provide for the Purchase of Sheep was passed 

 authorizing the government to purchase breeding 

 sheep and resell them to the farmers of the 

 province at cost. Three hundred loans have 

 been made for this purpose totalling $21,000, 

 and in the time which has transpired since the 

 passing of the Act the number of sheep in the 

 province has increased by 200 per cent. 



Tha Province of Nova Scotia 



The Act for the Encouragement of Settlers 

 on Farm Lands passed in 1912 provides that the 

 settler who wishes to borrow must have cash 

 capital equal to 20 per cent of the appraised or 

 purchase value of the land, besides what he 

 would require for house furnishings, stock, etc. 

 The loan may amount to 40 per cent of the value 

 of the property and in approved cases to 80 per 

 cent, and the loan may be for as long as thirty 

 years. The rate of interest varies from 6 to 7 

 per cent and the mortgagor may pay off his 

 indebtedness at any time within the period. 



Nut Production in British Columbia 



Canada is yearly importing nuts to the extent of four 

 and a half million dollars from the United Kingdom, 

 United States, Italy, France, Spain, Dutch East Indies, 

 Hong Kong, Japan and China, whilst possessing on her 

 Pacific coast a region which has been proven adapted to 

 the production of many varieties of commercial nuts. 

 On many homesteads in the more settled sections of 

 British Columbia a few nut trees have been planted, and 

 although in the majority of cases neglect in culture or 

 destruction by animals have precluded thorough tests, 

 sufficient have survived to prove that there are possibilities 

 for systematic nut culture in those sections of the Pacific 

 coast province where fruit orcharding is followed. 

 Although nut culture has net as yet received the attention 

 it deserves from British Columbia horticulturists, a good 

 deal of work has been done with several varieties at 

 government experimental stations in the province. 



The walnut has been grown successfully in the 

 Province of British Columbia and numerous fine speci- 

 mens of the Persian walnut are to be seen in the older 

 sections of Vancouver Island. Walnuts have been 

 produced which, on the authority of the California Walnut 

 Growers' Association, to whom samples were submitted 

 for examination, are equal in appearance, quality and 

 flavor to the southern variety. The trees thrive admirably 

 and produce abundantly on the roughest land, being usually 

 planted about fifty feet apart, so that a substantial orchard 

 can be established on a small acreage. Two hundred 

 pounds per tree is not a large yield, which, sold at the 

 lowest estimate of 25 cents per pound, returns $50 per 

 tree, or a comfortable income from an orchard of one 

 hundred trees. In the past year Canada imported 

 1,455,535 pounds of walnuts, shelled and unshelled, 

 worth $591,369, a trade which, with the development of a 

 walnut industry in British Columbia, could be reserved for 

 the Dominion. 



Chestnuts and Almonds 



A chestnut industry in British Columbia merely awaits 

 proper exploitation and development. Chestnuts, thriv- 

 ing excellently, are to be found along the Canadian Pacific 

 coast, though, due to neglect of culture and failure to take 



advantage of a natural asset, the province has no worth- 

 while chestnut production. Many varieties grow at their 

 best there. The Japanese chestnut, planted as a dooryard 

 or garden tree, is quite common, and, where a number have 

 been located together to aid fertilization, yields have been 

 eminently satisfactory. The Vancouver Island Experi- 

 mental Station has conducted many tests over a number of 

 years and satisfied itself as to the possibilities of provincial 

 production. Canada at the present time imports large 

 amounts of chestnuts from the Orient which should be 

 supplied by her own Pacific coast territory. 



Almond varieties of both hard-shell and soft-shell 

 types have been under test at the Vancouver Island 

 station for ten years, and certain species have proven 

 prolific producers under coast conditions. The hard-shell 

 varieties have shown themselves most adapted to British 

 Columbia production, and large quantities of seedlings of 

 commercial kinds are being produced. The almond is, 

 as a genaral rule, extremely susceptible to the slightest 

 frost, but these have been developed to withstand twenty 

 degrees of frost during the dormant period and through the 

 entire bloom period from two to six degrees of frost. 



Filberts, Cobs and Hazels 



West of the Rocky Mountains considerable success has 

 attended the domestic cultivation of filberts, cobs and 

 hazels. Filberts make an excellent British Columbia 

 crop, being easily propagated by growing plants from sead, 

 cuttings or layers. Varieties of filbert are planted at 

 distances varying from ten to twenty feet apart, the 

 ground between the rows being used for small fruits, 

 potatoes or vegetables. Four-year-old trees at tha 

 Experimental Farm have yielded an average of from four 

 and a half to seven and a half pounds per tree. At the 

 present time the importation of filberts and hazel nuts 

 into Canada amounts yearly to 1,319,884 pounds, valued at 

 $182,000. 



Butternuts and hickory nuts yield well all over the 

 province and the trees are of good size. The wild hazel 

 grows everywhere along the Pacific coast. The trees bear 

 well and the nuts are of a large size. 



British Columbia should, in time, become the nut- 

 producing region of Canada, for this section of the Domi- 

 nion is the only one where the commercial production of a 

 great variety of nuts is possible. Tests with nuts at the 

 Experimental Farmsof the provincego as far back as 1890, 

 and these have been so successful that there is no reason 

 why nut culture should not have progressed beyond the 

 desultory stage where a few enthusiastic individuals 

 engage in it. These same farms are always at the service 

 of growers with advice as to the best varieties to grow, and 

 even to the extent of providing seedlings. With develop- 

 ment and an increasing number of British Columbia 

 farmers engaging in nut-growing this should become 

 another phase of Canadian life in which the Dominion is 

 independent to a large extent of foreign supplies. 



Western Canada Irrigation Convention 



By Jas. Colley, Secy. W.C.I.A., Lethbndge, Alberta 



The increasing importance of irrigation in the agricul- 

 tural and general economic development of a large part of 

 the Canadian West was evidenced by the great success of 

 the Sixteenth Annual Convention of the Western Canada 

 Irrigation Association which was held at Maple Creek, 

 Saskatchewan, and Brooks, Alberta. 



Many of the delegates came from places where hitherto 

 little interest has been shown in irrigation. They had 

 read of the wonderful results that have followed the 

 application of water on the semi-arid parts of the West 

 and came to see them at first hand. They found that 

 what they had read did little justice to the great trans- 

 formation effected by irrigation, and were greatly impressed 

 by the wonderful possibilities of diverting and using the 

 waters of the magnificent mountain streams on the rich 

 soil in those parts of the Canadian prairies where irrigation 

 is possible and advisable. 



185 



