STOCK RAISING. CHEESE FACTORIES. 37 



up in another school, and who knows that capital pru- 

 dently invested in the improvement of the soil is money 

 well spent. There can be little doubt that in years to 

 come stock raising will largely take the place of wheat 

 growing in Ontario. From its extremely central and 

 accessible position on the map of North America, Ontario 

 is able at a trifling cost to supply the markets with beef 

 and mutton in those portions of the continent where 

 butcher's meat is as high or higher in price than it is in 

 London. Cattle, as we have seen, thrive particularly well 

 in Ontario, which in respect to stock raising occupies the 

 same position towards the New England States as Ireland 

 does to England, with the considerable exception that in 

 Canada it costs little more to raise an ox than it does 

 to raise a sheep in Ireland. Stock raising naturally 

 succeeds to wheat growing, and it is this branch of farming 

 which most commends itself to immigrant farmers from 

 the Old World. To winter stock well, roots are necessary, 

 and roots can be grown in Canada as well as in England. 

 I have seen 30 tons of turnips to the acre, 45 of mangold 

 wurtzel, 25 of carrots, and the same of parsnips. 



It is quite a mistake to suppose that the severe 

 Canadian winter is .against stock raising. In England 

 good farmers keep their cattle in the house almost if not 

 quite as long as cattle have to be housed in Ontario. 

 Under these circumstances it is all one to the farmer 

 whether his land is in iron or in mud, I mean as far as 

 his stock are concerned ; in many other ways the balance 

 is in favour of the Canadian farmer. Land that has been 

 ploughed in the fall harrows into dust in the spring. No 

 clod crusher is so efficient as Jack Frost. Vegetation at 



