100 REPORT OF THE SCOTTISH COMMISSION 



to any great extent energetically catering for outside markets. 

 The agriculture of this Province is described as of a more domestic 

 character than that of some other parts of Canada. 



The cities of Montreal, Quebec, and Ottawa, undoubtedly 

 account for a good deal of the surplus dairy produce raised, and the 

 beef supply required in these cities, also, partly comes from a more 

 or less local source. As mentioned in the case of the provinces 

 already touched on, the cattle seen were mixed both in breed and 

 crossing, and occasionally a black-horned breed, the French 

 Canadian, of a more purely native and local origin, was met with. 

 This breed was a favourite in some parts. 



Ontario is called the province of mixed-farming. The beef 

 breeds are in various parts receiving a great deal of attention by 

 many energetic and particularly enthusiastic breeders. Of the 

 Breeds, pure Shorthorns of a good class, replenished from time to 

 time by the best the Old Country can produce, are most frequently 

 met with, and the breeders of these, along with those who favour 

 Herefords or Polled Aberdeen Angus, are in many ways nothing 

 behind breeders of the same classes at home. Galloways are 

 also represented by at least one, not by any means insignificant, 

 herd. In many dairies Grade Shorthorns were found in considerable 

 numbers. From these the calves, often got by a pedigree bull, are 

 kept and go to make up the numbers of young cattle grazed on the 

 mixed farms of the Province. 



Members of the Commission were privileged to see quite a large 

 number of well bred cattle in the various pedigree herds visited, 

 and also on many of the farms good fleshy two-year old and three- 

 year old steers of the Grade type, with which those are more or less 

 acquainted who have seen the arrival of a cattle steamer at Glasgow 

 or Liverpool. During the last seven years cattle have been in- 

 creasing slightly. In 1901, the proportion of milch cows to other 

 cattle was five to seven, in 1907 about five to eight. It should be 

 kept in mind that many of these cattle other than milch cows will 

 in all probability be heifers, eventually to be drafted into the 

 dairies. This means that probably about three-quarters of the 

 whole number of cattle are kept for the production of milk. 

 The other quarter is composed in part of pedigree cattle herds, 

 the young bulls from which often find their way outside the 

 limits of the Province, and in part, of young stockers for 

 home grazing and fattening, with the view of exporting the 

 best, and using the others to meet the home demand. It may 

 be presumption to suggest that much of the beef consumed 

 in Canada might be improved. But the fact remains that even 

 in the best hotels both the beef and the mutton are not of first- 

 class quality. 



With Manitoba, the first of the Prairie Provinces visited, begins 

 the great central plain of the North-West, where to many, who 

 in the last forty years have gone in search of a good home and 

 reasonable affluence, there has not only been found the " land of 

 promise " but the land of reality. Wheat-growing is the branch 

 of agriculture predominant in the Province, for which the rich 



