ON AGRICULTURE TO CANADA 103 



These provinces do not strike one as being specially suited for 

 dairying, whereas the beef-producing breeds are there at present 

 in considerable numbers, and might be largely increased. In tin- 

 course of our drives through various parts of these provinces many 

 good cattle were seen. In Alberta, especially about .MacLeod, 

 Cardston, Red Deer, Lacombe. Calgary, and Edmonton, some very 

 good herds of Shorthorns and Herefords were visited, and some of 

 the individual animals seen were not only useful but very superior, 

 indicating skill and energy on the part of their owners in having 

 produced in so young a country such good results. 



Of the cattle trade of British Columbia very little can be said, 

 though cattle raising was alleged to have been at one time a chief 

 industry in the province. It was not a very prominent feature in the 

 parts of the province visited. Some good cattle were seen on the 

 Fraser River Valley and Delta. But at present a large part of the 

 beef supply required for the province is imported from Alberta. 

 With a moist climate, suitable for the growth of grass, fodder, and 

 roots, and a mild winter, there is no reason, as the province developes, 

 why the cattle industry should not attain very much larger pro- 

 portions. 



Cattle Feeding- 



The feeding and foods of the cattle are naturally regulated by 

 the climate, and as it differs very much from the insular type we are 

 accustomed to, so also do the foods required and the modes of 

 feeding differ from ours. The moisture and heat of spring and 

 early summer induce a greater growth in a shorter time than we 

 are accustomed to, and give abundance of grass for pasture and 

 abundance of growth for forage plants. The succeeding dry period 

 allows of the making of these forage plants into excellent hay. 

 When the drought is severe there must be occasionally a temporary 

 scarcity of pasture, and it must then become necessary to have 

 recourse to some of the deeper rooting plants such as lucerne, 

 vetches, red clover, green maize or green oats, and cabbages. 

 Thousand headed kale do not seem to be extensively grown but might 

 be useful at this season. On the comparatively rainless prairie, the 

 grasses during this dry period seem withered and dead, but even in 

 that state appear not only to be able to support life but to put both 

 cattle and horses into prime condition ; a considerable area, how- 

 ever, is required, some of 20 or 30 acres for each animal, but " room ? ' 

 is not a scarce commodity in some parts of Canada. Where the 

 rainfall is greater or more evenly distributed, turnips and mangolds 

 can be very successfully grown, and when this is the case there is 

 little difficulty in seeing the stock safely through the winter with 

 the help of the hay previously made and some grain or other 

 artificial food. Over a large area and especially in Western Ontario 

 the place of roots is taken by silage, made of chopped green 

 maize, of which a great crop can be grown per acre. In some parts 

 every farmer has his silo and his chief green crop is his " corn." 

 When neither turnips, mangolds nor green maize can be success- 



