April, 1922. 



SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE. 



253 



and business experience and jndg:ment 

 have found to be necessary. Here again, 

 to consider fairly the methodsi adopted 

 and the results accomplished, the initial 

 difficulties surrounding the work must not 

 be lost sight of. 



The Act provided for advances aggre- 

 gating as liigh as $7,500.00 to an ex-sold- 

 ier who had no personal assets of his own, 

 beyond $500.00 or $600.00. The Board 

 was compelled to pay in all cases at least 

 90 p.c. of the market value of the land, 

 and in addition, it had to advance on 

 livestock, implements, l)uildings and build- 

 ing material, 100 p.c. of the value of the 

 property so acquired, and this very large- 

 ly at a time when such chattels were at 

 the peak of wartime prices. This meant 

 that no margin of security Avas possible, 



It was! almost impossible to appraise 

 adecjuately the moral risk, as we had to go 

 back to the applicant's history as a civil- 

 ian, prior to the war, and before two, 

 three or four j^ears of military service 

 had changed the whole current of his life. 

 The Act did not permit any arrange- 

 ment enabling the Board to create a re- 

 serve fund to cover lossesi and failures, as 

 no advance in the price of land or chat- 

 tels was permitted, and in addition, all 

 administrative costs had to be carried 

 Avithout charge. 



Finally, before the Board had an oppor- 

 tunity to erect even the framework of an 

 organization, it was besieged by thousandsi 

 of applicants, just demobilized, who de- 

 manded instant establishment on the land. 

 Deprived to a large extent of the safe- 

 guards generally available to ordinary 

 businesses, the Board was compelled to 

 adopt new protective measures of its own. 

 It had to recognize that its best secur- 

 ity lay in the settler himself, and that 

 having no property margin, it must build 

 up and improve his personal or moral risk. 

 The weak and indifferent settler had to 

 be strengthened, the poor farmer had to 

 be turned into a good one, and the inex- 

 perienced farmer into a practical farmer. 

 Only so far as it was possible to do this 

 could losses from failure be prevented and 

 public money adequately preserved. 



It was early discovered that it was not 

 sufficient to see that the land purchased 

 had a market value equal to the pur- 

 chase price. It had to have this, but in 



addition, it also had to have productive 

 possibilities sufficient to ensure that with 

 reasonable effort and work on the part 

 of the settler, he would eventually be able 

 to make a living and carry his overhead 

 thereon, and latterly every effort has 

 l^een made to see that the particular parcel 

 of land selected by the individual appli- 

 cant is, so far as possible, adapted to his 

 peculiar temperament and qualifications. 

 The same condition was soon ascertained 

 to apply in the purchase of stock and 

 equipment, and generally it was clear 

 from the outset that if permanent settle- 

 ment was to be obtained and losses of pub- 

 lic money avoided, the individual settler 

 had to be planted in the soil and nursed 

 and tended until he took root and became 

 firmlv attaclied thereto. 



Millions of dollars have been spent by 

 this country in inducing agricultural im- 

 migrants to settle on our lands. Once 

 the immigrant has been placed on the 

 land, little attention has been paid by 

 anyone to his welfare, he has been allow- 

 ed to live or die, as chance might befall, 

 and no effort has been made to conser^^e 

 his strength or capital. The work of sup- 

 ervision which has been developed and ex- 

 tended by the Board marks an entirely 

 new effort in colonization and land settle- 

 ment in Canada. On an average, with 

 every one hundred and twenty settlers es- 

 tablished, there has been located a trained 

 Field Advisor and Supervisor. Of the one 

 hundred and eighty men employed in this 

 work, all are, so far as it is possible to 

 observe from their records, practical farm- 

 ers, and a very large number of them have 

 in addition, been scientifically trained in 

 agriculture in our various agricultural 

 colleges and institutions. 



The national results accomplished with- 

 out as yet any serious loss of public money, 

 and despite all the initial and business 

 handicaps, are due to a very large extent 

 to the ability, knowledge and scientific 

 training of the field men so employed. If 

 out of the 21,000 settlers established by 

 loan, no more than 15,000 eventually stay 

 on the land and make good, starting as 

 they did with no capital behind them ex- 

 cept borrowed capital, equipped at the 

 peak of high prices ,and faced, before 

 thev had a chance to produce a real crop, 

 with the worst collapse in agricultural 



