ON AGRICULTURE TO CANADA 119 



Looking at the Dominion a little more in sections, we find that in 

 the maritime provinces of Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and 

 New Brunswick, the opportunities for successful poultry-keeping 

 are to some slight extent modified by the price of grain, which has 

 to be carried for food to all kinds of stock from the Far West. The 

 heavy carriage, with the dealers and speculators profit added, 

 makes dear grain, thus raising the cost of production. At the same 

 time a flock of fowls from twenty-five to a hundred or so on each 

 farm, when looked after with reasonable care, leaves a good margin 

 of profit. The waste grain, vegetables, etc., augmented by a small 

 quantity of maize meal, carries the birds through the winter at a 

 very small cost. Farmers generally are doing well with their fowls, 

 and the custom of adding these to the regular stock of the farm 

 is rapidly increasing. The Agricultural College at Truro, Nova 

 Scotia, has a poultry department in connection with it at which 

 white and brown Leghorns, white Wyandottes, Barred Rocks and 

 Pekin Ducks are kept. Mr J. P. Landry, a great enthusiast, is in 

 charge, and is earnestly engaged in building up pedigree laying 

 strains of the leading varieties by means of carefully kept trap- 

 nest records. A large number of eggs from these good laying 

 strains are sold to the farmers every year, as well as the pure-bred 

 cockerels at very moderate prices. 



Quebec and Ontario, being the oldest settled provinces, with 

 several large cities as convenient markets, naturally take the lead 

 in the production of poultry produce. From these provinces a 

 considerable surplus is sent west every year to the growing towns, 

 the mining districts, and British Columbia. Poultry-keeping is 

 much more recognised as a regular part of the regime of the farm 

 in these provinces than it is anywhere else in the Dominion. With 

 the MacDonald College near Montreal, the Central Experimental 

 Farm at Ottawa, the Ontario College at Guelph, the scientific and 

 educative sides of poultry-keeping are well provided for. The 

 wonder is that an organised system of marketing the produce 

 has not yet been introduced. 



At the MacDonald College, the poultry department is provided 

 with housing of the most up-to-date, one might almost say of the 

 most elaborate, description. The incubator room, lecture rooms, 

 egg rooms, offices, etc., are in keeping with the rest of the college 

 buildings, while the poultry accommodation is planned mostly 

 on the colony system. A regular stock of about 680 hens is kept, 

 and an annual batch of 3000 chickens reared. The varieties kept 

 are the Barred Plymouth Rock, White Wyandotte, Single Combed 

 Rhode Island Red, Buff Orpington, Black Minorca and White 

 Leghorn. Mr F. C. Elford, the manager of this department, and 

 one of the recognised experts in the country, conducted a most 

 instructive experiment in regard to the housing of hens for winter 

 egg production. A selected flock of 250 pullets, the fourth genera- 

 tion of good winter layers, were put out in colony houses to an open 

 unsheltered field. The houses were made of one-inch boarding, 

 except round the perches at the back, where it was double thickness 

 with tar paper in between. Abundance of fresh air and light were 



