I 



ON AGRICULTURE TO CANADA 181 



discount of 10 per cent., plus rent of meter, one dollar per annum. 

 Houses are heated by stoves or by cellar furnaces, the fuel used 

 being hard or anthracite coal costing at Ottawa from 6.75 dollars to 

 7.75 dollars a ton. The amount of coal used during the winter 

 varies with its severity ; but an average quantity for a medium-sized 

 house, rented at 25 dollars monthly, such as that previously re- 

 ferred to, would be from 8 to 12 tons for the season, including the 

 fuel used for kitchen cooking stove. The advantage of a furnace 

 is that the whole house is warmed and not, as in Great Britain, only 

 those rooms in which fires are lighted. The systems of heating 

 usually in force are by hot air and by hot-water pipes, the former 

 being cheaper as regards initial outlay for installation. In the 

 summer, gas stoves are largely used for cooking in towns. At 



SHOOTING PAETY AT AGASSIZ 



Ottawa the price of gas is $1.25 per 1000 cubic feet, less a cash 

 discount of 12 per cent., and plus a rental of two dollars per year 

 for meter. 



Wages 



Wages vary considerably in the different provinces of the 

 dominion. It may be taken that the rates steadily increase as one 

 goes west, and that they are highest in British Columbia, although 

 it may, and probably does happen in the case of certain trades — 

 those relating, say, to house-building in rapidly growing towns in 

 the north-west — that wages reach a very high temporary level. 



In dealing with the wages of farm labourers, it must be kept 

 in mind that they have often only seven or eight months' work in 

 the year. Keeping this in view, the following figures taken from 



