78 EUKAL LIFE IN CANADA 



report from a virgin Province with the accumulated 

 wealth of 50,000 years of the Creator's deposits in that 

 savings bank of soil ; that not one farmer in a hundred 

 has reported any increase over ten years ago, and that 

 46 per cent, of them have reported a decided decrease. 

 That gives us much food for thought. It brings out a 

 grave situation for consideration. It is to me, much 

 more imminent of blessing or disaster than any other 

 material question now before the West."* 



O Demeter, abounding in fruit and ears of the harvest, 

 Well may this field be wrought and yield a crop beyond 

 measure.f 



But we have not only tracts that are springing up 

 in scrub forest and other areas that afford pasturage for 

 the stock of adjoining farmers ; the major portion of the 

 land in the township of Edwardsburg is for sale. Not 

 that it is all so advertised, though much of it is. Lead- 

 ing Edwardsburg farmers assure me that three out of 

 four of the farmers in the township are ready to accept 

 any reasonable offer for their acres. Why should this 

 be the case ? 



The Lands Committee of the Conservation Commis- 

 sion carried on in 1911 an investigation gleaning infor- 

 mation fairly representative of the actual conditions in 

 each Province in regard to the practice of well-planned 

 farming as shown by systematic rotation of crops, the 

 practice of sowing selected seed, and the application of 

 manures ; and also as to the inroads of weeds, insect 

 pests, and plant diseases. This inquiry into actual con- 



* Report cited, p. 92. 

 t Theocritus, Idyll X. 



