1916-17 DEPAETMENT OF LANDS, FORESTS AND MINES. 145 



Sale and Distribution of Cows Through Timiskaming District^ 1917. 



During the early spring of 1917, at the time when the Government decided to 

 erect a creamery in New Liskeard, the Government was approached by a number 

 of farmers interested in stock (milch cows) and who desired to purchase good grade 

 cows, to ascertain the chances of having a few carloads bought and sold in the 

 district. The Government decided to comply with the request and bought three 

 carloads of grade cows, milkers, springers, etc. These were shipped to New Liskeard 

 and sold by public auction (to farmers only) on April 13th. Farmers came from 

 as far north as Cochrane to attend the sale. Forty-three head were sold and, as 

 the buyers were located all along the line of the Timiskaming and Northern 

 Ontario Eailway, the Government decided to ship freight prepaid to the buyer's 

 ]iearest station. 



The interest taken in the sale induced the Government to carry on, and in the 

 early summer nineteen more head'iof milch cows were shipped to New Liskeard and 

 eighteen head to Monteith. These were advertised for sale at cost price, the farmers 

 paying transportation from place of buying to their own farms. 



Despite the fact that all good milch cows are very high" in price and hard to 

 buy, the Government was able to pick up a good average lot of cows of grade Ayr- 

 shire and ShOrthorii type. 



The auction sale of April 13th gave very creditable results, the cows selling for 

 a price sufficiently high to cover purchase price and transportation. The pri vate 

 sale of those shipped in later worked out just as well as expected ; buying was natur- 

 ally more deliberate and extended over a few months' time. All cows were sold for 

 cash at time of sale, the reason for so doing being that the new Government Loan 

 Scheme, whereby. a. farmer of good standing may borrow up to $500.00 from the 

 Government for the purpose of buying stock and otherwise improving his farm 

 made it possible for needy farmers to get the necessary cash to buy stock with. 



In addition to buying cowsi.'the Gojvernment also bought a few carloads of 

 horses and shipped them to ^New Liskeard and Monteith to be sold to settlers at 

 cost. The demand for horses did not prove as great as expected, so that only tlie 

 one lot was sent in. The purchase of good stock, to be sold to the settlers at go^, is 

 a very creditable line of work and one to be followed up. 



In the districts west of the Great Lakes the farmers are taking a much greater 

 interest in live stock. This increased interest is largely due to the development off 

 dairying and their appreciation of the importance of live stock in keeping up the 

 fertility of their farms. In these districts the Government sold at auction for cash 

 forty-three cows at Port Arthur, seventeen at Kenora, eighteen at Dryden and forty- 

 three at Devlin. 



In Muskoka and Parry Sound Districts sheep raising is becoming a very im- 

 portant industry, but the farmers are seriously handicapped by the fact that there 

 are very few breeders of pure-bred stock. Realizing the difficulty the Government 

 purchased thirty pure-bred rams and sold them at cost to the farmers. 



The results of efforts on the part of the Government in assisting the farmers 

 along live stock lines have been very encouraging indeed. It has enabled farmers to 

 get good stock at reasonable prices and will undoubtedly have a very desirable in- 

 fluence upon the building up of the live stock industry of Northern Ontario. 



11 L.M. 



