12 CHAIRMAN, COMMITTEE OX LAXDS, COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



2 GEORGE v., A. 1912 



the farms in Manitoba, from none in Saskatchewan and Alberta, and from 17 per 

 cent in British Cohimbia. It is a great evil and injury already, although it has 

 been here only a short time. 



Wild oats are prevalent, and especially harmful in the Prairie Provinces, 

 where the kind of rotation that will kill wild oats is hardly at present practicable. 

 This year our survey took in one new district in Manitoba. In the survey of farms 

 for I&IO every farm surveyed in Manitoba reported wild oats; this year 94 per cent 

 reported them — a few farms in the district taken in this year did not have any. 

 One was added to the survey in Saskatchewan also. Last year, Yl per cent reported 

 wild oats, this year 63 per cent reported it. Last year in Alberta 3 per cent reported 

 wild oats, this year 31 per cent. It is becoming a serious national peril in the 

 Prairie Provinces. Legislation does not stop it a bit. You cannot make either the 

 Russian sow thistle or the wild oats take any heed of the law; and so far we have 

 not been able to make men obey the weed laws. If they have to cut the weeds merely 

 for the sake of making the place clean, or to obey the law, the weeds continue to 

 multiply. The incentive to cut weeds is profit from the crop in which they begin 

 to grow. The problem is difficult, difiicult in the extreme. Local co-operation, 

 local investigations of practicable means, may bring light and remedies. 



In some places weeds in the pasture fields become such a menace that, as in the 

 county of Brome, the orange hawk weed has reduced the carrying power of the 

 pasture fields by one half in less than ten years. There is as yet in practice no way 

 of killing it that is economical and effective. 



B,!i Mr. Bowman : 

 Q. What is your experience with bindweed? 

 A. It is quite bad and increasing in three provinces, I think. 

 Q. Do you not think it is a worse weed than the Russian sow thistle? 

 A. Well it, and the stink weed, together with the Russian sow thistle and wild 

 oats are about four of a kind in weeds. 



SCARCITY OF LABOUR. 



Before I come to the last part of my theme, I have one or two remarks to make 

 on the question of farm labour on which also we made inquiries. It would be easy, 

 one will say, to do all this sort of thing, to have systematic rotation of crops, and to 

 destroy weeds if farmers had enough labour available at wages they could afford to 

 pay. An answer in part to that is, we must in any case apply the labour we have in 

 such a way as to make it effective and then seek to improve local conditions as much 

 as possible so that farmers will be able to employ labour the whole year. The report 

 comes that where farmers employ hired help for twelve months they have little trouble 

 in getting it,, and if they provide a cottage they can get good help. But where the 

 farmer employs hired labour for only a few months in the year he finds it is not the 

 kind he wants. A man cannot live for twelve months on the wages for five months' 

 labour on a farm, and so the farmer who is able to engage his help for only five 

 months or less is not able to get a trained farm worker. The labour situation is one 

 full of difficulty at present. Perhaps local organization of farmers would enable them 

 to cope successfully with it also. 



There appears to be waste from overstocking single small farms with machinery 

 and a loss owing to lack of proper care of the machinery. Salesmen who are glib of 

 tongue can persuade the new farmer to buy every kind of machine vmtil he is loaded up 

 with machinery — and notes. In consequence the newcomer gets a wrong start and 

 when he gets in wrong at the start he is incapable of making that progress which we 

 all desire and expect in Canada. A few illustrations by the best farmers as to the 

 right sort of machinery for the locality, how to use it, and take care of it would be 

 immenselv valuable. That is what we learn from the farmers themselves. 



