6 CHAIRMAN, COMMITTEE OX LAXDS, COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



2 GEORGE v., A. 1912 



tlie various other branches of the Dominion Department of Agriculture, such as the 

 live stock, dairy and cold storage, and seed branches, have all helped the fanners; and 

 the men on the best farms are the ones most ready to acknowledge the help they have 

 received. Then there are the Provincial Departments of Agriculture, whose agencies 

 are manifold. For example, there are the Agricultural Colleges, with all their exten- 

 sion work. The Province of Ontario now has some 100 trained and competent men 

 travelling through the province doing instructing work. That is good, but in my 

 judgment it is only a beginning. I oifer you a little illustration. Twenty-six years 

 ago, when I went to the Ontario Agricultural College as Professor of Dairying, I 

 was the only official dairy instructor in the province. Last year the province had 

 thirty dairy instructors. Consider how the Ontario dairy business has grown, not 

 merely in volume of products, but also in improvements in methods and in the 

 quality and reputation of its cheese and butter. I maintain that those thirty instruc- 

 tors in contributing to the enhanced prosperity of the province, were worth their 

 salaries many times over. The illustration dairy stations, the cool curing rooms and 

 tlie cold storage railway cars were all contributing factors. Undoubtedly we are 

 making a good deal of progress. Professor G. C. James, Deputy !Minister of Agricul- 

 ture for Ontario, has said that the province has entered upon a great upward move- 

 ment ; and our records from the Ontario farms confirm that statement. He predicts 

 that it is possible to double the field crops of Ontario in ten years, and there are 

 instances where that has been done. The question is, can the same or similar means 

 be efi^ectively applied on other farms? — On practically all other farms? That is the 

 crux of the problem. What are we going to do about it? Are we 'going to stand 

 still and say: That is the indifferent farmer's own business; he that is indifferent, 

 let him be indift'erent still? Or shall we go together on the level of a united effort 

 ii. each locality, organize ourselves for action in the locality, select the best managed 

 farm or farms in the neighbourhood as illustration farms, whereon we may investigate 

 the means for progr^^ss and for betterment. In that case, the natural leaders will 

 emerge out of the united neighbourhood effort. Through these farms, new co-opera- 

 tions will be established with other neighbourhoods and with Government agencies 

 like Experimental farms, official instructors and educational institutions. 



COMPARISONS WITH TEX YEARS AGO. 



Let us now consider the information obtained as to the yields of crops in the 

 various provinces as compared with ten years ago. From Prince Edward Island 

 51 per cent of the farmers report an increase. That is good. I can recall the time 

 when the Province was going- down. Then the farmers went into growing clover, 

 having some rotation of crops, developing dairying, using better seed grain, &c., with 

 the result stated above. From Nova Scotia 49 per cent of the farmers, from New 

 Brunswick 24 per cent, from Quebec 39 per cent, reported an increase as compared with 

 10 years ago ; and from Ontario 24 per cent reported an increase of 50 per cent in ten 

 years. When we come to Manitoba, it is not surprising that from 100 farm.s not one 

 farmer reports any inct-ease as compared with ten years ago, and not one farmer re- 

 ports any increase as compared with twenty years ago. 



By Mr. S chaff ner: 



Q. What does that statement mean? 



A. One hundred farms were surveyed, and our collector of information took 

 the opinion of the farmers themselves. He practically said: 'How are your crops, 

 how is the fertility of the soil, compared with ten years ago? Are you going up or 

 standing stil or going down in respect to the rate at which your farm yields crops ? ' 



Q. By the acre? 



