4 CHAIRMAN. COMMITTEE OX LANDS, COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



2 GEORGE v., A. 1912 



credit upon our way of doing things. Bvit if a man is an honest doctor he does not 

 smother up the symptoms in soothing palliatives. He tries to get at the root of the 

 trouble, to get the patient to behave better and to prevent the recurrence of the 

 disease. It is not only a question of typhoid fever, which, however, is becoming more 

 prevalent, I am told by competent authorities, in the rural districts than in the towns. 

 That is not the only important part of the question. I venture this in all kindness 

 and humility, that if need be we could afford to see a number of the rural people die 

 from typhoid without seeing much reduction in the number of our population — we 

 could afford that dire consequence if it is one we must endure. But if you have a 

 rural population using impure and polluted water week after week and month after 

 month, you will get a degradation of life ; you get a condition of health that becomes 

 aif invitation to diseases and debilities that are very serious. Out of this part of the 

 survey we hope to obtain practical results in the way of some action being taken for 

 treating the difficulty and preventing its continuation. The farmers have joined us 

 in the most cordial and helpful way. 



AGRICULTURE A NATIONAL INTEREST. 



Before I come to a consideration of some details from the schedules, let me bring 

 to your attention some matters which shed light on our problem which I have just 

 mentioned — our problem of how the best we now do and have shall becon:e common 

 to all the farms in Canada. You would see in the public press the other day — I 

 had the pleasure of receiving a copy of the monthly bulletin last night — that Canada 

 last year had field crops of the total value of $365,000,000 at the places of produc- 

 tion. That is a great deal of wealth called out of natural resources by the labour of 

 farmers. That is different in its effect on the welfare of the people from the increase 

 of money values by holding real estate. The wealth represented by the crops was 

 created out of otherwise chaos by intelligent management and labour. It is here, 

 with us, to go around. I appeared before this Committee some fifteen years ago, to 

 speak on a theme that was then, in my judgment, and is now of great importance to 

 agriculture, viz., the advantages of local illustration stations or farms for the service 

 of surrounding farmers. At that tim.e (1897) as nearly as one could obtain informa- 

 tion, Canada produced field crops of the value of $270,000,000. Kow we produce 

 crops of the value of $565,000,000. That increase of 109 per cent in fifteen years 

 would have been exceedingly creditable to our management and our ability if we had 

 not increased our acreage under crops. And part of the increase in value is due to 

 advance in prices. The increase of acreage has been, of course, mostly in the three 

 prairie provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. The increase in them 

 amounts to 11,836,000 acres, and the increase in the acreage under crop east of the 

 Great Lakes amounts to about 3,000,000 acres in the same period. The increase in the 

 value of the field crops from the three prairie provinces from 1897 to 1911 is, in round 

 figures, $200,000,000. This increase does not include revenues from live stock or 

 dairy products. It refers to field crops only. The west is certainly an important 

 portion of the agricultural area of Canada ; and it has become a very important part 

 of the agricultural life of Canada. Last year its field crops had a value ($228,033,000) 

 equal to forty per cent of the whole production. The Committee will see that the 

 questions of conservation, the questions of utilization of agricultural lands, are 

 Questions affecting the prosperity, the stability, of every material interest in Canada. 

 Everyone carrying on business or following an occupation in Canada is to some 

 extent, directly and indirectly, affected by the progress, or otherwise, of the agricul- 

 tural industry. Perhaps I have already referred at more than sufficient length to 

 those salient features. I have done so in order that you m.ight be with me, as to the 

 point from which the question should be viewed, when considering and discussing 

 means whereby we can do better hereafter than we have been doing. Farming is not 



