JAMES W. ROBERTSOy 

 2 GEORGE V. APPENDIX No. 3 A. 1912 



a6K5 

 ILLUSTRATION FARMS OF THE COMMITTEE ON LANDS 



House of Commons^ 



EooM No. 34, 



Thursday, January 24, 1912. 



The Select Standing Committee on Agriculture and Colonization met to-day at 

 11.15 o'clock, a.m., the Chairman, Mr. J. A. Sexsmith, presiding. 



The Chairman. — Gentlemen, the time for commencing our proceedings has 

 arrived, and I take much pleasure in introducing Dr. James W. Robertson, Chairman, 

 Committee on Lands, Commission of Conservation, who will speak on some of the 

 results obtained from the survey of farms conducted by that committee, more 

 especially with reference to the Conservation of (a) Fertility, (&) Labour, and (c) 

 Health. I am sure you will be delighted with Dr. Robertson's address and I hope 

 and trust that excellent results will flow from it. This Committee, I think, has 

 accomplished a great deal of good in the past, but I feel that more remains to be 

 done. At some future occasion when we shall have more leisure at our disposal for 

 discussion, we may be able to take up some of the problems that confront us and 

 arrive at suggestions of a practical character, which will be helpful to the great 

 industry of agriculture. I now call upon Dr. Robertson to address you. 



Dr. RoBERTSOX. — Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen, I welcome this opportunity to 

 come before the Committee and to associate myself with it in the consideration of 

 means for the improvement of agriculture and the progress of rural interests 

 generally. It is well over twenty years since I first had the honour of appearing 

 before this Committee, and ever since that time I have observed something of the 

 great service which the Committee has been rendering to Canada. While I was the 

 head of a college, I commended the reports of this Committee as one of the best 

 means of giving the students a knowledge of the progress of agriculture in Canada. 

 The reports are not merely of historical value. They are full of suggestions and 

 information for the men who live on the land and also for the men who serve them 

 as instructors and in other professional capacities. I hope I may be permitted for 

 m.any years to contribute my quota to the reputation of this Committee by the quality 

 of the service it will continue to render to the people of Canada. 



SURVEY OF FARMS IX 1910. 



The subject of which I am to speak this morning arises out of a survey of farms 

 conducted by the Committee on Lands of the Commission of Conservation. The Com- 

 mission of Conservation was constituted, as you know, a few years ago, to take into 

 consideration all questions that have to do with the conservation and better utiliza- 

 tion of the natural resources of Canada. It is called upon not merely to make 

 inventories, to collect and disseminate information, but also to conduct investigations 

 with a view to discovering how the natural resources could best be utilized and con- 

 served. The Commission itself is an important body of citizens. It is composed of 

 three members of the Federal Government, nine members of the Provincial Govern- 



19909— li 



1051522 



