TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 847 



teach, and to urge them zealously to preserve their flocks and herds from disease, 

 whether for their own safety or for the prospect of trading with the mother 

 country in the matter of meat supply. 



5. British and Canadian Agriculture. By Professor J. P. Sheldon. 



The competition of the old and new countries is growing keener, and contains 

 certain elements which were never expected by our fathers. The volume of this 

 competition will become much greater on the part of the new coimtry, but we 

 cannot foretell the lines on which it will be developed, or the surprises that may be 

 in store. The transatlantic trade in fresh meat and in live animals, developed in 

 these last ten years, is a striking instance in point, and may be supplemented by 

 other unlooked-for surprises. The export of cheese from Canada has greatly in- 

 creased, while that in butter has decreased, of late years; this is owing, as butter 

 is now made and packed in Canada, to the superior advantages which cheese 

 affords for transit purposes. By improved methods of packing butter, however, 

 Canada ought to win over a good portion of the West Indian butter trade, which 

 at present belongs almost entirely to Denmark. The competition of Canada with 

 England in the future will be more in the form of animals and their products than 

 in that of grain ; her exports of wheat prove already that she is devoting herself 

 more to live-stock and dairying. The competition of India in the domain of wheat- 

 raising will be more serious to Canada than fever that of Canada was to England, 

 and prices of breadstuff's are destined to contract still more. India, with her suit- 

 able climate and abundance of cheap labour, can produce wheat at a very low cost. 

 "While the eastern provinces of Canada are, in many parts of them, well adapted 

 for live-stock farming, and for the production of dairy goods, which may also be 

 said of the vast district comprised in what is termed the ' foot-hills of the Rockies,' 

 the great plains of the North-West Territory, themselves also well suited to stock- 

 raising in many parts, promise to become the chief granary of the American 

 continent. The laying down of land to grass in England is still going on, and the 

 number of live-stock is increasing. Wet seasons have impoverished British farmers, 

 who, however, are better shielded now by law against confiscation of improve- 

 ments. Agricultural tuition is improving, and it is by improved practice and the 

 help of an increasing population, that the English farmer may hope to meet foreign 

 competition. The present position of the English labourer will not compare un- 

 favourably with that of the labourer in Canada, save that the Canadian has a 

 better chance of raising himself to better things. But, in any case, the English 

 labourers of to-day are better fed, better clothed, better housed, better paid, and 

 better taught than their fathers were ; and, with due sobriety and economy, he- 

 can raise his family better than they could, and also lay by a store against a rainy 

 day. 



6. The Position and Prospects of British Agriculture} 

 By Professor W. Fream, B.Sc, F.L.8., F.G.8. 



The present critical position of British farming has been induced by a series of 

 wet seasons, accompanied by the widespread disease of live stock, and one of the 

 chief results has been a lowering of farm rents. The acreage under corn crops, and 

 particularly wheat, has continued to decrease, while that under permanent pasture 

 has increased. During the six years 1878 to 1883, 340,659 acres have been 

 brought into cultivation, but during the same period the increase in permanent 

 pasture has been 1,223,126 acres, or nearly four times as much, so that 882,467 acres 

 which in 1878 were under other cropping are now in permanent pasture. The 

 former number (1,223,126 acres) somewhat exceeds the area of Lancashire, the 

 sixtli in size of the English counties, while the latter number (882,467 acres) repre- 

 sents an area larger than that of Wilts, the thirteenth in size of the English 



1 Published in extemo in the Agricultural Gazette, North British Agriculturist, 

 Montreal Herald, &c. 



