XKANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 759 



In 1884 the acreage of wheat in Australasia was one-third greater than that in 

 the United Kingdom. But the acreage of barley was only one-seventeenth, and 

 that of oats one-seventh, of the corresponding acreages of the United Kingdom. 



A comparison of the number of live stock in the whole of the Australasian 

 colonies in 188-4 and in 1873 shows that horses had increased 50 per cent., cattle 

 42 per cent., sheep 28 per cent., and pigs 28 per cent. 



In 1884 the horses of Australasia numbered two-thirds of those of the United 

 Kingdom, cattle were four-fifths as many, and pigs were only one-fourth as nume- 

 rous. Sheep, on the other hand, were two and a-half times as many. 



Concerning Cape Colony there are not available any agiicultural statistics of 

 more recent date than 1875, and those are somewhat meagre. 



The present position of agriculture in Canada can only be vaguely estimated. 

 There is a Dominion Department of Agriculture, and most of the provinces possess 

 a Board or Department of Agriculture, but with one or two notable exceptions no 

 attempt is made to collect statistical information in a systematic manner. Among 

 the older provinces Ontario is the only one whose system of collecting and collating 

 agricultural statistics is in any way abreast of the times, and the work of this 

 character now in progress under the Ontario Bureau of Industries deserves mention. 

 But of all the provinces of the Dominion, the young province of Manitoba is dis- 

 tinctly in the van as regards the administration and efficiency of its Department of 

 Agriculture, the periodical bulletins of which are as admirable as they are useful. 

 The export trade in living animals and dairy produce constitutes probably the most 

 powerful incentive to the further development of Canadian agriculture. Taking 

 the twelve years 1874 to 1885 and comparing the last of these years with the 

 first, it is shown that the export of horses from Canada has more than doubled, 

 that of cattle has more than trebled, and that of sheep has increased one-third. 

 The extraordinary precautions taken to keep their live stock free from disease are 

 highly creditable to the Canadian authorities ; without such precautions, however, 

 this very large trade in live stock would be quite impracticable. The Canadian 

 export of cheese in 1885 was three and a-half times as great as that in 1874; this 

 trade, which has now attained such enormous dimensions, is the growth of only 

 a quarter of a century, for in 1859 the Dominion imported 857,951 lbs. of cheese, 

 whereas in 1885 it exported eighty-six and a-half million lbs. In the export of 

 cheese, Quebec and Ontario are the only provinces which figure largely, but the 

 former alone supplies quite three- fourths of the total export ; Ontario, however, is 

 rapidly diminishing the inequality between herself and Quebec in this respect. The 

 total butter export of last year was only two-thirds of that of 1874, but Canadian 

 dairy-farmers have in their own hands the remedy for this diminution. 



Of the markets in which the home producer has to meet his colonial competitor, 

 those of wheat, live stock, fresh meat, dairy produce, and wool are the most im- 

 portant. 



During the three years 1881 to 1883, the import of wheat from Australasia 

 into the United Kingdom was between two and three million cwt. annually. In 

 1884 it reached nearly five million, and in 1885 over five and a quarter million 

 cwt. From Canada the import in 1881 and 1882 was over two and three-quarter 

 million cwt. per annum, whereas during the last three years it has been about one 

 and three-quarter million cwt. annually. Meanwhile, the import of wheat from 

 the United States, though still our chief one, is declining, even if the import of 

 wheat meal and floui* from the same source be also taken into account. Viewing 

 the subject from an imperial standpoint, British India has during the last five 

 years sent us annually much more wheat than Australasia and Canada together. 

 The ratio of the import of wheat from all parts of the Empire (Australasia, 

 Canada, India) to the total import into the United Kingdom has, during the last 

 five years, 1881 to 1885, shown the following increase : 0-23, 0-21, 0-25, 0-31, 0-31, 

 Simidtaneously, the ratio of the import of wheat from the United States to the 

 total import into the United Kingdom has declined thus : 0-63, 0-65, 040, 0-48, 

 0-40. 



As in the case of wheat, our largest supply of horned cattle comes from the 

 United States, which sends us nearly two-fifths of the total number imported. 



