218 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE. 
of about 16 per cent. Since the latter figure is that adopted by 
the Dominion Department of Trade and Commerce, the result is 
very confusing. A similar disparity is observable in respect to the 
oat crop; the Dominion Statistical Office estimates it for 1908 at 
96,718,000 bushels, while the provincial authorities place it at 
109,018,812 bushels. The statements of the acreage under crop ex- 
hibit similar discrepancies. It is quite impossible for an independent 
inquirer to decide between these rival authorities. The region is so 
vast and, so far as the greater part of it is concerned, so sparsely 
populated that the collection of information from every individual 
farmer is a difficult and expensive process. An attempt is, however, 
being made by the Dominion Statistical Department to collect the 
data in this way. On the other hand the Saskatchewan Depart- 
ment of Agriculture has adopted the method of obtaining from the 
‘ threshers ’ a statement of the quantities of grain threshed by them. Of 
these ‘ threshers ’ about 2,400 made returns. The acreage under crop is 
estimated from returns made by 15,000 individual farmers. In 1906 
there were, however, about 56,000 individual farmers, so that unless 
the farms from which returns were obtained were of carefully selected 
types, and unless the total number of each type was known with fair 
precision, it is obvious that there is room for errors of magnitude. 
It appears in the first place that a greater number of expert 
statistical officers might be employed, and in the second place that an 
adequate agricultural survey of the whole region might be undertaken 
at an early date and carried forward gradually to completion. The 
collection and continuation of agricultural statistics is a special business 
which has been highly developed elsewhere, and the time has un- 
doubtedly arrived when the results of the best experience should be 
applied to Canada. The surveys which have been and are being made 
by the Dominion land surveyors, under the direction of the Topo- 
graphical Surveys Branch of the Department of the Interior, are of 
value so far as they go, although many of them are now out of date; 
and moreover the reports of the land surveyors describe the land as it 
was before settlement. What is wanted is a survey of settled as well as 
of unsettled lands, with a record of their agricultural history and present 
condition. Such a survey seems to be an indispensable preliminary to 
the annual collection of sound agricultural statistics. Until such a 
survey is made it is really quite impossible to arrive at any but more or 
less fanciful conclusions about the future productivity of so vast and 
varied a country. 
None of the statistics give any statement of the number of acres 
sown to wheat of which no crop has been reaped, nor of the quantity 
of wheat which has not ripened, nor of the quantity which has been 
frozen, or damaged by smut or otherwise. Without these particulars 
an accurate knowledge of the yield in relation to the quantity sown — 
cannot be obtained; and the fertility of the soil is obscured, as well as, 
in some cases, the extent to which it is being injuriously exploited. 
Agricultural Production, 1906-07. —In stating the agricultural 
production of the past four years it is necessary, for the reason 
explained above, to give the results both of the Dominion and of the 
provincial authorities. This has therefore been done in the following 
table, which has been compiled from the reports of the respective 
departments, 
