Dairying in Ontario. 



523 



been carried out oil a very large scale during the last ten or 

 fifteen years. Forest owners, however, derived but little 

 profit by this destruction, as the timber trade is carried on 

 by Jews who, profiting by the frequent financial embarrassr 

 ments ot the landed proprietors, as a rule succeeded in 

 getting more money out of the sale of the wood alone than 

 they had paid for both the timber and the land it stood on. 

 This new law will, it is believed, be followed by a rise in the 

 price of timber, and will contribute to raise also the price of 

 land, of which, however, the market price may be at present 

 a little lower than its real value. This Act will be of special 

 importance to the four goy^rments of Lithuania, as there the 

 forests are vety dense, the exploitation of them until recently 

 having been very difficult owing to the want of roads or 

 railways ; nevertheless the forests have been cut down in all 

 directions, and there has been a rise in the price of forests of 

 quite 100 per cent, during the past six years. 



According to a report of the Ontario Bureau of Indus- 

 tries, the dairying industry in the 

 ^^ntarfo^^ Province was fairly prosperous in 1898, 

 notwithstanding the drawback of low 

 prices for cheese, one result of which was that more 

 attention is being paid in most localities to butter-making. 

 Better prices were as a rule obtained for butter than 

 in the previous season, and there is said to have been a 

 steady improvement in quality. There is, it seems, a tendency 

 towards combining the two branches of dairying by carrying 

 on butter-making during the winter in cheese factories. One 

 reason why many farmers in Ontario now accord a preference 

 to butter is that it offers the obvious advantage, as compared 

 with cheese manufacture, of leaving them a supply of skim- 

 milk available for young stock. Much divergence of opinion 

 prevails in the Province as to the best breeds of milch cows. 

 The Durham strain is stated to be by far the most popular as 

 an " all round " breed, and Western farmers who combine 



