164 



Canadian Agriculture. 



one-half is accounted for by the shipments of timber 

 to the United Kingdom. The total value of the 

 forest-products of the Dominion is estimated by the 

 Statistician of the Department of Agriculture to have 

 amounted in 1890 to nearly ;£ 16,000,000. The great timber 

 region lies in the older provinces extending from the head of 

 Lake Superior to the Atlantic littoral, but British Columbia 

 is also well timbered. According to the authority just 

 referred to, the ownership of Canadian forests in Ontario, 

 Quebec, New Brunswick, and British Columbia is for the 

 most part vested in the provincial governments, which grant 

 licenses to the lumbermen. In Nova Scotia and Prince 

 Edward Island there is no system of timber licenses, the 

 trees are sold with the land, and not much timbered Crown 

 land remains. 



It is estimated that the Canadian forests contain over one 

 hundred varieties of timber trees. Among these the Wey- 

 mouth pine ranks first in value, and is the main object of the 

 lumber-trade of Ontario and Quebec. Spruces are next in 

 commercial importance, being largely exported from the 

 Atlantic provinces, and in British Columbia there is a variety 

 of coniferous trees. 



The work undertaken by the Dominion Department of 

 Agriculture in furtherance of Canada's leading industry 

 has been frequently referred to in earlier numbers of this 

 Journal.* One of the earliest steps in this direction was the 

 establishment of a central experimental farm at Ottawa, with 

 a number of branch farms in various parts of the country. 

 The next important development was the establishment in 

 1890 of experimental dairy-stations and the provision of an 

 organised scheme of instruction in butter- and cheese-making 

 by means of itinerant lecturers under the direction of a 

 Dairy Commissioner. The dairy-stations were established 

 with two purposes in view, viz., the investigation of those 

 processes of manufacturing cheese during the summer, 

 which yield the finest quality as well as the greatest 

 quantity of cheese from the milk ; and to encourage farmers 



* Vol. 1. No. 3. Vol. II. No. 1, Vol. III. Nos. 2 and 3. 



