Canadian Acjriculturc. 
221 
In writing: on such a subject as the agriculture of Canada, it is 
hardly possible to at once plunge into technical details, without 
entering at some little length into the natural features of the 
different sections of the Donr\inion. In discussing the farming 
of, for example, an English county, it would be safe to assume on 
the part of the reader a general knowledge of facts which, in the 
case of the vast area of Greater Britain now under consideration, it 
would perhaps be hardh' fair to take for granted. The Marquis 
of Lome, in a beautifully illustrated work recently published, 
which should be read by every one who is interested in the 
Dominion, speaks of " the general ignorance of Canada in 
England," and remarks aptly enough * : — 
" Although Canada is now only eight daj's from our shores, and Australia 
can be reached in the time which a sailing vessel formerly took to reach 
America, j-et there is still a vast amount of misconception of the position and 
prospects of our dependencies. It is, perhaps;, a misfortune that men often 
begin to acquire a useful knowledge about the colonies when it is ,too late for 
them to make use of it for their own good. The information as re<j;ards the 
prospects of life in these great territories should be given in the schools and 
universities. To many a boy an accurate knowledge of how money can best 
be made, and the early years of manhood most profitably spent in Australia, 
K'ew Zealand, and the Dominion of Canada, would be of far more use than 
much of the obsolete erudition still retailed to him in our English public 
schools. The voyages of Cook, of Champlain, and Vancouver are as inter- 
esting as are those of Ulysses, and the subsequent history of the lands they 
discovered the most edifying for an English boy. If true information were 
readily obtained, and colonial life were brought as familiarly to the minds 
of Englishmen as their own home life, it is difficult to believe that there 
would remain so many here who have no occupation but the proverbial privi- 
lege of grumbling at their own fate, and at all around them. In Canada, if it 
Avere net for the constant bright sunshine, and for certain improvements in the 
art of Government, both central and local, the Scotch and English emigrants 
might imagine that they had never left the Old World, so good are the 
schools, so orderly are the people, so easy the communication from one district 
to another." 
During the last two or three years, that portion of Canada 
known as the Prairie has attracted far more attention in England 
than has lately been bestowed upon the older and better-known 
provinces of the Dominion. It has been deemed advisable, 
therefore, to devote the first part of this paper to a discussion of 
the natural and agricultural features of Manitoba and the North- 
West. As the agricultural development of a country must be 
largely influenced by the character of its surface, the constitu- 
tion and capabilities of its soils, the composition and value of 
its native herbage, and, above all, by its climate, a notice of 
these and allied subjects will naturally prepare the way for the 
* 'Canadian Pictures drawn with Pen and Pencil.' By the Marquis of Lome, 
K.T. London, the Religious Tract Society, 188i, p. 2L 
