248 
Canadian Agriculture. 
up the land allotment which was offered to eveiy member of the expedition- 
ary corps. Yet if they had remembered how the early pioneers had told them 
that the wheat grown on their lands came to a total of about 30 bushels per 
acre in each year, and that these corps were raised giving the land a time of 
rest every fifth year only ; if they could have realised within how short a 
time those places which they themselves had reached with so much toil by 
march and canoe portage, through woods and endless lakes, would not only be 
reached by railways, but become great railroad centres, they would not so 
carelessly have thrown away their chance of making a fortune. When I was 
at Winnipeg in 1881 the city had scarcely 10,000 people; now it has 30,000. 
The streets are full of life. Excellent shops, large warehouses, and some 
handsome churches have been erected. The great want is a good pavement, 
for the soil is a tenacious black stuff, which clogs and sticks to everything it 
touches after rain. Fortunately it soon dries, and in the neighbourhood of 
the town the prairie sod gives good surface for anything but heavy trafiBc." 
The provincial authorities in Manitoba are acting wisely in 
fostering and guiding the development of agriculture. The 
periodical and other publications issued under the authority of 
the Minister of Agriculture, Statistics, and Health, are very 
useful, and, provided the farmers of Manitoba will study them, 
cannot fail to prove of excellent service. The ' Manual of Acts 
and Orders in Council relating to the Department of Agricul- 
ture, Statistics, and Health,' issued in 1884, indicates very 
clearly the kind of bureaucratic control which guides the pro- 
gress of agriculture. It is enacted that all that part of the 
administration of the government of Manitoba which relates to 
agriculture, immigration, statistics, and the public health, in- 
cluding hospitals, shall be under the control of the Department, 
which shall be administered and managed by the Minister, who 
may decide all matters of doubt or dispute as to the construction 
or working of the Act, his decision being final, except that an 
appeal may be made to the Lieutenant-Governor-in-Council. 
It is the duty of the Department to institute inquiries and collect 
facts and statistics relating to agricultural, manufacturing, or 
other interests of the Province, to adopt measures for circulating 
and disseminating the same in such manner and form as may be 
found best adapted to promote the progress of the Province, and 
to encourage immigration from other countries. Certain persons 
are bound under a penalty of 4/. to furnish information to the 
Department when such is asked for ; they comprise all officers 
of the Board and Council, the officers of all electoral division 
agricultural societies, continued or organised under the Act, and 
of all municipal councils, school boards, boards of trade, and 
other public institutions, railway, navigation, and other incor- 
porated companies, and all public officers of the Province, and 
all medical practitioners and veterinary surgeons ; they are re- 
quired from time to time to collect and tabulate facts according 
to instructions to be furnished them from the Department, and 
