30G 
Canadian Agriculture. 
The dearness of hired labour, and the necessity, especially 
at harvest-time, of getting through much work in a short 
period, lead to a great demand for labour-saving appliances, 
many of which are of American make. Current prices last 
summer were about as follows : — Breaking plough, 4/. 7s. ; 
stubble plough, 2>l. 10s. ; sulky plough, 13/. 10s. ; sulky gang 
plough, 20/. lis. ; set of iron harrows, 3/. 10s. ; broadcast seeder, 
12 hoe, 14/. 16s. ; horse hay-rake, 11. 10s. ; twine-binder, 
5 feet cut, 48/. ; ditto, 7 feet cut, 52/. ; Brantford mower, 
16/. ; reaper, 21 /. ; waggon, 4 wheels, 15/. 10s. ; set of Manitoba 
bobsleighs, 6/. 5s. A yoke of oxen would cost about 32/ ; and 
a set of ox-harness, 21. 10s. ; a 12-horse-power threshing-machine, 
240/. to 280/. A smooth wire-fence with wooden uprights, 
which offers no facilities for snow-drifts, costs, including fixing, 
from 20/. to 30/. per mile ; two men can fix a mile in four days. 
At the leading stations along the Canadian Pacific Railway 
implements and machines are exposed for sale. 
Undoubtedly one of the great dangers this new field of agri- 
cultural enterprise has to face is that which arises from careless 
and slovenly cultivation ; and of this, even now, plenty of 
examples may be seen. It may arise either from ignorance on 
the part of the cultivator, which to some extent is pardonable, or 
from the conduct of a mere speculator, who, having taken up a 
section in a locality where he thinks land may, for various reasons, 
rise in value, gets all he can out of the soil, and then tries to dis- 
pose of his holding at a profit. It must, however, be admitted 
that the very ease with which the prairie soil is brought under 
cultivation constitutes in itself some sort of temptation. It is 
so unlike Eastern Canada in this respect, — there is no laborious 
and protracted labour with the axe to fell timber and make a 
" clearing," nor is there a patient waiting for years in order that 
charred root-stumps may rot and get torn up, and the space they 
cover become occupied by crops. The pioneer in the Far West 
can commence his tillage operations at once, and can even take a 
crop of oats " off the sod " if he pleases. Considerations such as 
these cannot but afford some cause for anxiety to those who have 
thought upon the problem of the agricultural development of this 
vast region of the British possessions ; and I may be permitted 
to reproduce here opinions which I have not hesitated to express 
elsewhere : * — 
" It is much to be liopcd that tlic prairie fanners will not abuse the privi- 
lege they have of working a virgin soil of great fert ility by indulging in reck- 
l(!ss or slovenly farming. No doubt the temptation is great to take out of tlio 
soil all that it will yield, and to care little or nothing about its future. But 
♦ ' The Canadian Gazette,' January 22, 1885, p. 364. 
