Canadian Agriculture. 
385 
quite a British type in cropping and stock farming, but with 
a larger proportion of grain and less pasture, and with fewer 
cattle and sheep per acre. In Quebec, the mode of farming is 
suggestive of a large market-gardening system, with live-stock 
suited to French requirements. And in the Maritime Pro- 
vinces, where barley, oats, and potatoes constitute the staple 
crops, there exists, or did exist till recently, a somewhat 
general indifference to improved live-stock. 
As the Provinces of Eastern Canada are well defined, and as 
their collective area is very large, it seems desirable to enter 
somewhat into detail concerning the agricultural features of 
each. Before doing so, however, and as it may save a con- 
siderable amount of repetition later on, it may be well to give 
some account, first, of the cattle trade, and, secondly, of the 
dairy industry of Canada, 
The Canadian Cattle Trade. 
The cattle trade of Canada is increasing with very great 
rapidity. It has passed out of the tentative stage and has 
grown into an enormous business, in which hundreds of 
thousands of dollars have been invested by shrewd practical 
men. It embraces, on the one hand, the importation of pure- 
bred animals with the object of improving Canadian stock ; 
and, on the other, the exportation of cattle and sheep to supply 
the English meat-market. The number of the former is, as 
might be expected, very insignificant as compared with that of 
the latter. And yet it was so recently as the year 1874 that the 
exportation of Canadian cattle across the Atlantic was com- 
menced, the shipment that year numbering 455 head, since 
when the quality of the stock has undergone material improve- 
ment, and the prices realised have fully met the expectations of 
the dealers interested in the traffic. To Mr. John Dyke, the 
Canadian Government Agent at Liverpool, belongs the credit 
of having initiated this trade. The following figures show the 
official returns of cattle and sheep exported to Europe during 
the last eight years from Canadian ports : — 
Yeiir. 
Cattle. 
Shc.p. 
1877 
6,940 
9,504 
1878 
18,G55 
41,225 
1879 
25.009 
80,332 
1880 
50,905 
318,143 
1881 
45,5S5 
02,401 
1882 
35,738 
75,905 
1883 
55,025 
114,352 
1884 
01,843 
07,197 
