Canadian Agriculture. 
437 
lay of from 5/. to 6/., which includes the cost of both labour and 
trees. Labourers' wages in the neighbourhood are from 255. to 
32s. per week during the busy season, and from 15s. to 17s. in 
winter, and the cost of living is less than in England. 
I had the pleasure of travelling for some weeks in the company 
of Major-General Laurie, of Oakfield, Halifax, N.S., and desire 
to thank him for much enlightenment and information on many 
important matters. Although a Crimean veteran, the gallant 
gentleman is full of energy and vigour ; he commands the 
Provincial militia, is president of the Board of Agriculture, has 
been farming for close upon twenty years in the Province, and is 
always to the front in any matter likely to have a favourable in- 
fluence upon the development of agriculture in Nova Scotia. He 
has taken the lead in giving ensilage a trial, he is unwearying in 
his efforts to induce the Government authorities to establish an 
agricultural college and experimental farm, and he is now on the 
look-out for a winter oat suited to Nova Scotia, and I should be 
glad if some of our English seedsmen would make a note of this. 
His evidence before the Dominion Select Committee on Agri- 
culture is valuable and interesting. He considers the Nova 
Scotian farmers labour under a great disadvantage in that they 
have had no agricultural education, so that many of them have 
no idea of what their land is capable of doing, or how to obtain 
the best return for their labour and outlay. Fruit-growers have 
bestowed much attention on their art and with exceedingly good 
results, but excepting these, and the few intelligent men who, 
under favourable conditions, are reclaiming marsh land with con- 
siderable profit to themselves, the vast majority of the farmers 
simply gain a subsistence, hence when money is in any way 
acquired, it is invested in anything rather than farming. 
Although there are five degree-conferring colleges in Nova 
Scotia, there is no provision for technical instruction in agri- 
culture ; and the suggestion, that one of these colleges should 
take up agriculture, is met by the objection, from all who have 
inquired into the subject, that agricultural faculties attached to 
arts colleges have invariably proved failures. 
With regard to the dairy industry, some cheese-factories have 
been established in the Province, but there is no butter-factory. 
Recently the people of Colchester have embarked in a large 
milk-condensing business, which has so absorbed the milk of 
the district that some of the cheese-factories are paralysed. 
About 8 tons of milk per day are handled in this business, and 
all that cannot be profitably condensed is made into cheese. 
There is a more certain and continuous market for condensed 
milk than for cheese, and, besides, the former will keep better. 
The shareholders in the condensed-milk factory are largely 
