9G  State  Aid  to  Agriculture  in  Canada. 
exhibition,  which  then  becomes  the  National  Agricultural 
Show  of  the  Dominion  for  the  year.  Last  year  (1910)  this 
show  was  held  at  St.  John,  in  New  Brunswick  ; this  year 
(1911)  it  is  to  be  held  at  a town  in  Saskatchewan.  The  grant  is 
given  conditionally  upon  its  being  applied  in  special  prizes,  in 
equalising  the  freight  rates  for  exhibitors,  in  advertising 
the  exhibition  outside  the  borders  of  the  province,  in  securing 
and  maintaining  exhibits  of  an  educational  character,  and 
in  defraying  the  increased  cost  of  management. 
Not  less  important  is  the  work  of  the  Health  of  Animals 
Branch  which,  under  the  Veterinary  Director-General,  is 
responsible  for  the  health  of  farm  live  stock.  A measure 
of  this  responsibility  as  regards  the  horses,  cattle,  sheep,  and 
pigs  of  the  Dominion  is  their  total  value,  which  on  December 
31,  1910,  was  officially  estimated  at  122,007,000/.  In  her  dry 
and  sunny  climate  Canada  possesses  a great  asset  for  the 
maintenance  of  live  stock  under  healthful  conditions.  The 
more  malignant  diseases  of  animals  such  as  cattle  plague, 
pleuro-pneumonia,  and  foot-and-mouth  disease,  which  prevail 
elsewhere,  are  happily  unknown.  At  the  same  time  unceasing 
vigilance  is  exercised  to  prevent  their  introduction  from  other 
countries.  Owing  to  the  long  international  boundary  between 
Canada  and  the  United  States  the  inspection  of  imported  live 
stock  is  a difficult  undertaking.  It  is  being  efficiently  carried 
out.  There  are  twenty-nine  quarantine  stations  and  forty- 
four  inspection  ports  along  the  international  boundary, 
and  under  no  circumstances  may  animals  he  admitted  at 
other  points.  Animals  from  over-sea  countries  may  only 
be  landed  at  certain  specified  ports,  at  each  of  which 
veterinary  inspectors  are  stationed  with  facilities  for  the 
detention  of  stock  until  demonstrated  to  be  free  from 
disease,  while  the  presentation  of  certificates  from  countries 
of  origin  and  other  precautions  are  rigidly  enforced.  Out- 
breaks of  sheep  scab  and  swine  fever  (or  hog  cholera)  are 
now  only  of  sporadic  occurrence,  and  the  fact  that  these 
diseases  have  been  brought  under  effective  control  within  the 
past  few  years  is  sufficiently  suggestive  of  the  excellence 
of  the  measures  adopted. 
In  regard  to  glanders  the  Dominion  has  been  the  first 
to  apply  the  principle  of  slaughter  with  compensation  for 
animals  reacting  to  the  mallein  test.  Since  1904,  when  this 
policy  was  first  adopted,  the  disease  has  been  gradually  con- 
quered and  has  now  been  virtually  extirpated  from  eastern 
Canada,  while  in  the  west,  where  “ range  ” conditions  prevail, 
very  satisfactory  progress  has  been  made.  This  result  has  been 
accomplished  at  a total  cost  for  compensation  and  expenses  of 
something  like  250,000/.,  representing  less  than  one-half  per 
