Of the provincial departments of agriculture, the oldest and most thoroughly organized are those of Ontario and Quebec. Farmers' insti tutes and clubs, women's institutes, agricultural and live stock associations and fairs are amongst the agencies employed; but probably the agricultural colleges and experiment sta tions in each province have the greatest influ ence. Foremost amongst these institutions are the Ontario Agricultural College at Guelph under the provincial department of agriculture and the Macdonald Agricultural College at Sainte Anne de Bellevue in the province of Que bec. The college at Guelph is remarkable for the comprehensive thoroughness with which it covers the whole wide field of agriculture. Its departments comprise field and animal hus bandry, dairying, poultry, apiculture, horticul ture, pomology, agricultural chemistry, bac teriology, zoology, entomology, botany and physics. The Ontario Agricultural and Experi mental Union, which is organized by officers of the college for the conduct of annual co operative experiments by farmers throughout the province, has been in existence for 38 years, and the average number of annual experiment ers is about 4500. The Macdonald College at Sainte Anne de Bellevue is a newer institution dating from 1907; but is gradually covering much the same ground for English-speaking students of the province of Quebec. Both col leges provide courses for the graduation of students with the degree of B.S.A. (Bachelor of Science in Agriculture) conferred by the uni versities to which they are respectively affili ated, viz., Toronto for Guelph and McGill for Macdonald. In the other provinces agricul tural colleges and experiment stations exist at Truro (Nova Scotia). Oka and Saint Anne de la Pocatiere (Quebec); Winnipeg (Mani toba) ; Saskatoon (Saskatchewan) ; Edmon ton (Alberta) and Point Grey, Vancouver (British Columbia). Agricultural fairs, shows or exhibitions are held all over Canada, usually by the aid of grants from the provincial gov ernments or municipalities. The largest of these exhibitions is held annually in August and Sep tember at Toronto by the Industrial Exhibition Association.
Future At present the great war in which the British empire is strenu ously engaged affects Canadian agriculture by the absence at the front of many of its citi zens, which renders more acute the scarcity of farm labor, limits production and increases its cost. These conditions are of temporary dura tion, and will change on the return of the sol diers and resumption of the immigration that was stopped on the outbreak of the war. It is probable that the immigrants who enter Can ada after the war will settle upon agricultural lands instead of flocking to the towns for the development of municipal enterprises by means of borrowed capital, as was largely the case before the war. Conditions in Canada will make it essential that the actual development of agricultural resources shall in future be the first consideration. To what extent home steads may be prepared in advance for settle ment by returned soldiers and immigrants is engaging attention, and it is possible that the policy of ready-made farms on lines already adopted in Alberta by the Canadian Pacific Railway may be more extensively adopted. Future agricultural production in the West is likely to be largely influenced by the facilities of the Panama Canal, and already the Cana dian government have constructed grain ele vators at interior western points in anticipa tion of new grain movements in this direction.
A railway from Le Pas in Manitoba to the southern shores of the Hudson Bay is under construction by the Dominion government with the object of providing an additional outlet for western grain through the Hudson Strait. A change in the direction of a more general adoption in the Prairie provinces of the prac tice of mixed farming is already in progress and will probably be hastened by the poor wheat seasons of 1914 and 1916, which have shown farmers the unwisdom of trusting to a single crop. But, probably, this will not entail any total decrease in the growing of wheat which will continue to be sown on newly-broken areas. Larger grain production is possible in Canada by an increase in the rates of yield per acre. Improved agricultural methods, including the more general adoption of mixed farming, the use of judicious rotations and more care in the selection of seed, will result in a large average yields per acre in the grain-growing provinces, as has already been the case in the older and more thickly settled parts of Ontario. Here there is evidence to show that during the past 35 fears the average yields per acre have been Increased by 354 bushels for fall wheat, 254 bushels for spring wheat, 454 bushels for barley and 134 bushels for oats. Similar future prog ress in the Prairie provinces will mean a large aggregate addition to the annual ontput. New lands in nearly all the provinces are available for settlement, and have been made easily ac cessible by the construction of railways. It is estimated that there are 56,000,000 acres of land more or less immediately available for agricultural settlement in Canada. Of this area about 31,000,000 acres are Crown lands at the disposal of the provincial governments in New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia and about 25,000,000 acres are free grant surveyed lands at the disposal of the Dominion government in the Prairie prov inces and the Railway Belt of British Columbia. The lands available in northern Ontario, through which run the new National Trans continental and Canadian Northern railways, including an immense area of excellent agricul tural soil, the great clay belt alone consisting of 24,500 square miles, or 15,680,000 acres, spe cially suitable for the growth of wheat.
Bibliography.— Official Reports of the Gov enunent of Canada, Ottawa, including the Re port on the Fifth Census of Canada, 1911 (Vol. IV, 1914) ; Report on the Postal Census of Manufactures (1916) ; Annual Re ports of the Departments of Agriculture (Ex perimental Farms), of the Interior, of Railways and Canals, of Customs and of Trade and Com merce, the Agricultural Gazette of Canada (monthly), The Canada Year Book,' the Monthly Bulletin of Agricultural Statistics, formerly the Census and Statistics Monthly; Griffin, Watson, 'Canada, the Country of the Twentieth Century' (Department of Trade and Commerce, Ottawa 1915) ; Ruddick, J. A., An Historical and Descriptive Account of the Daiiying Industry of Canada' (Department of Agriculture, Ottawa 1911) ; Annual Reports of the Ontario Bureau of Industries, the Onta rio Agricultural College and Experimental Farm and the Agricultural and Experimental Union, Toronto.