Part 14

A considerable trade has been established in the exportation of dressed beef in cold storage, and also in the exportation of meat and other foods in hermetically sealed receptacles. By the Meat and Canned Foods Act of 1907 of the Dominion parliament and regulations thereunder, the trade is carried on under the strictest government supervision, and no canned articles of food may be exported unless passed as absolutely wholesome and officially marked as such by government inspectors. There is a considerable trade in "lunch tongues."

The cattle breeds are principally those of British origin. For beef, shorthorns, Herefords, Galloways and Aberdeen-Angus cattle are bred largely, whilst for dairying purposes, shorthorns, Ayrshires, Jerseys, Guernseys and Holstein-Friesians prevail. The French-Canadian cattle are highly esteemed in eastern Canada, especially by the farmers of the French provinces. They are a distinct breed of Jersey and Brittany type, and are stated to be descended from animals imported from France by the early settlers. The estimated number of cattle in Canada in 1907 was 7,439,051, an increase of 2,066,547 over the figures of the census of 1901.

All parts of the Dominion are well adapted for sheep; but various causes, amongst which must be reckoned the prosperity of other branches of agriculture, including wheat-growing and dairying, have in several of the provinces contributed to prevent that attention to this branch which its importance deserves, though there are large areas of rolling, rugged yet nutritious pastures well suited to sheep-farming. In the maritime provinces and in Prince Edward Island sheep and lambs are reared in large numbers. In Ontario sheep breeding has reached a high degree of perfection, and other parts of the American continent draw their supplies of pure bred stock largely from this province. All the leading British varieties are reared, the Shropshire, Oxford Down, Leicester and Cotswold breeds being most numerous. There are also excellent flocks of Lincolns and Southdowns. The number of sheep and lambs in Canada was estimated for the year 1907 at 2,830,785, as compared with 2,465,565 in 1901.

Pigs, mostly of the Yorkshire, Berkshire and Tamworth breeds, are reared and fattened in large numbers, and there is a valuable export trade in bacon. Canadian hogs are fed, as a rule, on feeds suited for the production of what are known as "fleshy sides." Bacon with an excess of fat is not wanted, except in the lumber camps; consequently the farmers of Canada have cultivated a class of swine for bacon having plenty of lean and firm flesh. The great extension of the dairy business has fitted in with the rearing of large numbers of swine. Experimental work has shown that swine fattened with a ration partly of skim-milk were lustier and of a more healthy appearance than swine fattened wholly on grains. Slaughtering and curing are carried on chiefly at large packing houses. The use of mechanical refrigerating plants for chilling the pork has made it practicable to cure the bacon with the use of a small percentage of salt, leaving it mild in flavour when delivered in European markets. Regular supplies are exported during every week of the year. Large quantities of lard, brawn and pigs' feet are exported. In 1907 the number of pigs in Canada was estimated at 3,530,060, an increase of 1,237,385 over the census record of 1901. Turkeys thrive well, grow to a fine size and have flesh of tender quality. Chickens are raised in large numbers, and poultry-keeping has developed greatly since the opening of the 20th century. Canadian eggs are usually packed in cases containing thirty dozens each. Cardboard fillers are used which provide a separate compartment for each egg. There are cold storage warehouses at various points in Canada, at which the eggs are collected, sorted and packed before shipment. These permit the eggs to be landed in Europe in a practically fresh condition as to flavour, with the shells quite full.

Dairy products.

Canada has been called the land of milk and honey. Milk is plentiful, and enters largely into the diet of the people. With a climate which produces healthy, vigorous animals, notably free from epizootic diseases, with a fertile soil for the growth of fodder crops and pasture, with abundance of pure air and water, and with a plentiful supply of ice, the conditions in Canada are ideal for the dairying industry. Large quantities of condensed milk, put up in hermetically sealed tins, are sold for use in mining camps and on board steamships. The cheese is chiefly of the variety known as "Canadian Cheddar." It is essentially a food cheese rather than a mere condiment, and 1 lb of it will furnish as much nourishing material as 2-1/4 lb of the best beefsteak. The industry is largely carried on by co-operative associations of farmers. The dairy factory system was introduced into Canada in 1864, and from that time the production and exportation of cheese grew rapidly. Legislation was passed to protect Canadian dairy produce from dishonest manipulation, and soon Canadian cheese obtained a deservedly high reputation in the British markets. In 1891 cheese factories and creameries numbered 1733, and in 1899 there were 3649. In 1908 there were 4355 of these factories, of which 1284 were in Ontario, 2806 in Quebec, and 265 in the remaining seven provinces of Canada. Those in Ontario are the largest in size. Amongst the British imports of cheese the Canadian product ranks first in quality, whilst in quantity it represents about 72% of the total value of the cheese imports, and 84% of the total value of the imports of that kind of cheese which is classed as Cheddar. In 1906 the total exports of cheese to all countries from Canada reached 215,834,543 lb of the value of $24,433,169.

Butter for export is made in creameries, where the milk, cream and butter are handled by skilled makers. The creameries are provided with special cold storage rooms, into which the butter is placed on the same day in which it is made. From them it is carried in refrigerator railway cars and in cold storage chambers on steamships to its ultimate destination. For the export trade it is packed in square boxes made of spruce or some other odourless wood. These are lined with parchment paper, and contain each 56 lb net of butter. The total export of butter from Canada in 1906 was 34,031,525 lb., of the value of $7,075,539. According to a census of manufactures taken in 1906, the total value of factory cheese and butter made in Canada during that year was $32,402,265.

Fruits.

There are large districts lying eastward of the Great Lakes and westward of the Rocky Mountains, where apples of fine quality can be grown; and there are other smaller areas in which pears, peaches and grapes are grown in quantities in the open air. The climate is favourable to the growth of plums, cherries, strawberries, raspberries, currants, gooseberries, etc. There are many localities in which cranberries are successfully grown, and in which blueberries also grow wild in great profusion.

Apples and pears are the chief sorts of fruit exported. The high flavour, the crisp, juicy flesh and the long-keeping qualities of the Canadian apples are their chief merits. Apples are exported in barrels and also in boxes containing about one bushel each. Large quantities are also evaporated and exported. Establishments for evaporating fruit are now found in most of the larger apple-growing districts, and canning factories and jam factories have been established in many parts of Canada, and are conducted with advantage and profit.

The chief fruit-growing districts have long been in southern and western Ontario and in Nova Scotia; but recently much attention has been devoted to fruit-growing in British Columbia, where large areas of suitable land are available for the cultivation of apples, pears and other fruits. In some parts of the semi-arid districts in the interior of the province irrigation is being successfully practised for the purpose of bringing land under profitable cultivation for fruit. Collections of fruit grown in British Columbia have received premier honours at the competitive exhibitions of the Royal Horticultural Society in London, where their high quality and fine colour have been greatly appreciated.

Wine is made in considerable quantities in the principal vine-growing districts, and in several localities large vineyards have been planted for this purpose. An abundance of cider is also made in all the large apple-growing districts.

Honey is one of the minor food-products of Canada, and in many localities bees have abundance of pasturage. Canadian honey for colour, flavour and substance is unsurpassed. Maple sugar and syrup are made in those areas of the country where the sugar-maple tree flourishes. The syrup is used chiefly as a substitute for jam or preserved fruits, and the sugar is used in country homes for sweetening, for cooking purposes and for the making of confectionery. The processes of manufacture have been improved by the introduction of specially constructed evaporators, and quantities of maple sugar and syrup are annually exported.

Tobacco is a new crop which has been grown in Canada since 1904. Its cultivation promises to be successful in parts of Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia.

State aid.

The department of agriculture of the Dominion government renders aid to agriculture in many ways, maintaining the experimental farms and various effective organizations for assisting the live-stock, dairying and fruit-growing industries, for testing the germination and purity of agricultural seeds, and for developing the export trade in agricultural and dairy produce. The health of animals branch, through which are administered the laws relating to the contagious diseases of animals, and the control of quarantine and inspection stations for imported animals, undertakes also valuable experiments on the diseases of farm livestock, including glanders in horses, tuberculosis in cattle, &c. The policy of slaughtering horses reacting to the mallein test has been successfully initiated by Canada, the returns for 1908 from all parts of the country indicating a considerable decrease from the previous year in the number of horses destroyed and the amount of compensation paid. A disease of cattle in Nova Scotia, known as the Pictou cattle disease, long treated as contagious, has now been demonstrated by the veterinary officers of the department to be due to the ingestion of a weed, the ragwort, _Senecio Jacobea_. Hog cholera or swine fever has been almost eradicated. A laboratory is maintained for bacteriological and pathological researches and for the preparation of preventive vaccines. Canada is entirely free from rinderpest, pleuro-pneumonia and foot-and-mouth disease.

The work of the live-stock branch is directed towards the improvement of the stock-raising industry, and is carried on through the agencies of expert teachers and stock judges, the systematic distribution of pure-bred breeding stock, the yearly testing of pure-bred dairy herds, the supervision of the accuracy of the registration of pure-bred animals and the nationalization of live-stock records. The last two objects are secured by act of the Dominion parliament passed in 1905. Under this act a record committee, appointed annually by the pedigree stud, herd and flock book associations of Canada, perform the duties of accepting the entries of pure-bred animals for the respective pedigree registers, and are provided with an office and with stationery and franking privileges by the government. Pedigree certificates are certified as correct by an officer of the department of agriculture, so that in Canada there exist national registration and government authority for the accuracy of pedigree livestock certificates. The government promotes the extension of markets for farm products; it maintains officers in the United Kingdom who make reports from time to time on the condition in which Canadian goods are delivered from the steamships, and also on what they can learn from importing and distributing merchants regarding the preferences of the market for different qualities of farm goods and different sorts of packages. Through this branch of the public service a complete chain of cold-storage accommodation between various points in Canada and markets in Europe, particularly in Great Britain, has been arranged. The government offered a bonus to those owners of creameries who would provide cold-storage accommodation at them and keep the room in use for a period of three years. It also arranged with the various railway companies to run refrigerator cars weekly on the main lines leading to Montreal and other export points. The food-products from any shippers are received into these cars at the various railway stations at the usual rates, without extra charge for icing or cold-storage service. The government offered subventions to those who would provide cold-storage warehouses at various points where these were necessary, and also arranged with the owners of ocean steamships to provide cold-storage chambers on them by means of mechanical refrigerators. The policy of encouraging the provision of ample cold-storage accommodation has been developed still further by the Cold Storage Act of the Dominion parliament passed in 1907, under which subsidies are granted in part payment of the cost of erecting and equipping cold-storage warehouses in Canada for the preservation of perishable food-products.

Besides furnishing technical and general information as to the carrying on of dairying operations, the government has established and maintained illustration cheese factories and creameries in different places for the purpose of introducing the best methods of co-operative dairying in both the manufacturing and shipping of butter and cheese. Inspectors are employed to give information regarding the packing of fruit, and also to see to the enforcement of the Fruit Marks Acts, which prohibit the marking of fruit with wrong brands and packing in any fraudulent manner.

The seed branch of the department of agriculture was established in 1900 for the purpose of encouraging the production and use of seeds of superior quality, thereby improving all kinds of field and garden crops grown in Canada. Seeds are tested in the laboratory for purity and germination on behalf of farmers and seed merchants, and scientific investigations relating to seeds are conducted and reported upon. In the year 1906-1907 6676 samples of seeds were tested. Encouragement to seed-growing is given by the holding of seed fairs, and bulletins are issued on weeds, the methods of treating seed-wheat against smut and on other subjects. Collections of weed seeds are issued to merchants and others to enable them readily to identify noxious weed seeds. The Seed Control Act of 1905 brings under strict regulations the trade in agricultural seeds, prohibiting the sale for seeding of cereals, grasses, clovers or forage plants unless free from weeds specified, and imposing severe penalties for infringements.

The census and statistics office, reorganized as a branch of the department of agriculture in 1905, undertakes a complete census of population, of agriculture, of manufactures and of all the natural products of the Dominion every ten years, a census of the population and agriculture of the three North-West Provinces every five years, and various supplemental statistical inquiries at shorter intervals.

Experimental farms.

Experimental farms were established in 1887 in different parts of the Dominion, and were so located as to render efficient help to the farmers in the more thickly settled districts, and at the same time to cover the varied climatic and other conditions which influence agriculture in Canada. The central experimental farm is situated at Ottawa, near the boundary line between Quebec and Ontario, where it serves as an aid to agriculture in these two important provinces. One of the four branch farms then established is at Nappan, Nova Scotia, near the boundary between that province and New Brunswick, where it serves the farmers of the three maritime provinces. A second branch experimental farm is at Brandon in Manitoba, a third is at Indian Head in Saskatchewan and the fourth is at Agassiz in the coast climate of British Columbia. In 1906-1907 two new branch farms were established. One is situated at Lethbridge, southern Alberta, where problems will be investigated concerning agriculture upon irrigated land and dry farming under conditions of a scanty rainfall. The other is at Lacombe, northern Alberta, about 70 m. south of Edmonton, in the centre of a good agricultural district on the Canadian Pacific railway. Additional branch farms in different parts of the Dominion are in process of establishment. At all these farms experiments are conducted to gain information as to the best methods of preparing the land for crop and of maintaining its fertility, the most useful and profitable crops to grow, and how the various crops grown can be disposed of to the greatest advantage. To this end experiments are conducted in the feeding of cattle, sheep and swine for flesh, the feeding of cows for the production of milk, and Of poultry both for flesh and eggs. Experiments are also conducted to test the merits of new or untried varieties of cereals and other field crops, of grasses, forage plants, fruits, vegetables, plants and trees; and samples, particularly of the most promising cereals, are distributed freely among farmers for trial, so that those which promise to be most profitable may be rapidly brought into general cultivation. Annual reports and occasional bulletins are published and widely distributed, giving the results of this work. Farmers are invited to visit these experimental farms, and a large correspondence is conducted with those interested in agriculture in all parts of the Dominion, who are encouraged to ask advice and information from the officers of the farms.

Agricultural organizations and education.

The governments of the several provinces each have a department of agriculture. Among other provincial agencies for imparting information there are farmers' institutes, travelling dairies, live-stock associations, farmers', dairymen's, seed-growers', and fruit-growers' associations, and agricultural and horticultural societies. These are all maintained or assisted by the several provinces. Parts of the proceedings and many of the addresses and papers presented at the more important meetings of these associations are published by the provincial governments, and distributed free to farmers who desire to have them. There are also annual agricultural exhibitions of a highly important character, where improvements in connexion with agricultural and horticultural products, live-stock, implements, &c., are shown in competition. The Dominion government makes in turn to one of the chief local agricultural exhibition societies a grant of $50,000 for the purposes of the national representation of agriculture and live-stock. The exhibition receiving the grant loses its local character, and thus becomes the Dominion exhibition or fair for that year.

There are several important agricultural colleges for the practical education of young men in farming, foremost amongst them being the Ontario Agricultural College at Guelph. Agricultural colleges are also maintained at Truro, Nova Scotia, and Winnipeg, Manitoba. In most of the provinces are dairy schools where practical instruction and training are given. Since the beginning of the 20th century agricultural education and rural training in Canada have been greatly stimulated by the munificence of Sir William C. Macdonald of Montreal. A donation by him of $10,000, distributed to boys and girls on Canadian farms for prizes in a competition for the selection of seed grain, as recommended by Professor J.W. Robertson, led to the Macdonald-Robertson Seed Growers' Association. This soon assumed national proportions in the Canadian Seed Growers' Association, which, with the seed branch of the department of agriculture mentioned above, has done much to raise to a uniform standard of excellence the grain grown over large areas of the Canadian wheat-fields. The Macdonald Institute at Guelph, Ontario, the buildings and equipment of which Sir William provided at a cost of $182,500, and the Macdonald College at Ste Anne de Bellevue, 20 m. west of Montreal, have been established to promote the cause of rural education upon the lines of nature study, with school gardens, manual training domestic science, &c., which on both sides of the Atlantic are now being found so effective in the hands of properly trained and enthusiastic teachers. The property of the Macdonald College at Ste Anne de Bellevue comprises 561 acres, of which 74 acres are devoted to campus and field-research plots, 100 acres to a _petite culture_ farm and 387 acres to a live-stock and grain farm. The college includes a school for teachers, a school of theoretical and practical agriculture and a school of household science for the training of young women. The land, buildings and equipment of the college, which cost over $2,500,000, were presented by Sir William Macdonald, who in addition has provided for the future maintenance of the work by a trust fund of over $2,000,000. In connexion with the public elementary schools throughout Canada, where the principles of agriculture are taught to some extent, manual training centres, provided out of funds supplied by the same public-spirited donor, are now maintained by local and provincial public school authorities. (E. H. G.)

HISTORY

Discovery.

About A.D. 1000 Leif Ericsson, a Norseman, led an expedition from Greenland to the shores probably of what is now Canada, but the first effective contact of Europeans with Canada was not until the end of the 15th century. John Cabot (q.v.), sailing from Bristol, reached the shores of Canada in 1497. Soon after fishermen from Europe began to go in considerable numbers to the Newfoundland banks, and in time to the coasts of the mainland of America. In 1534 a French expedition under Jacques Cartier, a seaman of St Malo, sent out by Francis I., entered the Gulf of St Lawrence. In the following year Cartier sailed up the river as far as the Lachine Rapids, to the spot where Montreal now stands. During the next sixty years the fisheries and the fur trade received some attention, but no colonization was undertaken.

French colony.

At the beginning of the 17th century we find the first great name in Canadian history. Samuel de Champlain (q.v.), who had seen service under Henry IV. of France, was employed in the interests of successive fur-trading monopolies and sailed up the St Lawrence in 1603. In the next year he was on the Bay of Fundy and had a share in founding the first permanent French colony in North America--that of Port Royal, now Annapolis, Nova Scotia. In 1608 he began the settlement which was named Quebec. From 1608 to his death in 1635 Champlain worked unceasingly to develop Canada as a colony, to promote the fur trade and to explore the interior. He passed southward from the St Lawrence to the beautiful lake which still bears his name and also westward, up the St Lawrence and the Ottawa, in the dim hope of reaching the shores of China. He reached Lake Huron and Lake Ontario, but not the great lakes stretching still farther west.

The era was that of the Thirty Years' War (1618-48), and during that great upheaval England was sometimes fighting France. Already, in 1613, the English from Virginia had almost completely wiped out the French settlement at Port Royal, and when in 1629 a small English fleet appeared at Quebec, Champlain was forced to surrender. But in 1632 Canada was restored to France by the treaty of St Germain-en-Laye. Just at this time was formed under the aegis of Cardinal Richelieu the "Company of New France," known popularly as "The Company of One Hundred Associates." With 120 members it was granted the whole St Lawrence valley; for fifteen years from 1629 it was to have a complete monopoly of trade; and products from its territory were to enter France free of duty. In return the company was to take to New France 300 colonists a year; only French Catholics might go; and for each settlement the company was to provide three priests. Until 1663 this company controlled New France.