CATTLE QUARANTINE.

560. Neat cattle are prohibited from entering any of the provinces of Canada east of the frontier of Manitoba, except for breeding purposes only, and then subject to a quarantine of ninety days at Point Edward. This refers to cattle crossing the frontier from the United States. They may enter at the seaports of Halifax, N. S., St. John, N. B., Charlettetown, P.E.I., and Quebec from the sea, subject to the same quarantine of ninety days. In Manitoba and the North-west Territories, and also British Columbia, neat cattle are allowed to enter for stock purposes only and subject to a quarantine of ninety days.

561. Swine are prohibited from entering, except subject to a quarantine of 21 days.

562. Sheep are allowed to enter on the Atlantic seaboard subject to a quarantine of fifteen days, but under special arrangements with the United States these may cross the United States inland frontier if found healthy on inspection. If not so found, entry is prohibited.

563. Horses and mules are admitted without quarantine if found healthy on inspection. If not so found, entry is prohibited.

564. Animals in transit, including neat cattle, are allowed to enter Canada on the Sarnia-Windsor frontier and pass through Canadian territory to Eastern United States ports in locked and bonded cars. They are subject to inspection on entering, and the cars are not allowed to be again passed through Canadian territory on return until after disinfection. movement is considerable, as shown by the following figures:

The

At Windsor, the number of stock cars for the twelve months ended 31st October, 1895, was 16,893, and the number of animals passed through was as follows:

The number of cars passing through Canada at Sarnia, carrying stock in transit, was 20,825 for the same twelve months, and the number of animals as follows:

During the last fourteen years over thirty millions of animals have been carried through Canada in transit from western to eastern parts of the United States, and during the whole of that time, and in the movement of this vast number of animals, there has not been a single case of contact with Canadian animals-the one essential point of the regulations.

CANADIAN CATTLE SCHEDULE IN ENGLAND.

565. The correspondence between the Canadian and the Imperial Government has continued up to the present date (April, 1896.) The points in controversy were discussed at length in the Year-Book of 1894, in paragraphs from 740 to 744 inclusive. There has been no change of principle as respects the grounds of the controversy; and the points now the subject of correspondence are similar to those above referred to. The scheduling of Canadian cattle has been imposed by the Imperial Government for the reason that their veterinary officers have reported the presence of contagious pleuro-pneumonia in cattle landed in England from Canada. The veterinary advisers of the Canadian Government, on the contrary, positively allege that the disease found was simply pueumonia arising from inflamatory action, sometimes found to arise in cattle carried two or three thousand miles in railway trains and subsequently on shipboard in bad weather, subject to peculiar hardships. The reader is referred to the points of controversy as contained in the Year-Book of 1894. One new feature has arisen, viz.: that the Imperial Government has introduced a Bill in Parliament to prohibit the importation of any live cattle from any part of the world, for the purpose, as alleged, of more perfect protection from any risk of disease being introduced into English herds. It is also stated to be a motive by the Imperial Government in introducing this proposed legislation to cut short any further questions of controversy on points of difference which have been found in the past to be irreconcilable. It has been represented to the Imperial Government by the Minister of Agriculture, the Hon. Dr. Montague, on the occasion of his presence in London, that it is unjust to prevent the entry into England of Canadian cattle for the reason of alleged existence of disease of pleuro-pneumonia, there being none such in Canada.

RESTRICTED RECIPROCITY.

566. Connected with agriculture in Canada is the question of Restricted Reciprocity with the United States. Upon this subject the Parliament of Canada has legislated as follows:

In the Customs Act of 1878 (31 Vic., Chap. 44), Section 6, it is provided as follows::

66

'Any or all of the articles mentioned in Schedule D, when the growth and produce of the United States of America, may be imported into Canada from the said United States free of duty, or at a less rate of duty than is provided in the said schedule upon proclamation of the Governor in Council whenever the United States shall provide for the importation of similar articles from Canada into that country free of duty, or at a less rate of duty'

than is now imposed on the importation from Canada of such articles into the United States."

Schedule D, above mentioned, included the following articles :

"Animals of all kinds, fresh, smoked and salted meats, green and dried fruits, fish of all kinds, products of fish and of all other creatures living in water, poultry, butter, cheese, lard, tallow, timber and lumber of all kinds, round, hewed, sawed, but not otherwise manufactured in whole or in part, fish oil, gypsum, ground or unground."

567. In the Customs Act of 1879 (42 Vic., Chap. 15), Section 6, it is provided as follows:

:

"Any or all of the following articles, that is to say: Animals of all kinds, green fruit, hay, straw, bran, seeds of all kinds, vegetables (including potatoes and other roots), plants, trees and shrubs, coal and coke, salt, hops, wheat, pease and beans, barley, rye, oats, Índian corn, buckwheat and all other grain, flour of wheat and flour of rye, Indian meal and oatmeal, and flour or meal of any other grain, butter, lard, tallow, meats (fresh, salted or smoked), cheese, fish (salted or smoked), and lumber may be imported into Canada free of duty, or at a less rate of duty than is provided by this Act, upon proclamation of the Governor in Council, which may be issued whenever it appears to his satisfaction that similar articles from Canada may be imported into the United States free of duty, or at a rate of duty not exceeding that payable on the same under such proclamation when imported into Canada."

The above was incorporated in the Revised Statutes of Canada.

Under this provision anthracite coal from the United States was made (and remains) free of duty.

568. In 1888 an amending Act (51 Vic., Chap. 15) repealed the above and substituted the following:

"Any or all of the following things, that is to say: Animals of all kinds, hay, straw, vegetables (including potatoes and other roots), salt, pease, beans, barley, malt, rye, oats, buckwheat, flour of rye, oatmeal, buckwheat flour, butter, cheese, fish of all kinds, fish oil, products of fish and of all other creatures living in the water, fresh meats, poultry, stone or marble in its crude or unwrought state, gypsum or plaster of Paris ground, unground or calcined, hewn or wrought or unwrought, burr and grindstones, and timber and lumber of all kinds unmanufactured in whole or in part (including shingles, clapboard and wood-pulp) may be imported into Canada free of duty, or at a less rate of duty than is provided for by any act at the time in force, upon proclamation by the Governor in Council, which may be issued whenever it appears to his satisfaction that similar articles from Canada may be imported into the United States free of duty, or at a rate of duty not exceeding that payable on the same under such proclamation when imported into Canada."

569. In 1894 the Customs Tariff Act (57-8 Vic., Chap. 33) repealed the above and substituted the following:

"7. The whole or part of the duties hereby imposed upon fish and other products of the fisheries may be remitted as respects either the United

States or Newfoundland, or both, upon proclamation of the Governor in Council, which may be issued whenever it appears to his satisfaction that the Governments of the United States and Newfoundland, or of either of them, have made changes in their tariffs of duties imposed upon articles imported from Canada in reduction or repeal of the duties in force in the said countries respectively."

"8. Eggs may be imported in Canada free of duty, or at a less duty than is provided for by this Act, upon proclamation of the Governor in Council, which may be issued whenever it appears to his satisfaction that eggs from Canada may be imported into the United States free of duty, or at a rate of duty not exceeding that payable on eggs under such proclamation when imported into Canada."

"Shingles and wood-pulp, or either of them, may be imported into Canada free of duty upon proclamation of the Governor in Council, which may be issued whenever it appears to his satisfaction that shingles and wood-pulp, or either of them, from Canada may be imported into the United States free of duty."

"11. Any or all of the following things, that is to say: Green or ripe apples, beans, buckwheat, pease, potatoes, rye, rye-flour, hay and vegetables, specified in item 41 in Schedule A to this Act (vegetables when fresh or dry salted, n.e.s.), shall be free of duty when imported into Canada from the country of production upon proclamation of the Governor in Council, which may be issued whenever it appears to his satisfaction that such country imposes no duty on the like product or products imported into it from Canada." "12. Barley and Indian corn shall be free of duty when imported into Canada from the country of production upon proclamation of the Governor in Council, which may be issued whenever it appears to his satisfaction that such country whence either or both of these products are imported admits both these products free of duty imported into it from Canada."

EXPERIMENTAL FARMS.

570. The establishment of the Experimental Farms of the Dominion of Canada was authorized by Act of Parliament in 1886. They are five in number, and contain in all about 3,200 acres of land. There is a Central Experimental Farm, located at the capital, Ottawa, and there are four branch farms in the other provinces. The Central Farm has been established near the boundary line between Ontario and Quebec, and serves the purposes of both these important provinces. One of the branch farms is located at Nappan, Nova Scotia, near the dividing line between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and serves for the three Maritime provinces, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. Another has been established at Brandon, Manitoba, for the Province of Manitoba. A third at Indian Head, in the provisional territory of Assiniboia, as an aid to agriculture in the North-west Territories, while the fourth is located at Agassiz, British Columbia, where it serves a like purpose for that province.

571. At all these farms many experiments are in progress in all branches of agriculture, horticulture and arboriculture, and many problems of great importance to farmers have already been solved. In selecting the sites for

these farms due regard has been had to the great variations in climate in different parts of the Dominion, and they have been so placed as to render efficient help to the farmers in the more thickly-settled districts, and at the same time to cover the most varied conditions which influence agriculture in Canada.

CENTRAL EXPERIMENTAL FARM.

572. The Central Farm has about 500 acres of land, and an outfit of buildings suitable for carrying on experimental work, with residences for the chief officers. There are buildings for cattle, horses, swine and poultry. There is also a dairy with all modern appliances for experimental tests, a seed-testing and propagating house with a building attached which affords facilities for the distribution of large quantities of promising varieties of seed grain for test by farmers in different parts of the country.

573. The principal officers of the farm are the Director, Agriculturist, Horticulturist, Chemist, Entomologist and Botanist. The Director, Chemist, Entomologist and Botanist are provided with assistants. There is also a Poultry Manager, a Foreman of Forestry-who acts also as assistant to the Director, a Farm Foreman and an Accountant. A suitable office staff is provided for the conducting of the large correspondence, both in English and French, which is carried on with farmers in all parts of the Dominion, who are encouraged to write to the officers of the farm for information and advice whenever required.

The director has his headquarters at Ottawa, and supervises all branches of the work on all the experimental farms, making personal inspection of the branch farms at least once a year. During these annual inspections the progress of all divisions of the work is enquired into, and in conference with the superintendents of these farms future courses of experimental work are planned.

At the Central Farm the production of new varieties of cereals and other crops, the ornamentation of the grounds and the forestry plantations are under the immediate personal charge of this officer, aided by his assistant the Foreman of Forestry. During the past six years about 700 new varieties of cereals have been produced at the experimental farms by cross-fertilizing and hybridizing, most of thein at the Central Farm. Some assistance in this work has been had from experts specially employed for this purpose, and also from some of the superintendents of the branch farms. These new varieties are carefully watched, and those of less promise are from time to time rejected. There are of these still under test 189 varieties, viz., 87 of wheat, 33 of barley, 13 of oats and 56 of pease. Some of these new roots of grain have produced during the past year heavy crops of fine quality, indicating that they are likely to occupy a prominent place among the best sorts in cultivation. A large number of new fruits have been similarly produced, especially of hardy varieties likely to be useful in the Canadian North-west.

About 900 varieties of trees and shrubs are being tested in the ornamental clumps and groups in different parts of the grounds. These include species and varieties from all parts of the world where similar climatic conditions