The Journal of agriculture and horticulture, 1 juillet 1927, vendredi 1 juillet 1927

[" \u201c+ .4, He JOURNAL + += 0 JAGRICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE 1 Volume 31 July Ist 1927 Number 1 7 d \u2018 Na pres PLY Jeu PE Ja de iP = 2 A zh ñ a % \u201c * x age # \u201c fer + + \u201cx % EE « TT $ der | se UE! oe hive x i Pog F # LE a # 4 à \"1 Ë + J 2 or # À 3% # : 77 * 2 1 a x 4 © wr A Good Investment You are deeply interested in the increase production of your farm.You must then keep yourself well poster as to the best means to do it.The Journal of Agriculture contains valuable information in every issue and costs only $1.00 per annum.Send your subscription to Mr.O.Lessard, secretary of the Council of Agriculture, Parliamentary Building, Quebec, Que.On request we send a sample copy.208 TRA TE ct ern es EE ta Ww Hodgins, Editor, Macdonald College P.Q., P.Q Volume 31 ISSUED | , MONTHLY ; BY THE .DEPARTMENT OF DIE JO U RNAL AGRICULTURE OF THE > Limited PROVINCE OF O 73 St.James St, QUEBEC.; Montreal.AU mater ong © FRENCH .63,622 be addressed to S.R.N.ENGLISH .8,809 AND HORTICULTURE JULY 1st 1927 FOR RATES OF ADVERTISEMENTS ADDRESS TO THE CANADA PUBLISHING CO,, Circulation - 71,931 Number 1 EDITORIAL COMMENT CANADA\u2019S DIAMOND JUBILEE On this first day of July, Canada as an united nation is celebrating her sixtieth birthday.\u201cFrom sea to sea\u201d, as our national motto reads in translation, this Diamond Jubilee of the Dominion will be ushered in with pageants, picnics and other forms of rejoicing, while at Ottawa, the Capital City, the world\u2019s greatest carillon will ring out for the first time from the great Victory Tower of our federal parliament buildings its message of our pride in our nationhood.These birthdays offer a splendid chance for stock-taking.Serving as they do as milestones, they bring to us an opportunity for measuring our progress as a nation.And the record of this young and growing country is one of which we need not be ashamed.Agriculturally, industrially, commercially, nationally, our advancement in the sixty years that have elapsed since the Fathers of Confederation first brought into being the Dominion of Canada is something that should be inspiring to every true Canadian.Our contributions to the world\u2019s \u2018wheat market, to the world\u2019s paper market, to the world\u2019s supply of metals, to name only three of the fields in which we have made ourselves internationally famous, are out of all proportion to our population.And in each of these fields - the growth of production has come mainly in the years that have seen us an united people.But it is in the fields of morals and of citizenship that we have our greatest potentialities.Canada\u2019s record in the Great War did for Canada\u2019s people what her wheat exports have done for her trade.It has made for us a niche in the world\u2019s hall of fame.But it was not a record that was the result of chance.It was the natural outcome of a love for a country that has been good to us, and that has handed on to us a heritage that stretches back far beyond the confines of the sixty years of Confederation.For Canadian ideals of service and of citizenship have their roots, not in the years of our great industrial and commercial growth only, but as well in the vears of toil and hardship that saw the opening up of a vast wilderness, that saw the transformation of this wilderness into the state of cultivation where it rejoices and blossoms as the rose.It has been our privilege recently to spend some time reading in our Canadian history of the days that lie before Confederation, of the advent of our pioneering forefathers to the districts that are now looked upon as Old Canada.We wish that all Canadians might have the opportunity of reading for themselves this story of our own country.It would give them a greater love for their native land, we suspect.It would perhaps make them more tolerant.And it would undoubtedly be a great inspiration.For, in the light of what has taken place in Canada in the past sixty years, let us say, in education, in the building of roads and the improvement of systems of transportation generally, in industry, in farming, in the art of living, it is difficult to be pessimistic concerning the future of this great country.And at this time we feel like calling to the attention of our readers a paragraph from a resolution passed at the close of the last session of our federal parliament : \u201cIt is the earnest wish of Parliament that the Diamond Jubilee Celebration shall commemorate appropriately and enthusiastically the accomplishment of Confederation and the subsequent progress of the Dominion.We trust that this commemoration will lend added inspiration to the patriotic fervour of our people, and afford a clearer vision of our aspirations and ideals, to the end that from sea to sea there may be developed a robust Canadian spirit, and in all things Canadian profounder national unity.\u201d QUEBEC\u2019S POTATO CROP There is a prevailing impression that the Maritime Provinces are Canada\u2019s gréat producers of potatoes.The fact is that, year after year, Quebec leads all provinces of Canada in the production of this commodity, more than equalling the total potato production of the three Maritime Provinces put together.Last year, for example, out of a total Dominion potato crop of some 48 million hundredweight, Quebec came first with 14,682,000 cwt., while the combined production of the Maritimes was 13,808,000 cwt.Yet we venture to say that it is easier to find New Brunswick potatoes on the Montreal market than to find Quebec potatoes that are sold as such.What is the matter ?Are Quebec potatoes inferior?We think not.The bulk of Quebec\u2019s potato crop is produced in the Lower St.Lawrence district, the climate and soil of which are as well suited to potato growing as any in Canada.The varieties grown are those in greatest demand by buyers.The trouble, in our estimation, is that Quebec\u2019s producers of potatoes are not yet fully alive to the advantages of a co-operative system of grading, advertising and selling their product.It is in this that the Maritime growers excel.When they send out their potatoes to market they make certain that their stock is sold as Maritime stock\u2014having first taking precautions through grading to see that the product offered is of such quality and uniformity that it will make for repeat orders.In short, they have through a period of years hammered away at the task of educating the buying public to ask for their potatoes by name.It seems to us that the time is ripe for the introduction in a large way of more orderly marketing of the Quebec potato crop.Something is already being done by the Federated Co-operative, but this is a thing that cannot be built from the top down.The process is too slow.What is needed is a realization on the part of our potato growers themselves of the need of a better system of marketing their crop.When the growers of each district are sufficiently interested to build a warehouse to which their products may be brought for grading and shipping in quantity, the Federated Co-operative or other marketing agency will be in a better position to help them.This is a day of standardization, of marketing in quantity on grade.The merchant in need of potatoes, of cheese, of oranges, will buy from the source that can guarantee uniformity of grade.It makes the matter of purchasing so much easier for him ! And the producer or group of producers who realize this fact and act upon it are the men who will secure the cream of the market\u2014and who will make the greatest net profits from their projects.Two things are mainly essential in his profitable handling of Quebec\u2019s potato crop.The first is the production of good, disease- free stock\u2014and this our growers can easily effect if they follow persistently the most approved spraying practices.And the second is the selling of their product in quantity and on grade.When these two things are taken up as they should be in this province, Quebec\u2019s potatoes will really be heard from\u2014and Quebec\u2019s potato growers will find greater profits in their business than they do today.- poems 2 THE JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE He JOURNAL AGRICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE ISSUED MONTHLY BY THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE OF THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC For rates of Advertisements, address THE CANADA PUBLISHING CO.Limited, 73 St.James St., - - Montreal NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS Subscribers and members of agri- culturel societies, of farmers\u2019 clubs and of the Provincial Dairymen\u2019s Association, who do not regularly receive either the English or the French Journal of Agriculture and Horticulture are requested to address their complaints to the Secretaries of their respective Societies, who will transmit them to the Secretary of the Council of Agriculture at Quebec.++ On My Way ASTURE time again and a land rich in the teeming verdure of freshed green, filled with the unfolded scent of leaf and blade, sweet with the song of singing birds.Long I have watched its coming upon the hillside, for there I could see the swollen buds soften the harsh bareness of the woods and cushion the naked frame work of the limbs.Like a great oriental carpet of precious price dropped down by lavish hand the mottled plush of coming leaves grew each day to a deeper and a fuller wealth upon the multiplying hills.If there was something of weariness in the creeping pace, a trying most too strong for patience to endure, it could not altogether break, for hope was there each day upon the mountain side, To the farmer man has come once more the almost strange relief of free and empty cattle stalls.Instead is seen the pleasant sight of feeding beasts upon the country side, caring for themselves.Even to him, and such as he, who knows the work behind the scene that takes the charm somewhat away, there is a pleasure that is good and a freedom that is appreciated in these days.Relaxation, though never entire, is greater now than at any other time of year.For it is the rare and romantic month of June, of apple-blossoms, brides and roses.The beginning of tourists, and for the husbandman the simple wish and ardent hope that needed summer is at hand.Amid the forging meadow lands and pasture fields lie swarthy acres that only the cheer and warmth of high unclouded sun can raise to life, \u2018And when I drive along the road to town, I am quite aware of two things at least.One is that my old buggy waggon rattles badly, and I wonder how long it will be before I am compelled to put it in the hands of the village blacksmith.The other thing that draws my attention is the honk and hoot of motor horns, They come and go continually, and although it is a wide highway I yield it to them almost completely, and jog along close to the ditch.Even then it would seem as if some of them begrudged me this much, they come to unpleasantly near, but of course business is very urgent and the hurry is great so that the farmer's outfit was scarcely noticed.I am not educated either as to makes of cars or the identification discs they carry.I know the plates for my own province and that is about all.I do wonder where all these people manage to get so much money as car after car rolls by whose purchase price would be as much or more than all the acres, including stock and barns, of many of our farms, yet they seem to be numberless, Sometimes I feel I would like to be a tourist for a couple of weeks anyway, and trade my old horse-drawn vehicle for one of these cushioned machines.Just to be amongst those for whom so much of the cleaning up, arranging, and putting the house in order is done.Henry Knox says that when he reads the paper and all about the attention that seem to be given to those picnicers he has a feeling a bit like the son had who was in the field when the prodigal came home; although he lives here every day of his life there never seems to be anything special done for him.Gus Pond doesn\u2019t see it that way at all.The Sunday cake may be made especially for the visitors, but when the time comes to cut it we all get a taste of it.But Henry only grunts at that reckoning and says that some people\u2019s taste of it belongs to that unknown quantity that can only be found by algebra, provided you are good at figures.Whoever was right or wrong in this little argument, I found myself taking sides as we do in all matters of differences.I was with Henry in his feeling that whatever the benefits either to individual or community, there were many such as himself and me that would never be the poorer did the sightseers not come.Yet if they find pleasure in the hospitality of our stopping places, or are impressed with the grandeur of the unlimited expanse of our beautiful country, or are refreshed and made glad with the beverages for which our province is famous, then hearty welcome to them.I cannot help but feel the truth of this evident fact though, that of all the occupations that men follow none afford so little in actual money returns as farming.I wish seme honest, unbiased economist would discuss this same subject and tell us why.There has been astonishing progress in even the past quarter of a centruy in nearly every line of industry, but farming, though improved somewhat in methods, fails yet to reach the profitable plane that other lines of business have.Is it our fault, as many are ready to say it is?Have we failed to lay our hands upon new and advancing things?or is it that the theoretical perfection that has been arrived at in our profession is quite an impossibility in actual practice ?There are other things besides money\u2014that essence of wealth.That I know well, as most men do.Perhaps my economist will reckon as best he can the priceless things that belong to me and my work, the things whose value lies within the man, not in gold or silver.My great freedom, my independence, abounding nature and my love for Nature\u2019s things.H.H.The Study of French HERE is virtue in reiteration, and in spite of T the fact that results have not been as encouraging as they might be, it is well that Dr.G.W.Parmelee, director of Protestant Education in the province of Quebec, has reiterated the importance of a study of French.More attention should be paid to oral French than ever before, he told the members of the graduating classes of the School of Teachers at Macdonald College, when he delivered an address at the closing exercises of the school.At the same time, Dr.Parmelee emphasized the necessity of teachers impressing upon their pupils the importance of learning French outside of school, along with the training given at school.The alertness of the French-speaking boy and girl in acquiring English, and their determination to speak it everywhere and at all times, is as old a story as the English-speaking pupils\u2019 disregard for French, and their reluctance to air what knowledge they may have of the language.One of two pupils who were returning together from the closing exercises of some school on Thursday evening, observing from the train at St.Henri station a printed warning against walking on the grass, asked her companion how to pronounce \u201cg-a-z-o-n.\u201d \u201cOh,\u201d was the reply.\u201cI have left my French behind me at school, and, believe me, it is going to be a closed book until I go back in September.\u201d This reflects a state of mind common amongst English- speaking pupils, to whom the study of French is irksome and irritating\u2014a drudgery to be dropped directly school is closed.On the other hand.French- speaking pupils are constantly and in all places \u201cpicking up\u201d a knowledge of English and ever putting it to practical use, until practice makes them as fluent in English as they are in their mother tongue, If the doctrine that Dr.Parmelee and others like him are preaching bears fruit, the habit of French- Canadian children in this respect will spread amongst English-speaking pupils.As a means to the same end the Ontario educational authorities, at the inspiration of Premier Ferguson, Minister of Education, will, during the summer vacation, send a number of English-speaking teachers of the French language in Ontario schools to the city of Quebec for a course of practical study which will perfect their knowledge of oral French The outcome is bound to be beneficial to students in the sister province, French is rightly coming to be considered one of the most important subjects of study in the school curriculum.Apart from its intellectual value, the practical advantage of a knowledge of French is patent to everybody, and it should be a matter of pride with all English-speaking pupils not to be outstripped by their French-speaking school companions in bilingualism.French was the language of Canada\u2019s pioneers; it was the language of those who, in 1775 and again in 1812, helped to preserve Canada to Great Britain.French is the language of diplomacy the world over, and what gives it highest importance here is its recognition as one of the official languages.The educational authorities, in the province of Quebec particularly, are doing everything in their power to promote the study of French, and the counsel that Dr.Parmelee addressed to the teachers may be taken to heart and followed by parents to the extent of impressing upon the minds of the children the importance of learning French \u201coutside of school\u201d as a practical addition to their class studies.Montreal Gazette.For one word a man is often deemed to be wise, and for one word he is often deemed to be foolish.We ought to be careful indeed what we say.\u2014 Confucius.A storm scene near Laprairie A NS - 4 mda meron Te Wy ERT gp \u201d ~ - eme im ree pT ~ \\ \u2014\u2014 a FT TT TTT Re Te Ta See etme M THE JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE 3 Canadian Farming Since Confederation By Dr.J.E.Lattimer, Dept.of Farm Economics, Macdonald College.HE development of agriculture in this Dominion is a remarkable confirmation of the old adage that truth is stranger than fiction.The record of this development, though not without its shadows, has been on the whole fairly bright, and in some phases sufficiently brilliant as to be almost increditable.Fifty or sixty years is not a long time even in the evolution of a youthful country, yet things change with such rapidity during recent years that some conditions prevailing half a century ago appear now very strange and remote.There were some conditions prevailing sixty years ago, however, which resemble closely those of today.In the late sixties of the past century those engaged in the farming business were looking back on more prosperous times.The Civil War in the United States and the following period of inflation had furnished a market for the products of Canadian farms at what Adam Shortt has termed \u201cCrimean prices\u201d.Prices which had been ruling high for a decade were declining\u2014not unlike recent experiences.The treaty of reciprocity, which had allowed free entry of natural products to the market of the United States from 1854, was abrogated by the United States in 1866, and farm products were to a certain degree excluded from that market.Present conditions in this regard are verysimilar.The imposition of protective duties on farm products necessitated the development of other markets.This hastened the bringing together of the scattered provinces.Sixty years ago the crying need for the farming industry was markets.It still is.Only today this need is much more urgent, as we shall later see.Again, when Canada extended only to the Great Lakes, as it did in 1871, one-quarter of the people born in this country were living in the Republic.The drift of Canadians to the United States was at that time a necessity.The way to expand on this continent was to go west, and for a Canadian to go west sixty years ago it was almost essential for him to go to Michigan, Wisconsin or the Dakotas.Sixty years ago declining prices, the loss of an attractive market for farm products in the United States, the loss of a substantial proportion of the Canadian born to that country and the imperative need of developing more distant markets, were problems which were very similar to those confronting us today.Though these problems sound familiar, how marked the difference in other ways in that comparatively short space of time ! It is today interesting to note some of the data tabulated in 1871 in the first census of the Dominion, For instance, it is recorded there that the production of home-made linen in the previous year (1870) was 1,771,140 yds., of which Quebec is credited with 1,559,410 yards.Home-made cloth totaled 17,641,917 yards, the provincial figures being\u2014 Quebec 3,339,766 yards Ontario 1,775,320 \u201c N.S.1,476,003 \u201c N.B.1,050,828 « The figures are quite sufficient to show that the country was at that time still to a large degree in the pioneer stage where there was little specialization or division of labor in comparison with that now existing.Much of the work that is now carried on in large centres of population was at that time done on the farm, at the small \u201cmills\u201d near at hand and in local villages.In 1871 there was only one city in the Dominion with over 100,000 people, and one could count all the cities of over 30,000 on the digits of one hand and then have the little finger unemployed.The populations of the larger cities in 1871 were\u2014 OCCUPIED, IMFROVED AND CROPPED LAND 1871-1921 (1n millions of acres pk 1 La eer] Acres 1192160 -71 -14 1911555 -49 Io 190120-30-\u20ac3 189107 -29~5 1881 5-22-4 1871.2-17-36 ROUTE IL I ED [ôe-upié Impropved Cropped 4 | En 0 50 100 150 200 *Data from Census Reports and Canada Year Book et > Wm r\u2014\u2014 an Montreal 115,000 Quebec 59,699 Toronto 59,000 St.John 41,325 Halifax 29,582 Hamilton 26,880 Ottawa 24,141 The home market was negligible when compared with that of the present day.The total production of wheat in 1870 was only some 16 million bushels in round numbers, yet upwards of two millions of that amount was exported.Dairy products, the estimated value of which was some 15 million dollars in 1870, contributed over four million dollars to the export trade.The population of three and a half million did not provide a home market which could.consume the surplus products of the 367,862 farms which the four provinces then contained, even though the aggregate production was not large.It is not difficult to understand why aggregate production was not large at that date.Farms were very small considering the improved and cultivated area, the grain binder not yet invented and farm tools and machinery generally lacking in capacity in the light of present conditions.It is rather more difficult to understand why when production was as low in the aggregate such a proportion was available for export.The solution of this question is that at that date many lived on the farm but not from the farm revenue.Many of those who followed other vocations than farming provided themselves with more or less of their food requirements.For this reason a greater proportion of the food products consumed at home escaped tabulation than at the present time.It is only by a realization of the difference in farm organization that an understanding of the development of the past sixty years is possible.OCCUPIED.IMPROVED AND CROPPED LAND PER FARi# 1871-1921 Yes i ' 192 III 191 : i 1 A \\ 190 : i ; | ] 1 1.89: ! \u2019 ! Occupied wa 188 / ' Improved EI ) Cc qa mm 187 ( I T T L 1 À 1 0 50 100 150 200 250 *Dz=ta from Canada Year Book 1925 The organization of the farm was on more of a self-sufficing basis than at present.Farms produced much of the food, fuel, clothing and shelter necessary for the farm family sixty years ago.Great diversity of products characterized the era.Most farms had herds and flocks and grew a wide variety of crops whether the soil was adapted to the growth of them or not.Varieties were numerous even in the farm orchard.Recently research is making it ever more clear that soils and environment favor particularly some line of endeavor.Transportation development makes it more and more possible to depend on other localities for certain lines.Today few farms supply much of the fuel, shelter, clothing or food required.These requirements come through the market to the farmer very much the same as they do to any other class of people.Under such circumstances farms turn more and more to the production of what can be sold and less and less attention is given to what little can be used at home.The change in the past sixty years in this country has been great in this respect.It is only wheñ we consider the great change in that time that the figures of production during the life of the Dominion become intelligible.To consider some of the developments which lend themselves to statistical computation we may compare the census reports of 1871 and 1921, which cober the greater part of the period.1871 1921 Population 3,689,257 8,788,483 Acres of land occupied 36,046,401 | 140,887,903 Acres improved.17,335,818 70,769,548 Acres cropped.11,821,216 59,635.346 No.of farms.367,862 711,090 These figures show that while the number of farms scarcely doubled, the total area occupied was WHEAT PRODUCTICN CANADA 1871-1926% (In millions of bushels) 1926 1921 1911 Q 100 200 300 400 500 *Data.from Mominion Bureau of Statistics multiplied approximately four times, the improved area became four times as great and there was fiv times the area cropped.: This was made possible by a considerable increase in the size of the farms as the following figures show : .1871 1921 Average acres per farm 98 198 Average acres improved per farm 47 99 Average acres cropped per farm 32 70 The charts show how this development has taken place by decades.What has been the production resulting from this development ?The following figures and chart, dealing with the wheat crop, are of interest in this connection : a Total Value Value per bu.$16,993,265 $1.02 per bu.38,820,323 1.20 \u201c \u201c 31,667,529 S18 « « 36,122,030 65 « \u201c 104,816,825 T9 $ « 242,936,000 81 « \u201c 339,419,000 85 \u201c 316,994,700 67 \u201c