23

H.—29b

THIRD YEAR. Credits. Credits. Field husbandry ... ... 300 General history ... ... 200 Animal husbandry ... 300 English ... ... 500 Farm dairying ... ... 200 Chemistry ... ... 200 Mathematics ... ... 200 Poultry ... ... 100 Physics ... ... ... 150 Farm forestry ... ... 100 Soils ... ... ... 200 Agricultural engineering ... 600 Veterinary science ... 200 This is for the diploma course, but for the degree of Bachelor of Science in Agriculture the student may go on to the fifth year on a more comprehensive programme of study. The course for girls in home economics is called, appropriately, the " honientakers' course." It, runs from cooking, dietetics, home-management, nursing, physiology, and hygiene down to home-planning, drawing and design, and infants' clothing and dressmaking. The college extension work is considerable. While the different phases of this work are closely related, they arc, for convenience, described under the following heads: (I) Agricultural society fairs; (2) agricultural and arts associations; (3) seed-fairs and poult ry-sbows; (4) agricultural special trains; (5) better-farming short courses; (6) ploughing matches; (7) home economic societies; (8) boys' and girls' clubs. The Government grant to agricultural societies for 1911 amounted to £6,700, and the municipal grant to £4,600. The total membership of agricultural societies in 1914 was 8,779, The amount paid out in prizes by these societies was £9,656. The Government gran! in 1911 for other purposes, such as seed, grain fairs, ploughing matches, and buildings was £959. In 1914 there were sixty-eight agricultural societies, and of these sixty-seven held successful summer fairs, and thirty-eight held seed, grain, and poultry shows later in the year. Judges were supplied to all. of these by the section of the college-extension work. A feature of all societies participating in extension work and receiving Government grants throughout the Dominion is that the judges are selected by the Department of Agriculture or Agricultural College, ami only experienced men specially trained, and having the confidence not only of breeders and exhibitors but also of the Agricultural Department or College, are appointed judges. The object ami aim of the Government. Dominion or Provincial, is to utilize these judges to educate the farming community in respect to the merits or demerits of the exhibits, and make such fairs, competitions, (fee, educational in the highest degree. A judge therefore requires to be thoroughly competent, and well versed in the excellence or otherwise of the subjects on which he has to adjudicate, be they animal, grain, seed, crop, Are., and must be able to point, out and elucidate in plain and understandable language to the inquiring public the points on which awards were made by him, so that the people can understand why one animal or other exhibit was placed ahead of another. Provincial Demonstration Farms. —There are well on to twenty of these distributed throughout, the province, each dealing with the soils peculiar to the respective Idealities in which they are situated, and experimenting to discover the variety of crops most suitable to grow under the climatic conditions and environment, and thus enable settlers and prospective settlers to know what grains, vegetables, fruits, <fee, are best adapted to the locality. The Province of Saskatchewan. I visited the offices of the Department of Agriculture, which are situated in the Government Buildings at Regit) a, the capital anil seat of the Provincial Government. Mr. F. Headley Auld, Acting Deputy Minister, received me most courteously and gave me Hie fullest information regarding the activities of the Department, and also went to considerable trouble in furnishing me with information on many points in, regard to agricultural education throughout the Dominion, which T have embodied in this report. The word "Saskatchewan" is an Indian word meaning "rushing water." The estimated population of Saskatchewan in 191 I was 691,000. SO per cent, of which are engaged in agriculture. The province lies in the same latitude as the British Isles. No settled portion of the province is so far north as Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Saskatchewan's elevation above sealevel varies from 1,500 ft. to 3,000 ft. The annual precipitation is comparatively light, slightly over 17 in., but the greater part of the rain falls during the growing season, therefore it is particularly effective agriculturally. The average mean temperature during the past ten years was 34-4° F. The soil is rich, and splendid crops of grain are grown annually, also roots and fodder crops. Saskatchewan stands first amongst the wheat-provinces of Canada. The value of Saskatchewan's grain orop is greater than that of the provinces of Manitoba and Alberta combined, greater than that, of any State in the United States of America, and claimed to be greater than that of any single province in the world. Its grain-production in 1913 was 243,513,000 bushels. All grain-dealers in the province must be licensed and bonded. In few provinces at, the present time are farmers so well organized for the protection of their own interests. They have the Grain Growers' Association and the Saskatchewan Co-operative Elevator Company. Both of these look after the grain-raiser. There are horses, cattle, sheep, swine, and poultry breeders' associations, and numerous agricultural societies, all of which are liberally aided by the Provincial Government. The cash grants to these associations in 1914 amounted to £12,920.