25

H.—29b

possible to greatly enlarge and extend the scope of extension activities in Saskatchewan. The grant, for the year 1914-15 was £12,230. The Province of British Columbia. Vancouver Island and British Columbia, united in 1880 as "British Columbia," became a province of the Dominion of Canada in 1871. The capital and seat of the Provincial Government is situated at Victoria, Vancouver Island, some sixty-five miles in a south-westerly direction from the City of Vancouver on the mainland. Victoria, British Columbia, is the Pacific gateway of Canada. It is claimed that it is the best-paved, best-lighted, and cleanest city in Canada. It is stated for British Columbia that it has the largest trade of any country in the world per head of population. Its population at the last census (1911) was 392,480. Canada has the most extensive and. best-stocked commercial fishing-waters in the world. The fishing-area includes 5,000 miles of Atlantic and 7,000 miles of Pacific coast, and 220,000 square miles of fresh water. The fisheries exports for 1913-14 were valued at £4,146,969. Of the provinces British Columbia comes first with a production valued at £2,891,097. British Columbia holds a high- position in the markets of the world for fruit-production. In December, 1913, British Columbia won the Premier Gold Medal for apples at the Royal Horticultural Society, London, also at Sheffield and Edinburgh. British Columbia's forests now constitute more than half the lumber-supply of Canada, and the capital represented by forests is set down at £2,200,000,000. The offices of the Department, of Agriculture are situated in the Provincial Government buildings at Victoria, B.C. Mr. W. E. Scott, Deputy Minister of Agriculture, to whom 1 hail a letter of intioduction from Mr. J. 11. Grisdale, Director Dominion Experiment Farms, Ottawa, gave me ever}- facility to understand the methods and activities of his department, and, having had some years experience of sheep-farming in Otago, New Zealand, was much interested in the splendid progress being made by New Zealand in recent, years. A feature of the agricultural activities of the Department of Agriculture of British Columbia in connection with farmers' institutes is the field crop and seed competitions and the boys' and girls' field-crop competitions. To supervise this work there is a Soil and Crop Instructor, who issues in bulletin form rules and regulations governing these. The bulletins are circulated in the month of January each year, and they also contain the awards made in these competitions for the past year. For the field-crop competitions, farmers' institutes desiring to organize these must notify the Soil and Crop Instructor on or before the Ist, May, stating the kind or kinds of props for which competitors are to be provided. For competitions open to members of farmers' institutes there are two sections, one for farmers who own, rent, direct, or work not more than 10 acres of cultivated land, for which prizes of £5, £3, and £2 are given, and also for farmers who own, direct, or work more than 10 acres of cultivated land, for which prizes of a similar value are given. The crops for which competition may be made are oats (seed only), wheat (seed only), barley (seed only), peas (seed only), potatoes, turnips, mangels, field-carrots, fodder-corn, kale, red clover, lucerne (new seeding), lucerne (second year), and lucerne (third or over), mixed grain for feed, grain-hay. The size of the plots in competitions for areas under 10 acres are from | acre to I acre in extent; for farmers who have more than 10 acres finder cultivation from | acre to 2 acres in extent. For "good seed" competitions any member of a farmers' institute may compete, but must be a member of a " Good Seed Centre." The competitions are for best field of oats for seed; best field of potatoes for seed; best field of corn for seed; best field of red clover for seed; best field of lucerne for seed; best field of mangels for seed; best field of turnips for seed; best acre of carrots for seed. The areas are from \ acre to 1. acre, and the prizes in each class are £5, £3, and £2. For seed competitions there are prizes of £2, £1 10s., and £.1 each for the following: Best 2 bushels of spring wheat, best 2 bushels winter wheat, best 2 bushels white oats, best 2 bushels six-rowed barley, best, 2 bushels field-peas, twelve ears fodder-corn, best bushel potatoes, best bushel lucerne-seed, best bushel alsike-seed, best bushel red-clover seed, best bushel timothy-seed, 20 Ib. potatoes grown by competitors in the boys' and girls' competition, 2 bushels of registered white oats, 2 bushels registered spring wheat, 2 bushels registered potatoes, 201b. registered mangel-seed, 20 Ib. registered turnip-seed, and 101b. registered field-carrot seed. All exhibits must be grown by the exhibitor in that year. Every winner of a first prize at a seed-fair who wins with an exhibit from his plot, entered in the field crop competition will be paid a bonus of £1 by the Department of Agriculture. Boys' and Girls' Competitions. —Arty farmers' institute desiring to organize a boys' and girls' competition shall appoint, a committee composed of three of their members, the president, and secretary of the institute, who shall make and carry out, the necessary arrangements for the holding of the potato competition. Competitors must not be under twelve or over eighteen years of age on the 10th May of year on which the entries close. The plots require to be exactly onetenth of an acre. Provision for a prize-list is also made wherever local seed-fairs are organized by the farmers' institutes, for which liberal prizes are given. As showing the popularity of these competitions in 1914 the following were the number of competitors in the different sections and classes —Section 1: Potatoes, 205 competitors; wheat, 10 competitors; peas, 5 competitors; oats, 93 competitors; carrots, 16 competitors; mangels, 19 competitors; lucerne, 14 competitors; kale, 17 competitors; turnips,. 4 competitors: total, 383 competitors. In the boys' and girls competitions, 149 competitors.

4_H. 29b.