FARMING IN CANADA.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 16, 20 January 1926, Page 10

FARMING IN CANADA.

MR. POLSON'S IMPRESSIONS. QUESTION OF RURAL FINANCES ■ FIGHT AGAINST CLIMATE. (From Our Own Correspondent.) VANCOUVER. December 22. Interviewed by your correspondent at San Francisco on his return from a tour through Canada. Mr. W. J. Poison, who is one of the commissioners appointed by tiie New Zealand Government to investigate the question of rural finance, spoke as follows concerning Canadian farming conditions: — "Canada, however, whilst being the Briti-h Empire's greatest Dominion, is a most, interesting country because of the wonderful tight waged against the Arctic condition.-, that prevail, and in the production uf wheat this plays a prominent part. '"Wheat growing is the great staple industry of primary importance to Canada, and it is a thrilling experience to see the lines 0 f wheat trains, tiie elevator.- operating night and day during the fall, and ob-erve the energetic way in which the Canadian farmers struggle to get their crops safely under cover befoje tiie liter .-now .-.eta in. Hazardous Undertaking. ""But wheat farming is a hazardous undertaking at the be-t. there. Toe Canadian farmers, have not had a payable crop until this year for several years iin the country. The result has been [that the Government has been endeavouring to interest the agriculturists in

mixed farming and there lias been . a phenomenal stimulation of dairying, but it .is not dairying under the conditions we know in our fortunate country of New Zealand. The cattle have to be housed in great barns during more than half the year, enough feed has to be grown in the summer time in the way of silage, corn and hay. to feed during the winter months, and. for this reason, Mr. Cox and I were satisfied that Canada will never be able ro equal New Zealand in production of high-class butter and cheese. "We noted with extreme interest the fact that the Canadian Government is also endeavouring to establish sheep farming. Attempts are being made to persuade farmers to carry small flocks of black-faced sheep, generally Hampshires or Shropshire?, and possibly Cheviots. "Under the conditions which we have described, tiie difficulties with which the Canadian farmer labours in his valiant attempt to produce wool can be easily understood by New Zealanders at home. Shelters for the sheep anil winter fodder make it a. more expensive business than it is with us. In very little country, except in the .southernmost portion of the Dominion, can sheep be ranged an all in the winter. The total production of wool, of course, i.- .-mall, and Canada is never likely to be a. serious competitor in the wool markers of tiie world. That. at least, was our opinion after studying the conditions in tin: country generally. Fox Fanning. ""We were very interested in Eastern Ca.nada in seeing the extent of the fox farming industry. It is assuming large dimensions. At rhe Royal Show held in Toronto we saw hundreds of. beautiful foxes exhibited in one large hall. Fox farming to us seemed to be

spreading so rapidly in Canada and the southern parts of tiie United States tiiat fox skins will soon be as plentiful as rabbit skins are in New- Zealand. "The Maritime Province of Nova Scotia is mostly given over to apple growing. There is no doubt that the Nova Scotians have the finest flavoured apple on the American continent. They produce millions or" barrels of apples annually for the English and Continental markets. It was a great sight to see them picking and filling these thousands of barrels and sending them to the railway depots in great wagon loads. Other than apple growing, however, there is not a great deal of profitable farming in Nova Scotia. The American tariff cut.- off their nearest market. toe heavily* populated New England States, just to the southward, and the long railway haulage renders it impossible for them to compete in the central provinces with the farmers of Ontario and Quebec. Ontario grows a very great deal of fruit, which finds a ready market in the cities of Toronto and Montreal, although it is shut out of the American market by the adverse tariff. Ontario and Quebec are the butter provinces, although some butter is being produced in British Columbia and Alberta, and to a lesser extent in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Queer "Ribbon" Farms. "It was interesting to observe the methods of the French-Canadian. As a matter of fact. Quebec is like a foreign land. Ninety per cent of the population or thereabouts are French-Canadian, and practically none of tHe farmers or vending classes generally can speak any English at all. Farms have been divided and subdivided on the old French plan amongst the sons until we saw farms actually less than .10 yards wide and ' three miles long. I: was not one ■>: two but. many farms on this Strang': scale. They were little wider than a ribbon of land, and it was a most extraordinary spectacle travelling along the roads to s ee these long- ribbons •■: land running back over hill and dale with a fence every few yards.'' Summing up the situation the commissioners declared they were full-, satisfied that no New Zealanders familiar with the conditions of farming in the Dominion of Canada would ever want to exchange places with the Canadian. "The excessive and extreme cold." a i,[ Commissioner Poison, "as well as the disappointments due to early frosts, tindry seasons, and the greater cost, particularly in connection with livestock farming, are very serious handicaps. .One could imagine nothing calculated to make the New Zealand farmer more satisfied with his home lot than to observe the great difficulties under which his neighbours in Canada, at all events are compelled to labour.''