nd dairying have been held; and farm drainage has received practical
encouragement. Perhaps the most important advance of late years has
resulted through the appointment of what are known as district
representatives. In co-operation with the department of Education,
graduates of the Agricultural College have been permanently located in
the various counties to study the agricultural conditions and to
initiate and direct any movement that would assist in developing the
agricultural work. These graduates organize short courses at various
centres, conduct classes in high schools, assist the farmers in
procuring the best seed, advise as to new lines of work, assist in
drainage, supervise the care of orchards--in short, they carry the work
of the Agricultural College and of the various branches of the
department right to the farmer, and give that impetus to better farming
which can come only from personal contact. The growth of the district
representative system has been remarkable: it was begun in seven
counties in 1907, by 1910 fifteen counties had representatives, and in
1914 no fewer than thirty-eight counties were so equipped. At first the
farmers distrusted and even somewhat opposed the movement, but the
district representative soon proved himself so helpful that the
government has found it difficult to comply with the numerous requests
for these apostles of scientific farming. Approximately $125,000 is
spent each year on the work by the provincial government, in addition to
the $500 granted annually by the county to each district office. The
result of all this is that new and more profitable lines of farming are
being undertaken, specializing in production is being encouraged, and
Ontario agriculture is advancing rapidly along the lines to which the
soils, the climate, and the people are adapted. A study of the history
of Ontario agriculture shows many changes in the past hundred years, but
at no time has there been so important and so interesting a development
as that which took place in the opening decade of the twentieth century.

[Signature: C C James]

[Transcriber's Note:

The following correction was made:

p. 572: Newburg to Newburgh

Spelling in quoted passages has not been changed. Page numbering matches
the original.]

End of Project Gutenberg's History of Farming in Ontario, by C. C. James

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