The official figures of Live-stock on Canadian farms are, of course, large, as they always will be for home supply, but they are not increasing and are evidently not equal to even the home demand of an ever-growing population-although, curiously enough, values are increasing. The total for all Live-stock on the farms was $558,789,000 in 1909 and $593,768,000 in 1910. On June 30, 1911, there were 2,266,400 horses, 2,876,600 milch-cows, 4,210,000 other cattle, 2,389,300 sheep and 2,792,200 swine in the Dominion as a whole. The total number of all the animals mentioned was 14,534,500 in 1911 as compared with 15,867,009 in 1908. From the Port of Montreal in 1911 only 45,956 cattle and 3,825 sheep were shipped compared with 128,161 cattle and 10,791 sheep in 1906. For similar reasons of limited production and increased home prices the export, also, of butter in 1911 (year ending Mch. 31) was only $744,288 as against $1,010,274 in 1910; the export of fruit was $1,756,884 in value (and imports of $430,505) as compared with $4,417,926 exported in 1910; the export of cheese had ceased to grow and was $20,739,507 as against $21,607,692 in 1910 and $25,975,000 in 1904.

Agricultural incidents of the year included the official estimate of the Dairy Commissioner that despite unfavourable conditions of relative progress the annual returns of milk and its products were $100,000,000 of which $80,000,000 worth was consumed in the home market; the fact that in 1910 there were 3,628 butter and cheese factories in Canada producing 59,875,097 pounds valued at $15,682,564 or $8,441,592 more than in 1900 and that the total production of butter, cheese and condensed milk in Canada was $39,143,089-nearly one-half being consumed in the country; the prize of $1,000 in gold offered by Sir Thomas Shaughnessy of the C.P.R. for the best 100 pounds of hard-red wheat grown in America and shown at the New York Land Show on Nov. 4th and its award by United States agricultural authorities to Seager Wheeler of Rosthern, Sask., with W. I. Glass of Macleod, Alta., as the alternative; the winning by Asabel Smith of British Columbia of the $1,000 silver trophy, for the best potatoes, offered upon the same occasion.

During the fiscal year (Mch. 31, 1911) there were 44,479 homestead entries in the West covering 7,166,640 acres and representing 107,884 settlers. At the close of 1911 there were 1,909 Grain elevators in Canada with a capacity of 106,462,700 bushels as compared with a capacity of 94,266,000 in 1910; in July the Grain Growers' Grain Co. of Winnipeg, representing the Grain Growers Associations of the West and over 11,000 farmers as shareholders, reported the direct exportation to British markets of 10,000,000 bushels, grain profits for the year of $70,000, a dividend of 10 per cent. and $100,000 placed in the reserve account. It may be noted here that while United States production of wheat had been almost stationary since 1902-670,000,000

bushels in that year and 664,000,000 in 1911-the increase in Canada was from 97,000,000 to 184,000,000 bushels or nearly double and that British figures showed over the five-year period, 1886-90, an average of 70 million bushels a year coming from the United States and 3 millions from Canada as against an average of 47 millions from Canada and also from the United States in 1906-10. Taking recent years Britain received from the United States in 1901 125 million bushels and in 1910 36 millions while from Canada she obtained 12 millions and 55 millions, respectively.

The Dominion Council of Agriculture, the central body of the organized farmers of Canada, met at Regina on Dec. 29, 1911. Only Western Provincial representatives were present and the following Resolutions were passed: (1) Expressing satisfaction with the Dominion Government's intention to deal with the Terminal Elevator question and recommending acquisition by lease or purchase of existing elevators with operation by an independent Commission acceptable to the Grain Growers Association and responsible only to Parliament; (2) suggesting Mr. R. S. Lake for the vacancy on the Railway Commission and endorsing the principle of Co-operative Societies; (3) urging a general reduction of the Tariff; (4) declaring an unjust discrimination in railway freight rates to exist and urging the Railway Commission to investigate existing conditions. A final Resolution pointed out that "through the late harvest and abnormal weather conditions there is a large quantity of tough wheat of good milling quality, as well as a large amount of low-grade wheat and coarse grain in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta that must, in order to realize anything, be put into proper condition for storage before warm weather sets in" and that the Terminal Elevators at Fort William and Port Arthur had not sufficient capacity to care for this grain or the Railways sufficient facilities to move it. To meet the situation they urged the Dominion Government and the Governments of the Prairie Provinces to use their utmost influence with the Canadian Railways operating in Western Canada "to immediately put into effect from interior points in the Provinces mentioned, to Minneapolis and Duluth, the freight rates on bulk grain now prevailing from Saskatchewan points to Fort William and Port Arthur, and to make the best arrangements possible with the railways of the United States for the use of their cars for the immediate shipment of grain from interior Western Canadian points to Minneapolis and Duluth."

Canadian

Mining Interests and

Production

There was a slight reduction in the total of Canada's Mineral product during 1911-the figures according to the preliminary official Report being $102,291,686 as compared with $106,823,623 in 1910.* The steady yearly increase from a total of

NOTE-Details of Provincial production are given in the respective Provincial records.

$69,078,999 in 1905 had not been maintained but the output was, in reality, large and the progress substantial in view of the longcontinued strike of the Coal miners in Alberta and British Columbia and the consequent closing down for a time of the Granby smelter. As a matter of fact the decrease was $4,500,000 or just the amount of the reduced production of coal. Gold, pig-iron (largely from imported ore), asbestos, natural gas, cement, lime and clay products all showed considerable increases. The refined products of Canadian smelters and refineries in 1911 totalled 15,270 ounces of gold, 17,711,077 pounds of silver, and 23,525,050 pounds of lead; the total of all ores treated was 2,192,727 tons; in the Sudbury District nickel-copper ores were treated to the extent of 1,281,967 tons of 2,000 pounds each with a spot value for matte shipped of $4,945,592 with exports of 5,023,393 pounds to Great Britain and 27,596,578 pounds to the United States. In Asbestos the product was a little less than in 1910 although the sales were greater despite reduced prices-100,893 tons valued at $2,922,062 as against 77,508 tons valued at $2,555,974 in 1910. Of the exports of Asbestos, totalling $2,067,259, the greater part or $1,732,541 went to the United States. There were imports of $319,815. The total Canadian mineral product of 1909-10-11 was as follows:

In pig-iron and steel production Canada during this and preceding years was steadily forging ahead. Between 1892 and 1902 the production of pig-iron grew from $366,192 in value to $4,243,541; in 1909 it had doubled and was $9,581,864. The product of

* NOTE.-The figures for 1911 are subject to revision, but there is rarely any change of importance made.

steel ingots and castings was 203,881 short tons in 1902 and 754,719 tons in 1909. During 1909 1,235,000 tons of imported iron-ore were used in Canadian furnaces while the importation of pig-iron was $873,932 in value with an increase in 1910 to $2,127,135. Coming to 1911 the production of pig-iron in Canadian blast furnaces was 917,535 tons valued at $12,306,860; the amount of Canadian ore used was 67,434 tons and of imported ore 1,628,368 tons; the number of men employed was 1,778 and the wages paid $1,097,355; the production of steel ingots and castings was 876,215 tons compared with 822,284 tons in 1910. The imports of pig-iron in 1911 were $2,610,989 in value and of fero-manganese $429,465. The collateral or basic industry of coal showed a reduction in 1911 for reasons already indicated. Between 1874 and 1898 it had slowly grown from $1,763,423 to $8,224,288; in 1906 it was $19,732,019, in 1909 $25,781,236 and in 1910 $30,909,779. The drop to $26,378,477 in 1911 was, therefore, accidental. The total production of coke was 847,402 tons valued at $2,340,674 as against 902,715 worth $3,462,872 in 1910. The imports of bituminous coal in 1911 were 7,150,138 tons valued at $14,240,510, of bituminous slack 1,431,553 tons worth $1,968,066, of anthracite 3,465,774 tons valued at $15,750,340 and of coke 763,114 tons valued at $1,887,493. The exports of coal in 1911 were 1,500,639 tons valued at $4,357,074; in coke the figures were 59,943 tons valued at $255,981.

The possibilities in this connection were enormous. According to a Mines Department volume (issued early in 1912) the supposed Coal resources of Canada were widely distributed. In Nova Scotia and New Brunswick there were estimated to be 3,500,000,000 tons of bituminous coal; in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and the Eastern Rockies the estimate was 400,000,000 tons of anthracite, 30,000,000,000 tons of bituminous and 100,000,000,000 tons of sub-bituminous and lignite; in British Columbia and the Yukon there were estimated to be 61,000,000 tons of anthracite, 40,000,000,000 tons of bituminous and 500,000,000 tons of lignite; in the Arctic-Mackenzie basin there were said to be 490,000,000 tons of lignite only. In addition to the above there were certain small fields, containing some millions of tons of lignitic peat and others of doubtful extent and value, in the far north. As to the estimates for Nova Scotia and New Brunswick and of anthracite in the Western Provinces it was pointed out that these were of mineable coal regions already explored with some degree of accuracy.

Another important mineral development of recent years was in cement, clay products, and other structural material. The production of cement grew very slowly up to 1901 when it was only $660,030 in value; in 1906 the figures were $3,170,859 and in 1910 $6,412,215; in 1911 the increase was over $1,000,000. The

imports of the latter year totalled $468,046 and the exports were $12,914. There were at this time 15 Cement manufacturing companies in Canada besides the large Canada Cement Co., Ltd. In clay products the figures of growth had been considerable, as follows: 1899 $2,988,099, 1903 $4,034,289, 1910 $7,629,956, and in 1911 $8,317,709. The imports had doubled between 1903 and 1910-from $1,740,809 to $3,418,844. In other structural materials such as lime, sand-lime, brick, sand and gravels (exports), shale and stone the increase between 1906 and 1910 was from $3,287,034 to $5,585,421. In 1911 the total was $6,014,089. It may be added that during the year the total export of Canadian minerals-nearly all going to the United States for refining and manufacturing purposes-was $42,787,561 as compared with $24,580,266 in 1900 and half that amount in 1897.

Something also must be said of Peat as to which varied investigations were carried on by the Department of Mines, by the Canadian Peat Society of which Dr. J. McWilliam of London was President, and by Dr. Eugene Haanel, Director of Mines at Ottawa. According to Dr. Haanel, in an address at Toronto on Feb. 6: "It has been estimated that the known peat bogs of Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick cover, in the more settled portions of those Provinces, an area of 12,000 square miles, with an average depth of 6 feet. This is probably but a small fraction of the actual amount of this valuable fuel asset in existence in those Provinces. One square mile of peat-bog with an average depth of 6 feet will produce 774,400 tons of peat fuel, containing 25 per cent. of moisture. The 12,000 square miles will, therefore, contain 9,292,800,000 tons of peat, having a fuel value equivalent to 5,306,074,000 tons of good coal. Such an amount of peat would supply fuel to 5,306,074 families for 100 yearsassuming each family to consume an amount of fuel per annum equivalent in heating value to 10 tons of the best anthracite."

The experiments in Peat fuel sold from the Government plant at Alfred, Ont., at $3.25 per ton, were said to have been most successful and the fuel very popular. Its qualities were described as follows: It burns with a clear, luminous flame, without poking; it does not eject into the room burning particles and does not, therefore, require a wire netting to protect floor; it leaves no unburnt material and it does not soil the hands; it does not, as cannel coal, cover the back of the grate with a thick layer of soot; its chief disadvantage is its greater bulk. The work of the Ottawa Geological Survey continued during 1911 to cover the whole of Canada and its technical staff was everywhere examining, surveying, describing, the dormant resources of the Dominion. Department of Mines also published a valuable series of monographs dealing with Coal and Coke, Cement, and Iron and Steel, written by John McLeish.

The