Agent, Mr. Dyke, caused a further investigation to be made under an authorization which he had obtained from the Imperial Privy Council. This investigation, was, carefully carried out, and through it the Government Inspector was convinced. that he was in error; and on the High Commissioner so representing the case to the Privy Council, the whole of the cattle were immediately released from the embargo Laid upon them.

The details of these proceedings may be found in a letter of the High Commissioner, in an Appendix herewith.

ONTARIO CATTLE QUARANTINE,

Professor Andrew Smith, Inspector for Ontario, reports the cattle of Ontario entirely, free from, diseases of a contagious character. The Quarantine Grounds and Buildings at Point Edward are stated by him to be well suited for the requirements of quarantine, purposes. The total number of cattle for breeding purposes that, underwent quarantine during the year, was 88, as shown in a detailed statement accompanying his Report.

SHEEP.

In my report of last year, I had the honour of remarking to your Excellency's predecessor, that the sheep trade bade fair to become one of the leading industries of the agriculturalist, and the results of the shipments of the past year fully carry out this statement. There is a continual demand for first quality mutton in England. Mr. Dyke reports that some of the sheep from Ontario " can hold their own against all competitors in the British markets," and he further remarks, that the home supply of sheep is far short of the demand, and the only part of the continent which can supply them in any numbers is Germany; but that owing to the decrease in that country of nearly 5,000,000 sheep during the last ten years, competition from thore Leed not be feared by Canadian farmers.

SHEEP SCAB.

Every precaution has been taken to prevent sheep affected with this disease being shipped. The disease exists in a small extent of country near Montreal, where, however, the strictest measures are being enforced for its suppression, in the same manner as adopted in the case of the Pictou cattle disease. The Port Inspectors of Montreal detained twice during the season affected cargoes; but there is nothing to prevent the owners taking the diseased animals and shipping them from United States ports. They are then continued to be called Canadian sheep, but they ought, in the circumstances, to be classified as American, being shipped from United States ports. It has thus happened that in spite of all Canadian precautions, a number of Canadian sheep were ordered to be slaughtered on arrival in Liverpool, through the existence of scab.

I am in hope that, with the co-operation of sheep owners in the infected district, and with the sanitary precautions adopted, and being vigorously carried out, the disease will be entirely eradicated next season.

PICTOU CATTLE DISEASE.

I am happy to be able to state that during the past year there have only been reported twenty-five cases for which slaughter certificates were issued, and the death rate has thus been reduced from 150, in 1882, to 25 in 1883. The disease is apparently so far got rid of that only two cases were reported during the last three months of the

year.

Dr. McEachran expresses his opinion that even should an occasional case occur, the disease can never again exist extensively. The people of the district afford every assistance in carrying out the preventative and suppressive measures instituted from my Department, and to this, in a great measure, must be attributed the successful issue attained.

DOMINION EXHIBITION.

A Provincial Exhibition, to which a Dominion character was given by a vote of Parliament of $10,000, as in former years in other places, was held at St. John, N.B., in the fall of 1883, and was very successful both in an agricultural, industrial and commercial point of view. The exhibits from Manitoba displayed there attracted considerable attention.

ARCHIVES.

The collection and arrangement of Historical Archives has been actively continued, and valuable additions have been made since my last Report. All the papers are being indexed and catalogued, to render them readily available for reference by investigators. Believing it to be desirable to continue researches in the State Departments of London and Paris, I gave instructions to that effect, and the report on Archives, forming one of the Appendices, will show with what intelligence and industry the work has been performed. The synopses of the documents examined will be found useful and interesting, and to these I would call attention. A staff of competent copyists is engaged in making transcripts of State documents in the Public Records Office, London, to be deposited in the Archives Office. It will be seen that besides the collection of State papers, important contributions have been made by gentlemen occupying public positions, of correspondence of a confidential nature, which, owing to the lapse of time, can now be made public without impropriety. The carefully prepared catalogue will show the progress made since the last Report.

AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS.

A plan for completing and perfecting the system of crop reporting in Manitoba and the North-West, for which appropriation was made in the last Session of Parliament, has been put into operation, with initiatory results, which promise success. The method adopted for obtaining these statistics is two-fold. For the Province of Manitoba I have made an arrangement with the Provincial Government to make use of its staff. And in addition to this, the agents of my Department make a simultaneous return on the first of each month, to me, and are charged with any special investigation that may from time to time be required, of any facts illustrating the progress of agriculture. The design is by establishing a system of efficient and prompt collection of current statistics, to be able to present accurately the changes in crop conditions, and in the production of agricultural products, and of the results of agricultural labour. It is to be remarked that the highest averages of wheat in any of the Provinces of the Dominion, or, in fact, on the Continent, are reported from the Province of Manitoba and the Canadian North-West. This fact, in view of the very large areas of wheat land open for settlement and colonization, point to a very large export in the future. I think it important, however, to call attention to the advisability, on the part of the farmers, of making arrangements for the feeding of the coarser grains to stock, which would very the farming, and undoubtedly prove very profitable. I believe the facilities for the feeding of swine are particularly favourable, arising from the ease with which peas and barley and potatoes may be grown. It is probable that this facility in the near future may make Manitoba and parts of the North-West a pork-producing country, in the same way as what is called the "maize zone," has done for that region of the continent a little further to the south. I think, moreover, it may prove that the feeding of swine by the coarser grains, the refuse grains and potatoes, which may be produced abundantly in Manitoba, may be found to be cheaper than is at present possible by the maize of Iowa. If this view should be found to be correct, another source of great wealth will be opened up, of a kind which has mainly built up the cities of Chicago and Cincinnati.

The agricultural statistics which have been collected in Manitoba and the North-West, partly by agents of my Department and partly by the arrangement made by me with the Government of the Province of Manitoba referred to, are published as an Appendix to this Report, and I refer to it as containing matter of much interest.

PHOSPHATE OF LIME.

It is not many years ago since Canadian phosphate began to attract notice in the United States and Europe. Of late years, Americans have kept a steady lookout for property in Canada which they could work themselves for the requirements of their

own factories.

The importance of the fertilizer trade in its present condition, and the proportions it promises to assume in the near future, are the principal causes of this diversion of interest.

When Canadian phosphate first came on the market, some eight years ago, practical men shook their heads at the hard and unpromising looking material. Many of the mills then in use in fertilizer-works were the buhrstones used to pulverize coprolite and other comparatively soft material. The difficulty of grinding has now been overcome, and it is no longer a source of danger to workmen and of perplexity to manufacturers. Instead of using it has they did coprolite, it is mixed largely with other softer materials, which enables the operating chemist to first saturate the raw phosphate with sulphuric acid, and use Canadian phosphate as a drier.

Being a more concentrated phosphate than any other in the world, it has very naturally been sought for to bring up the acid phosphate fertilizer to high percentages of phosphoric acid.

The amount of phosphate shipped from the port of Montreal during the past calendar year, was, in round numbers, 19,000 tons. This industry, in its production, materially benefits the country generally, as the men employed at the mines, the teams that haul it from the place of production, the freightage of it by rail or boat, the transhipment at the seaboard, and ocean freight, all represent a certain amount of capital expended by its agency. It is expected that 24,000 tons will be shipped from Canada to Great Britain during 1884.

I have in previous reports remarked that the removal by crops impoverishes the soil, and prevents it from yielding as abundantly as formerly, unless the loss is compensated by supplying phosphatic fertilizers. In the districts where cattle raising is not carried on, the absence of ordinary manure must be compensated for by some artificial stimulant and experience goes to prove that for the production of cereals of every description as well as for the strengthening and renewal of worn out lands no available fertilizer is known that can produce such beneficial results as phosphate when subject to a chemical process, and known to the trade as super-phosphates.

The grain exported from the port of Montreal in a single year, has been estimated to contain 2,574 tons of phosphoric acid, which implies the total exhaustion, so far. as phosphates are concerned, of 75,000 acres, the renewal of which necessitates the application of some 6,000 tons of phosphates.

United States Statistics of Commerce and Navigation for 1882-83 show that 1,261 tons of raw, and 7,766 tons of manufactured phosphate were imported into that country from Great Britain direct; whilst only 254 tons of raw phosphate were imported into the United States from Canada, and it is thought highly probable, by a mining engineer who has had long experience in the phosphate industry, that

much of the material which was mined in Canada and exported to Great Britain, is returned, either in the raw or manufactured condition, to the United States. This circumstance points to the fact that the utmost confidence is placed by American buyers in the thorough system of inspection of the raw material in England, which guarantees the standard by careful analysis, and is the only true means by which can be avoided, the substitution of inferior for higher grades, when the raw material is purchased in bulk. A reliable authority on phosphates informs me that raw Canadian phosphates contain 89-91 per cent. of tribasic phosphate of lime, according to the most authentic analysis that we have on record from picked samples selected being the most free from admixture with foreign mineral matter. Cargo samples analysed in England have returned 85 to 86 per cent. from Canadian phosphate mines. As capital increases, and the consumption of fertilizers becomes more general competition will be keener and our phosphate bearing districts will be worked to a larger extent than at present, naturally tending to further cheapening of production. In a comparative table of the analytical composition of phosphate from the various countries producing it recently published in the New York Mining Journal, with the exception of three deposits in the West Indies and one in Spain, Canada ranks the highest. Such a fact as this should have the effect of causing our phosphate producers to open a direct trade for the raw material with the United States, and shows the advantages which would accrue from the establishment in our country of works for the manufacture of superphosphates.