nadian
people. They were the 'growing pains' of a progressive people. The
Crimean War, in 1854-56, gave an important though temporary boom to
Canadian farm products. Reciprocity with the United States from 1855 to
1866 offered a profitable market that had been closed for many years.
Then came the close of the great civil war in the United States and the
opening up of the cheap, fertile prairie lands of the Middle West to the
hundreds of thousands of farmers set free from military service. This
westward movement was joined by many farmers from Ontario; there was a
disastrous competition in products, and an era of agricultural
depression set in just before Confederation. It was because of these
difficulties that Confederation became a possibility and a necessity.
The new political era introduced a new agricultural period, which began
under conditions that were perhaps as unfavourable and as unpromising as
had been experienced for over half a century.

THE GROWTH OF SCIENTIFIC FARMING, 1867-88

The period that we shall now deal with begins with Confederation in
1867 and extends to 1888, when a provincial minister of Agriculture was
appointed for the first time and an independent department organized.

From 1792 to 1841 what is now Ontario was known as Upper Canada; from
1841 to 1867 it was part of the United Province of Canada, being known
as Canada West to distinguish it from Quebec or Canada East. In 1867,
however, it resumed its former status as a separate province, but with
the new name of Ontario. In the formation of the government of the
province agriculture was placed under the care of a commissioner, who,
however, held another portfolio in the cabinet. John Carling was
appointed commissioner of Public Works and also commissioner of
Agriculture. On taking office Carling found the following agricultural
organizations of the province ready to co-operate with the government:
sixty-three district agricultural societies, each having one or more
branch township societies under its care, and all receiving annual
government grants of slightly over $50,000; a provincial board of
agriculture, with its educational and exhibition work; and a
fruit-growers' association, now for the first time taken under
government direction and given financial assistance.

One extract from the commissioner's first report will serve to show the
condition of agriculture in Ontario when the Dominion was born. 'It is
an encouraging fact that