during the last year in particular mowers and
reapers and labour-saving implements have not only increased in the
older districts, but have found their way into new ones, and into places
where they were before practically unknown. This beneficial result has,
no doubt, mainly arisen from the difficulty, or rather in some cases
impossibility, of getting labour at any price.' It would appear,
therefore, that the question of shortage of farm labour, so much
complained of in recent years, has been a live one for forty years and
more.

In the second report of the commissioner (1869) special attention was
directed to the question of agricultural education, and the suggestion
was made that the agricultural department of the university and the
veterinary college might give some instruction to the teachers at the
normal school. In the following year, however, an advanced step was
taken. It was noted that Dr Ryerson was in sympathy with special
agricultural teaching and had himself prepared and published a text-book
on agriculture. The suggestion was made that the time had arrived for a
school of practical science. At the same time Ryerson had appointed the
Rev. W. F. Clark, the editor of the _Canada Farmer_, to visit the
Agricultural department at Washington and a few of the agricultural
colleges of the United States, and to collect such practical information
as would aid in commencing something of an analogous character in
Ontario. It will thus be seen that the two branches of technical
training--the School of Practical Science and the Agricultural
College--were really twin institutions, originating, in the year 1870,
in the dual department of Public Works and Agriculture. These
institutions were the outcome of the correlation of city and country
industries, which were under the fostering care of the Agriculture and
Arts Association, as the old provincial organization was now known. The
School of Practical Science, it may be noted, is now incorporated with
the provincial university, and the Agricultural College is affiliated
with it.

There were at that time two outstanding agricultural colleges in the
United States, that of Massachusetts and that of Michigan. These were
visited, and, based upon the work done at these institutions, a
comprehensive and suggestive report was compiled. Immediate action was
taken upon the recommendations of this report, and a tract of land, six
hundred acres in extent, was purchased at Mimico, sev