AGRICULTURE 
37 
Assistance is ofteri given to an agricultural community by the Govern- 
ment in contributing financial help in the purchase of improved stock 
for co-operative use, in supplying improved strains of seeds and in assisting 
in the purchase of agricultural machinery, such as clover hullers, for 
community use. A well-organized corps of lecturers and demonstrators 
in agricultural subjects is provided by the Provincial Department of 
Agriculture, and systems of Government inspection of products to improve 
marketing conditions are established, as in the cheese and butter industry. 
The Provincial Department of Agriculture also supplies seeds and chemical 
fertilizers for the school gardens of which there are 1,367 in the province. 
with 31.212 boys and girls farmers and gardeners. 
Demonstration Farms.—Recently legislation was passed author- 
izing the Minister of Agriculture to establish demonstration farms and to 
remunerate the owners of such farms for extra work and purchase of 
material necessary for the farm management carried out under Govern- 
ment supervision. The supervision of these farms, now numbering thirty- 
four, is under the chief of the Field Husbandry Service, who prescribes 
methods of farming, drainage work, feeding of live stock, and anything 
which tends to add to the value of the farm, and make it an object lesson 
to other farmers. Under this system it has been shown that farms of 
100 arpents properly conducted will furnish a living and effect savings. 
District Representatives.—An important feature of the assistance 
that is given the industry by Government is the system of resident agricul 
furists, elsewhere known as district representatives or county agents. 
The staff of the Agriculturists’ Service in 1926 comprised sixty-eight 
agriculturists besides assistants and superior officers. They are graduates 
of recognized agricultural colleges and reside in the counties where they 
are constantly endeavouring by lectures, visits and demonstrations to 
secure the adoption of efficient farming methods. 
School for Farmers.—There are three advanced agricultural schools 
as well as a dairy school in the province. The former consist of the Oka 
Institute, in the county of Two Mountains, the property of the Reverend 
Trappist Fathers; the Ste. Anne de la Pocatiere Agricultural School, in 
the county of Kamouraska, owned by.the priests of the classical college 
of the same place; and Macdonald Agricultural College at Ste. Anne de 
Bellevue, the property of a society. The first is affiliated to Montreal 
University and the second to Laval University. Macdonald College is 
affiliated to McGill University. The students in these institutions now 
aumber about 800 and the course of studies is most thorough and advanced. 
A new Middle or Practice School of Agriculture was opened in 1926 at 
Rimouski with enrolment of forty-nine pupils.