The organization of this provincial association fittingly introduces another era in agricultural growth. It is to be noted that this provincial organization was a self-created body; it drew at first no government funds direct. It commended itself to the people, for on July 28, 1847, the provincial parliament in session at Montreal passed an act incorporating it under the name of the Agricultural Association of Upper Canada, and in the charter named as members a number of the leading citizens of the province. It was governed by a board of directors, two of whom were chosen annually by each district agricultural society. The objects set forth were the improvement of farm stock and produce, the improvement of agricultural implements, and the encouragement of domestic manufactures, of useful inventions applicable to agricultural or domestic purposes, and of every branch of rural and domestic economy. Out of this provincial association came all the further agricultural organizations of a provincial nature, and ultimately, some forty years later, the Ontario department of Agriculture.

The second provincial exhibition was held at Hamilton in 1847, and Lord Elgin, the governor-general, was in attendance. He was also a generous patron, for his name appears as a donor of $100. The address which he delivered at the banquet has been preserved in the published records and is copiously marked with cheers and loud applause.

The third exhibition was held at Cobourg in 1848. The official report of the exhibits indicates that pure-bred stock was rapidly increasing and improving in quality; but the most significant paragraph is that dealing with implements, and this is well worth quoting in full.

At the fourth exhibition, held at Kingston in 1849, the show of implements was much more extensive, and comment was made on the improvement of articles of home manufacture. At this meeting Professor J. F. W. Johnson, of Edinburgh, who was making a tour of North America, was present. The address of the president, Henry Ruttan of Cobourg, is a most valuable reference article descriptive of the agricultural progress of the province from the first settlements in 1783 to the time of the exhibition. Ruttan was a loyalist's son, and, from his own personal knowledge, he described the old plough that was given by the government to each of the first settlers.

He then refers to the large number of implements then being pressed upon the farmers, until 'they have almost become a nuisance to the farmer who desires to purchase a really useful article.' All of which indicates that a distinctive feature of the period beginning with 1846 was the introduction and rapid extension of improved farm machinery.

A few words as to the reaping machine, which contributed more than any other modern implement to the development of agriculture in the past century, may not be out of place. Various attempts had been made at producing a machine to supersede the sickle, the scythe, and the cradle before the Rev. Patrick Bell, in 1826, presented his machine to the Highland Agricultural Society of Scotland for its examination. Bell's machine was fairly successful, and one was then in operation on the farm of his brother, Inch-Michael, in the Carse of Gowrie. One set of knives was fixed, another set worked above and across these like the blades of a pair of scissors. The grain fell on an endless cloth which carried and deposited the heads at the side of the machine. A horse pushed it forward and kept all parts in motion. It was simple, and, we are told, harvested twelve acres in a day. This was in 1826. In the New York Farmer and American Gardener's Magazine for 1834 may be found the descriptions and illustrations of Obed Hussey's grain-cutter and Cyrus H. M^cCormick's 'improved reaping-machine.' The question has been raised as to whether either of these United States inventions owed anything to the earlier production of Patrick Bell. It was, of course, the improved United States reaping machines that found their way into Upper Canada shortly after the organization of the Provincial Agricultural Association. Our interest in this matter is quickened by the fact that the Rev. Patrick Bell, when a young man, was for some time a tutor in the family of a well-to-do farmer in the county of Wellington, and there is a tradition that while there he carried on some experiments in the origination of his machine. The suggestion of a 'mysterious visitor' from the United States to the place where he was experimenting is probably mere conjecture.

This period, 1846 to 1867, was one of rapid growth in population. The free-grant land policy of the government was a great attraction for tens of thousands of people in the British Isles, who were impelled by social unrest, failure of crops, and general stagnation in the manufacturing industries to seek new homes across the sea. In the twenty years referred to the population more than doubled, and the improved lands of the province increased fourfold. The numbers of cattle and sheep about doubled, and the wheat production increased about threefold.

Towards the latter part of the period a new agricultural industry came into existence—the manufacture of cheese in factories. It was in New York State that the idea of co-operation in the manufacture of cheese was first attempted. There, as in Canada West, it had been the practice to make at home from time to time a quantity of soft cheese, which, of course, would be of variable quality. To save labour, a proposition was made to collect the milk from several farms and have the cheese made at one central farm. The success of this method soon became known and small factories were established. In 1863 Harvey Farrington came from New York State to Canada West and established a factory in the county of Oxford, about the same time that a similar factory was established in the county of Missisquoi, Quebec. Shortly afterwards factories were built in Hastings County, and near Brockville, in Leeds County. Thus began an industry that had a slow advance for some fifteen years, but from 1880 spread rapidly, until the manufacture of cheese in factories became one of the leading provincial industries. The system followed is a slight modification of the Cheddar system, which takes its name from one of the most beautiful vales in the west of England. Its rapid progress has been due to the following circumstances: Ontario, with her rich grasses, clear skies, and clean springs and streams, is well adapted to dairying; large numbers of her farmers came from dairy districts in the mother country; the co-operative method of manufacture tends to produce a marketable article that can be shipped and that improves with proper storage; Great Britain has proved a fine market for such an article; and the industry has for over thirty years received the special help and careful supervision and direction of the provincial and Dominion governments.

During this period we note the voluntary organization of the Ontario Fruit-Growers' Association, a fact which alone would suggest that the production of fruit must have been making progress. The early French settlers along the Detroit River had planted pear trees or grown them from seed, and a few of these sturdy, stalwart trees, over a century old, still stand and bear some fruit. Mrs Simcoe, in her Journal, July 2, 1793, states: 'We have thirty large May Duke cherry trees behind the house and three standard peach trees which supplied us last Autumn for tarts and desserts during six weeks, besides the numbers the young men eat.' This was at Niagara. The records of the agricultural exhibitions indicate that there was a gradual extension of fruit-growing. Importations of new varieties were made, Rochester, in New York State, apparently being the chief place from which nursery stock was obtained. Here and there through the province gentlemen having some leisure and the skill to experiment were beginning to take an interest in their gardens and to produce new varieties. On January 19, 1859, a few persons met in the board-room of the Mechanics' Hall at Hamilton and organized a fruit-growers' association for Upper Canada. Judge Campbell was elected president; Dr Hurlbert, first vice-president; George Leslie, second vice-president; Arthur Harvey, secretary. The members of this association introduced new varieties and reported on their success. They were particularly active in producing such new varieties as were peculiarly suitable to the climate. For nine years they maintained their organization and carried on their work unaided and unrecognized officially.

To this period belongs also the first attempts at special instruction in agriculture and the beginning of an agricultural press. Both are intimately connected with the association, already referred to, that had been organized in 1846 by some of the most progressive citizens.

For four years the Provincial Association carried on its work and established itself as a part of the agricultural life of Canada West. In 1850 the government stepped in and established a board of agriculture as the executive of the association. Its objects were set out by statute and funds were to be provided for its maintenance. The new lines of work allotted to it were to collect agricultural statistics, prepare crop reports, gather information of general value and to present the same to the legislature for publication, and to co-operate with the provincial university in the teaching of agriculture and the carrying on of an experimental or illustrative farm. Professor George Buckland was appointed to the chair of agriculture in the university in January 1851 and an experimental farm on a small scale was laid out on the university grounds. Professor Buckland acted also as secretary to the board until 1858, when he resigned and was succeeded by Hugh C. Thomson. He continued his work for some years at the university, and was an active participant in all agricultural matters up to the time of his death in 1885.

Provision having been made for agricultural instruction at the university, the board in 1859 decided to establish a course in veterinary science, and at once got into communication with Professor Dick of the Veterinary College at Edinburgh, Scotland. In 1862 a school was opened in Toronto under the direction of Professor Andrew Smith, recently arrived from Edinburgh.

The British American Cultivator was established in 1841 by Eastwood and Co. and W. G. Edmundson, with the latter as editor. It gave place in 1849 to the Canadian Agriculturist, a monthly journal edited and owned by George Buckland and William M^cDougall. This was the official organ of the board till the year 1864, when George Brown began the publication of the Canada Farmer with the Rev. W. F. Clark as editor-in-chief and D. W. Beadle as horticultural editor. The board at once recognized it, accepted it as their representative, and the Canadian Agriculturist ceased publication in December 1863.

The half-century of British immigration, 1816 to 1867, had wrought a wonderful change. From a little over a hundred thousand the population had grown to a million and a half; towns and cities had sprung into existence; commercial enterprises had taken shape; the construction of railways had been undertaken; trade had developed along new lines; the standards of living had materially changed; and great questions, national and international, had stirred the people and aroused at times the bitterest political strife. The changed standards of living can best be illustrated by an extract from an address delivered in 1849 by Sheriff Ruttan. Referring to the earlier period, he said:

Students of Canadian history will at once recall the story of the Rebellion of 1837, the struggle for constitutional government, the investigation by Lord Durham, the repeal of the preferential wheat duties in England, the agitation for Canadian independence, and other great questions that so seriously disturbed the peace of the Canadian 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.