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 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, seven miles west of Toronto. Before work could be commenced, however, the life of the legislature closed and a new government came into office in 1871 with Archibald M^cKellar as commissioner of Agriculture and Arts. New governments feel called upon to promote new measures. There were rumours and suggestions that the soil of the Mimico farm was productive of thistles and better adapted to brick-making than to the raising of crops. Also the location was so close to Toronto that it was feared that the attractions of the city would tend to make the students discontented with country life. For various reasons a change of location was deemed desirable, and a committee of farmer members of the legislature was appointed. Professor Miles, of the Michigan Agricultural College, was engaged to give expert advice; other locations were examined, and finally Moreton Lodge Farm, near Guelph, was purchased. After some preliminary difficulties, involving the assistance of a sheriff or bailiff, possession was obtained, and the first class for instruction in agricultural science and practice, consisting of thirty-one pupils in all, was opened on June 1, 1874, with William Johnston as rector or principal. Thus was established the Ontario School of Agriculture, now known as the Ontario Agricultural College. Its annual enrolment has grown to over fifteen hundred, and it is now recognized as the best-equipped and most successful institution of its kind in the British Empire. Its development along practical lines and its recognition as a potent factor in provincial growth were largely due to Dr James Mills, who was appointed president of the college in 1879, and filled that position until January 1904, when he was appointed to the Dominion Board of Railway Commissioners. Under his direction farmers' institutes were established in Ontario in 1884. Dr Mills was succeeded by Dr G. C. Creelman as president.

The next important step in agricultural advancement was the appointment in 1880 of the Ontario Agricultural Commission 'to inquire into the agricultural resources of the Province of Ontario, the progress and condition of agriculture therein and matters connected therewith.' The commission consisted of S. C. Wood, then commissioner of Agriculture (chairman), Alfred H. Dymond (secretary), and sixteen other persons representative of the various agricultural interests, including the president and ex-president of the Agricultural and Arts Association, Professor William Brown of the Agricultural College, the master of the Dominion Grange, the president of the Entomological Society, and two members of the legislature, Thomas Ballantyne and John Dryden. In 1913 there were but two survivors of this important commission, J. B. Aylesworth of Newburgh, Ont., and Dr William Saunders, who, after over twenty years' service as director of the Dominion Experimental Farms, had resigned office in 1911. All parts of the province were visited and information was gathered from the leading farmers along the lines laid down in the royal commission. In 1881 the report was issued in five volumes. It was without doubt the most valuable commission report ever issued in Ontario, if not in all Canada. Part of it was reissued a second and a third time, and for years it formed the Ontario farmer's library. Even to this day it is a valuable work of reference, containing as it does a vast amount of practical information and forming an invaluable source of agricultural history.

The first outcome of this report was the establishment, in 1882, by the government of the Ontario bureau of Industries, an organization for the collection and publication of statistics in connection with agriculture and allied industries. Archibald Blue, who now occupies the position of chief officer of the census and statistics branch of the Dominion service, was appointed the first secretary of the bureau.

Agriculture continued to expand, and associations for the protection and encouragement of special lines increased in number and in importance. Thus there were no fewer than three vigorous associations interested in dairying: the Dairymen's Association of Eastern Ontario, and the Dairymen's Association of Western Ontario, which were particularly interested in the cheese industry, and the Ontario Creameries Association, which was interested in butter manufacture. There were poultry associations, a beekeepers' association, and several live stock associations. From time to time the suggestion was made that the work of these associations, and that of the Agriculture and Arts Association and of the bureau of Industries, should be co-ordinated, and a strong department of Agriculture organized under a minister of Agriculture holding a distinct portfolio in the Ontario cabinet. Provision for this was made by the legislature in 1888, and in that year Charles Drury was appointed the first minister of Agriculture. The bureau of Industries was taken as the nucleus of the department, and Archibald Blue, the secretary, was appointed deputy minister.

We have referred to the reaction that took place in Ontario agriculture after the close of the American Civil War and the abrogation of the reciprocity treaty. The high prices of the Crimean War period had long since disappeared, the market to the south had been narrowed, and the Western States were pouring into the East the cheap grain products of a rich virgin soil. Agricultural depression hung over the province for years. Gradually, however, through the early eighties the farmers began to recover their former prosperous condition, sending increasing shipments of barley, sheep, horses, eggs, and other commodities to the cities of the Eastern States, so that at the close of the period to which we are referring agricultural conditions were of a favourable and prosperous nature.