James Parr, Cartwright, Durham : Prices are so low that people feel discouraged and are not putting their cattle up.

C. A. Mallory, Percy, Northumberland: Sheep are becoming scarce. better than sheep, with the low price for wool.

Farmers find that cattle pay

Louis P. Hubbs, Hillier, Prince Edward: There has been a vast improvement both in the stock and in the way of keeping them. All kinds look well.

A. Knight, Kingston, Frontenac : There is a heavy supply. Prices rule low.

G. F. Deane, Lansdowne, Leeds: Stock are thin, owing to excessive moisture and cool weather.

John B. Wilson, Lansdowne, Leeds: Fall pasture has been fairly good, but not the best, as the weather has been too cold for good growth. Live stock of all kinds seem to be in fair condition. Hogs are being well fatted owing to the low price of grain.

S. Chalmers, Wolford, Grenville: Cattle sold well, and a good many have been sold.

A. M. Campbell, Kenyon, Glengarry: Large quantities of sheep and lambs were sold for the Boston market.

Kenneth McLennan, Lochiel, Glengarry: There are plenty of cattle and hogs for sale, but the demand is not good.

Wm. Ferguson, West Hawkesbury, Prescott; Pastures were never known to be so bad as they have been this season all through.

R. Serson, Fitzroy, Carleton: From what I saw at the fall fairs, cattle are in poor condition, and very poor prices were realized.

W. H. Berry, March, Carleton: Pastures are not very good, the weather on the whole having been cold and dry. Stock are in fair condition.

A. Schultz, Sebastopol, Renfrew: The supplies are here all right, but we don't see the market.

F. Train, Somerville, Victoria: This part of the country is more adapted for raising stock--sheep and cattle-than for grain, as it cannot be beat for oats, hay and roots; and a great number of the farmers are turning their attention to stock raising and importing good Durham and Polled Angus males and good breeds of sheep. Cattle this year are very cheap and farmers are letting them all go, being afraid of running short of feed, as they did last year; but Ibelieve it will be better to have them cleaned out, as they are of ar interior breed, and better stock, if fewer of them, will take their place.

John Fell, sr., Somerville, Victoria: Live stock are not in as good a condition as usual. They were very thin in the spring, and this retarded their improvement.

Hamilton Spence, Dummer, Peterborough: Pastures are very short and cattle are very thin, but sheep, are in good condition; pigs are fair, but very few are raised for market.

William Armstrong, Otonabee, Peterborough: There is not much preparation for stall-feeding, as the prospects of remunerative prices are very gloomy. Farmers are selling their hogs off the stubble for what they will bring.

James Tindle, Smith, Peterborough: There is plenty of stock of all kinds, but I think many animalwill be slaughtered in a half-fed condition, as there is no expectation of paying prices.

frost.

A. Southworth, Cardiff, Haliburton: Pastures are very bare, having been eaten by grasshoppers. Stephen Kettle, Glamorgan, Haliburton: There has been but light growth in the pastures owing to

Donale Grant, Monck, Muskoka: There is a good supply of all sorts of live stock, but hardly any market. It is hard to sell anything this fall.

CHEESE.

The results of the past year's operations in cheese making have been rather unsatisfactory. Of late years the profitableness of this industry has stimulated a largely increasing production. Factories have been springing up in all parts of the country, and, by affording farmers an easy and remunerative means of disposing of their milk, have tended to displace the old system of home dairying. This expansion, promoted as it has been during the past year by generally good pasturage, and accompanied by a weakened demand both at home and abroad, has resulted in a considerable drop in prices, so that at the close of the season there were large stocks of cheese in the country waiting for a market. The prevailing feeling among dairymen, however, is that this inactivity is only temporary, and that the Canadian cheese industry, which has attained such enormous proportions, must soon revive with a return of an active foreign demand; therefore there is no diminution in the number of factories in operation. The following table shows the.

7—(B. I.)

total number of factories in the Province, and estimated quantities of milk used, quantities and values of the product, etc., for 1883, 1884 and 1885, together with the various averages for the three years:

These comparisons afford a very clear and striking view of the great fall in values that has occurred. The average price per pound obtained last year was but a trifle over eight cents, a much lower rate than has ruled in any of the years for which the Bureau has received returns. While the number of factories in operation in 1885 was practically the same as in 1884, their production amounted to over 4 million pounds more, and yet the aggregate value of the greater product was upwards of $1,200,000 less than that of the smaller product of the preceding year.

The following statements are compiled from direct returns made to the Bureau by the factories themselves :

It is to be regretted that, as these returns are not compulsory, more than a third of the total number of factories neglect to send them, and the number sent last year was a little under that of the year before. Incomplete as they are, however, they no doubt represent pretty accurately the general condition of the cheese industry, and form reliable data from which to compute the total product of the country, as in the first table, the

number of factories in operation being known. The increased number of patrons, notwithstanding the smaller number of factories reporting, indicates the degree to which the pursuit of dairying is extending among the farmers; yet, owing to the prevailing low prices, the average return of money to each patron was $50 less last year than the year before, and nearly $30 less than the average of the three past years. The effect of the fine pasturage of the year is seen in the yield of milk as well as the product of cheese per cow, both of which were above the

average.

The following returns of the year's operations by counties, from the principal cheesemaking districts of Eastern and Western Ontario respectively, form a basis for some interesting comparisons:

These figures are for factories which furnish complete data only. The following comparisons of averages, covering the past three years, relate to the same counties:

The western counties, with 2,765 fewer cows than the eastern, produced 5,378,207 lbs. more milk. Of this difference, however, over 2,000,000 lbs. are accounted for by the two working days enjoyed by the west above the number in the east. On the other hand, the cheese-producing quality of the eastern milk surpasses that of the western; for, though less in quantity, both per cow and in the total product, it yielded 75,554 lbs. more cheese; or, to make the comparison more definite, a pound of cheese was made from 10.1012 lbs. of milk in the east against 10.4660 lbs. in the west. This difference, however, between the two districts appears to be diminishing; in 1884 it was about one-twentieth of a pound less than in 1883, and in 1885 it was about one-tenth of a pound less than in 1884, the difference last year being only a little over one-third of a pound of milk. In connection with this part of the comparison it should be noted that in the product per cow, of cheese as well as of milk, the west somewhat surpasses the east. Thus, while the milk of the former district possesses a slight advantage as to quantity, that of the latter appears to have a corresponding advantage in cheese-making properties.

The difference in the price of cheese in the two districts more than deprived the east of the advantage of its larger product, which brought $77,229 less than the product of the west. There was, however, less discrepancy in value last year than the year before; while the average excess in the west per 100 lbs. in 1884 was 61 cents, in 1885 it was but 495 cents. With this difference, the average product of an eastern cow for the season was worth $2.34 less to its owner than that of a western cow.

While the factories are considerably more numerous in the eastern counties than in the western--283 against 227-the individual factories in the latter district are evidently as a rule larger, judging from the averages of milk used and cheese produced, and the average number of patrons and cows to each factory.

The

Some interesting comparisons may be instituted between the different counties. In both 1884 and 1883 Oxford and Middlesex were the only counties in the Province in which the season's yield of milk per cow exceeded the standard of 3000 lbs.; last year Elgin not only joins them but surpasses them both, and that with a smaller number of working days. All three counties, however, enjoyed a season of milk supply considerably longer than the average, and that is what enabled them to make their high record. counties of Wellington, Huron and Bruce exceed the most productive of them in the daily yield of milk per cow. With the same number of working days as Oxford, Wellington and Huron would each have given a return of 3,580 lbs. for the season, and Bruce 3,598 lbs., against Oxford's 3,174 lbs. In 1884 Huron gave the highest average daily yield of milk per cow, 20 lbs; in 1885 it remained at the same figure, but Bruce took the lead with 20.1 lbs. In the season's value of product per cow, Oxford stands first at $25.39, which, though $3.04 more than the provincial average for 1885, is $2.21 less than that of 1884, and $7.41 less than Oxford's own record in that year, when also it headed the list. Elgin came second last year at $25.30, and Middlesex third at $24.89. In eastern Ontario, Hastings came first at $22.56, Dundas second at $21.90, and Leeds and Grenville third at $21.88.

BUTTER.

Farmers were asked last year, as usual, to make reports to the Bureau of the total quantity of butter made by them in 1884; but as many do not keep very accurate record of their product and made no return, the statistics on this subject are necessarily defective. The total quantity given was 31,887,745 lbs., against 32,844,269 lbs., in 1883, bọth of which numbers are certainly far below the mark by probably one-third or more.

The number of creameries reported in operation was 27, being four more than in 1884, and the same number as in 1883. Of these, the number making returns was 13, against 8 in the previous year, and 12 in 1883. The following table gives the statistics in detail of the creameries reporting for 1885, and the totals for the two preceding years: