BRITISH COLUMBIA : 47

Sheep raising is another of British Columbia’s profitable branches of Agriculture.

While the province is capable of raising all the beef, mutton and pork
for home consumption, imports have been enormous. During 1910 there
were imported into the province, horses and cattle to the value of $4,000,000,
Swine, live and dressed, to the value of $546,210, Sheep, live and dressed,
to the value of $373,700. A careful estimate of the value of agricultural
productions for the last year places it at $8,000,000 or $3,000,000 less than
the value of the products imported, thus showing the need for an increased
home supply for the market and the splendid opportunities for parties
interested in these industries. The parts of the province particularly
adapted to cattle raising are the interior plateaux, the Upper Columbia
and Kootenay River Valleys, the Fraser River Valley, though there is
scarcely a district in which the keeping of a few head will not pay well,
for the high prices prevailing justify. stall feeding. The development of
irrigation should stimulate the cattle industry, and make the province
self-supporting in regard to beef.

Sheep raising is another branch of agriculture capable of great ex-
pansion. At present southern Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands are
the chief producers, but nearly all the localities in the Interior are suitable
for sheep raising.

Hogs, in.small farming, are probably the most profitable of live stock,
owing to the general demand for pork, bacon, ham and lard, and much
attention is now being given to raising them. Prices are always high, so
that the farmer can never make a mistake in keeping a small drove of pigs.
The breeds which mature the earliest are the Berkshire and Poland China.

The demand for good horses, especially draught and working animals,
is always increasing, and the prices are consequently high. Formerly
horses were raised in great numbers in the interior without much attention
to their quality. The quality of horses has been much improved of late,
however, and although the “‘cayuse”’, the native pony, will always be
prized for its hardihood and endurance, the tendency everywhere 1s for
the better class of animal. The horses exhibited at the annual provincial
exhibition at New Westminster compare favourably with those of any
country in the world.