No. 10.-REPORT OF THE MEDICAL SUPERINTENDENT at Grosse ISLE :

No. 12.-REPORT OF INSPECTING PHYSICIAN AT PARTRIDGE ISLAND:

Inspection of Vessels

Grounds and Buildings

Statement of Expenditure

No. 13.-REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES OF MARINE AND EMIGRANT HOSPITAL:

Financial Report and Remarks

Summary of Patients Returns

Details of Expenditure

Returns of the Hospitals..

Medical Report.....

REPORT

OF THE

MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE

OF THE

DOMINION OF CANADA,

FOR THE YEAR 1869.

To His Excellency the Right Honorable SIR JOHN YOUNG, Bart., Governor General of Canada, &c., &c., &c.

MAY IT PLEASE YOUR EXCELLENCY:

I have the honor to submit the present Report of the Department of Agriculture, for the period included in the Calendar year 1869.

Your Excellency having been pleased to appoint me to preside over this Department on the 16th of November, 1869, it follows, that the greater part of this Report refers to matters which have taken place under the direction of my predecessor in office, the Honorable Mr. Chapais.

I. GENERAL REMARKS.

The part directly taken by the Department in the legislation of 1869, was the preparation and presentation of the three following important measures :

An Act respecting Immigration and Immigrants.

An Act respecting Patents of Invention.

An Act respecting Contagious Diseases affecting animals.

By the first of the above-mentioned statutes, the concurrent jurisdiction given to the General and Local Governments as regards Immigration, by the 95th section of the "British North America Act" was defined, in pursuance of arrangements arrived at, in a conference of delegates from the Executive of the said Governments.

No changes or increase of the Head Quarters Staff of the Department have taken place, although the labours have steadily increased at a ratio, on the whole, about equal to that pointed out by my predecessor in his Report for 1868, as shewn in the following tabular statement continued from the said last-mentioned Report:

As was remarked in the last Departmental Report already mentioned, the requirement of this additional work has been met at the expense of the Statistical Branch, now reduced to only two clerks, who even oftentimes are called upon to undertake to do other

work.

II.—IMMIGRATION.

The immigration of the year 1869 has been still in excess of the large immigration of 1868; and when discriminating between the figures expressing the number of emigrants who have entered the country by the St. Lawrence and those who have made their appearance through the inland ports, there appears a still greater increase in favor of the St. Lawrence route. The following are the comparative figures of the total number of emigrants who have passed through our territory, after arrival at Quebec, by way of the St. Lawrence :

The following is a statement of the total emigration which for the last four years has entered Canada by each of the respective ports of Quebec, Halifax, St. John, N.B., and Miramichi, and via the Suspension Bridge and Inland Agencies :

1866. 1867. 1868. 1869. 28,648 30,757 34,300 43,114

As usual, these emigrants divide themselves into two distinct categories, composed of those who only make use of our travelling routes to go and settle in the Western States of the neighbouring Republic, and of those who report themselves or are booked as intending settlers for Canada.

The following is a statement of the relative numbers appertaining to each of these two categories for each of the last four years

Out of the latter number 17,202 in 1869, are stated to have settled in the Province of Ontario, 503 in the Province of Quebec, 477 in the Province of New Brunswick, and 448 in the Province of Nova Scotia.

Little reliance, however, can be placed upon the accuracy of these figures; the data upon which they are based are imperfect, and, in some instances, conjectural. In former reports, emanating from the Department, allusion is made to the difficulty experi enced in obtaining exact information on this subject.

The greatest and nearly insurmountable difficulty of procuring such statistical returns arises from the fact that emigrants are constantly moving, after their arrival at any given locality, after having reported themselves as intending settlers for Canada, and after sojourning sometime in the country, may take their departure for the States without being noticed.

There is no way of ascertaining the nationalities of emigrants arriving by the inland ports, nor is there any of determining the trades and callings of the male adults of the same class of emigrants, their intercourse with the agents, even when it occurs, being of the very briefest nature; but, owing to the regularity of the transport service of the ships carrying emigrants to the Port of Quebec, it is possible to collect such information for the latter class.

The following is the indication of nationalities of the 43,114 emigrants who have been attended to by the Quebec Agency, viz. :

The following is a summary of the trades and callings of the male adults of the steerage emigrants attended to by the Quebec Agency :

Out of the number of emigrants landed at Quebec, a large proportion of those who were intending settlers for Canada belonged to the class of English mechanics or laborers thrown out of employment by the scarcity of labor in the mother country : 6,200 of these poor people were, during the calendar year 1869, recipients of aid, through the ministration of the Quebec Agency, in the form of inland passages to their first destinations.

The total sum granted and paid by the Dominion Government in favor of poor emigrants, has amounted in round figures to $15,000 during the calendar year 1869.

The way the system is carried on between the Dominion and the Provincial Governments as regards that class of destitute emigrants, may be thus summarily described :On arriving at the port of disembarcation, the immigrants are asked which of the places, where there are agencies, they have selected for the place of their primary destination,