HISTORY OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE - CANADA

The Early Years 1867-1900

Time is relative. In the life of the Universe a hundred years is but the briefest moment; with the Canada Department of Agriculture a century comprehends the  whole period of its existence. During that span of years the Department has grown from a handful of clerks in an Ottawa office to a great army of experts, trained in every branch of agricultural science and supported by an organization that serves the agricultural industry in all parts of Canada. In 1867 the Departmental staff numbered 27. Fifty years later more than 1,000 were employed, exclusive of laborers. Today some 11,000 serve the Department; a fifth of this number are trained professionals. On the threshold of its second century the Department of Agriculture can look back on its accomplishments with some pride and face the future with confidence in its ability to serve an expanding and increasingly complex industry.

The history of any organization is largely the story of events in relation to time and place. A straight chronology will tell of the happenings but it does little to illuminate the circumstances and conditions of the times. This account attempts to record the major events in the life of the Department during the past one hundred years and to describe the situations that prompted adoption of certain policies, their impact on the industry, and the public reaction to them.

The story seems to separate itself naturally into five parts, although there is a certain amount of overlapping. The first covers the period from Confederation to the end of the Century. During these years a start was made on an animal health program; experiments in agricultural practices were being conducted by the Experimental Farms; and dairying and livestock were receiving attention.

The second period, from 1900 to the end of the First World War, saw the enactment of the basic legislation under which the Department now operates. Branch experimental farms were established in all the provinces. The Department made important contributions to the war effort, and activities extraneous to agriculture were sloughed off.

In the third period, up to 1937, the completion of the organization under the Branch structure was accomplished. Staff and program expanded, with a more positive approach to scientific research. The first marketing legislation was passed, and the economics of agriculture began to receive more attention. Toward the end of the period, massive new programs were required to rehabilitate the agricultural industry that had been ravaged by prolonged drought and world-wide depression. The fourth period begins with the reorganization into Services and covers the immediate pre-war and wartime years. During this time tremendous expansion of Departmental activity occurred. Rehabilitation programs were broadened, advances in mechanization facilitated increased production, and new marketing practices were adopted.

In the post-war years new research establishments sprang up all across the country. Measures for the stabilization of prices, for expanded credit, crop insurance, and for other forms of assistance, were added to the list of Departmental responsibilities, along with the work of the Board of Grain Commissioners. And on top of all this, a regrouping of the forces within the Department sought to bring them in tune with the needs of today.

The New Century 1900-1919

When the 20th Century opened there were still only three branches dealing with agriculture in the Department -Veterinary, Experimental Farms, and Dairy - but expansion was not long in coming. These were the years when European immigrants, lured by the prospect of free land, flocked to the Western Prairies. Thus, some 20 years after the establishment of the five original Experimental Farms, the need for additional ones became apparent, particularly in the West where the two new provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan had just joined Confederation.

New stations in Alberta were located at Lethbridge in 1906; at Lacombe in 1907; and at Fort Vermillion in 1908, the last on leased land. Stations at Rosthern, Sask., and Charlottetown, P.E.I., were opened in 1909; and at Scott, Sask., Ste. Anne de la Pocatière, Que., and Kentville, N.S., in 1910. In 1911 the Cap Rouge, Que., and Invermere, B.C., stations were started. A Tobacco Branch had been organized in 1905 for the purpose of encouraging and assisting the development of the tobacco industry in Canada. Felix Charlan, an officer of the French Government, was brought to Canada to take charge of the Branch. In 1912 the work of this Branch was transferred to the Experimental Farms organization, becoming the Tobacco Division. Included in the transfer were the tobacco stations at Farnham, Que., and Harrow, Ont. During the same year Experimental Stations were open at Frederict[i]on, N.B., and Saanichton, B.C., while a plant pathology laboratory was opened at St. Catharines, Ont., to work on fruit diseases. At this time, too, the Agriculturist's Division at the Central Experimental Farm was split into Animal Husbandry and Field Husbandry. New stations were added in 1914 at Summerland, B.C., Morden, Man., and Lennoxville, Que.; and some experimental work was begun at Beaverlodge, Alta. In the following year stations were started at Kapuskasing, Ont., and La Ferme, Que.; and plant pathology laboratories were opened at Charlottetown and Fredericton. More laboratories were added at Brandon and Indian Head in 1916 to study crop diseases. The divisional structure of the Experimental Farms Branch was further increased by the addition of the Illustration Stations Division in 1915 and the Economic Fibre Division in 1916.

The Inter-War Period 1919-1937

The Branch type of organization that had obtained since the early days of the Department was still in effect at the beginning of the inter-war period. Following the conclusion of the war, the Department gradually returned to its peacetime activities. New lines of work were undertaken and a considerable amount of legislation was passed, with emphasis on the grading of agricultural products. Experimental work reached out into new areas and the Department became involved in assistance programs necessitated by bad weather and general economic depression.Dr. J. H. Grisdale, who had served as Director of the Experimental Farms Branch since 1911, was appointed Deputy Minister in 1919 and was succeeded as Director by Dr. E. S. Archibald. Under Dr. Archibald's direction the efforts of the organization were aimed more particularly at intensive investigation carried through with scientific precision. To carry out tb is program botanical laboratories were established at branch farms and elsewhere, and new experiment stations and substations were opened. In 1920, the first of these, a station at Swift Current, Sask., was opened to study the problems of dryland farming. The tobacco station at Harrow was expanded into a regular station in 1923 and in the same year the Division of Agricultural Bacteriology was added at the Central Experimental Farm.The Range Experiment Station at Manyberries, Alta., dates from 1926; the station at L'Assomption, Que., from 1928. A substation at Regina was established in 1931 and in the same year the forage plants laboratory at Saskatoon was organized in co-operation with the University of Saskatchewan.

The following year work with flue-cured tobacco was begun at Delhi, in the new tobacco belt of southwestern Ontario. Melfort in northeastern Saskatchewan saw a new station opened there in 1935, and at Normandin, Que., a new station to serve the Lake St. John district replaced an earlier one at La Ferme.

From Depression to War 1937-1945

In 1937 the Department underwent the first major reorganization since its beginning. The old structure, made up of Branches, was superseded by a regrouping into Services on a functional basis. The stated purpose of the reorganization was "to bring under one administrative head services similar in character and purpose in the broad fields of activity, with respect to the marketing of different agricultural products, their production from a national standpoint, and the experimental and scientific work in connection therewith." Each Service was headed by a Director. Under this new set-up a Marketing Service was responsible for all the activities of the Department relative to the marketing of agricultural products under grades. Included in this Service were: Fruit and Vegetable Division, the former Fruit Branch; Dairy Products Division, the former Dairy and Cold Storage Branch, less the work of the Research Laboratory; Livestock and Livestock Products Division, comprising the market and grading elements of the former Livestock Branch; Economics Division, formerly the Economics Branch; and two new sections, Markets Information, to co-ordinate market reporting; Consumer, to promote the use of Canadian agricultural food products.

A Production Service assumed responsibility for all aspects of Production. It comprised the following Divisions: Health of Animals, including all elements of the former Branch of that name except the work of animal disease research; Livestock and Poultry, embracing the production aspects of the former Livestock Branch;Plant Products, formerly the Seed Branch; Plant Protection, including plant inspection work and the work of the Foreign Pests Suppression Division of the Entomological Branch.

Years of Progress 1945-1966

STRUCTURAL CHANGES

The 20-year period after the Second World War saw tremendous changes in the Department of Agriculture. Activities associated with the prosecution of the war were gradually wound up. The Agricultural Supplies Board did not operate beyond 1947 but a number of its programs were continued under regular Departmental policies, for example, the freight assistance on Western feed grains. The Meat Board, Dairy Products Board, and Special Products Board, established originally under wartime legislation, were re-established under the Agricultural Products Act. By 1951 these three Boards had also disappeared. Within the Department proper, completely new fields of activity were opened up. A notable development was the launching of an extensive program of new laboratory construction by the Science Service, both in Ottawa and in the field. The program was begun in 1950, and new facilities were provided annually for a number of years thereafter. Organizational changes in the Science Service involved the transfer to Production Service of the Animal Pathology Division in 1952 and the Plant Protection Division in 1956. In the Marketing Service, in 1955, the Poultry Section of the Livestock and Livestock Products Division was separated from that Division and established as a Poultry Products Division.

The greatest change, however, came in April, 1959, when the structure of the Department underwent the first major reorganization in over 20 years, and new concepts were brought to bear on the solution of agricultural problems. In the new setup all the research and experimental activities were grouped together in one unit; the production and marketing functions were combined to form a second unit; and the administrative functions were brought together in a third unit. The term Branch, associated with the original Departmental organization, was re-employed to designate these units as Research Branch, Production and Marketing! Branch, and Administration Branch. The Research Branch comprised the former establishments of the Experimental Farms Service and the Science Service. Instead of the former breakdown into Divisions, the new structure embraced Research Institutes, Regional Laboratories, and Branch Farms, as complete research units to deal with specific problems. A program Directorate, composed of senior scientists, was provided to assist in the development and co-ordination of the research program to be conducted by these Institutes, Laboratories, and Farms. Coincident with the expansion of the physical facilities for research came a team approach to problems. The new laboratories were staffed by scientists representing a number of disciplines so that all aspects of a problem could be attacked in concert at one location. Greater responsibility for the research program was given to the Directors of the various research establishments. But the objective of the Research Branch continued to be that of the former Services -- the solving of important problems of Canadian agriculture. Within the Production and Marketing Branch the divisional structure was retained. The Branch was formed by the amalgamation of the establishments of the Production and Marketing Services, plus the Agricultural Stabilization Board, and the deletion of the Economics Division. The Livestock and Poultry Division of the Production Service disappeared, with the poultry work being added to the Poultry Products Division and the remaining functions to the Livestock and Livestock Products Division. The Administration Branch comprised the Departmental administrative units, including the staffs of the Minister's and Deputy Minister's offices, along with the Economics Division and the Information Service, the latter to be known as the Information Division.In the following years several other changes were made. In 1960, the Forest Biology Division of the Research Branch was separated from the Department of Agriculture and transferred to the Department of Forestry. This marked the conclusion of many years of association between entomologists in the Department of Agriculture and the problems of insect control in the forests of Canada. Although references to control of certain forest insects appear in early reports of the Entomological Branch, it was not until 1919 that a Division of Forest Insects was set up within the Branch. Thirty-two years later, in 1951, the Division of Forest Biology was established to deal with the combined problems of insect and fungus pests of the forest. Although its separation from Agriculture became effective in October of 1960, arrangements were made for liaison between the two departments in entomology, mycology, and biological control. A new development in 1962 was the establishment within the Research Branch of a Food Research Institute. This was formed by combining the elements of three other Institutes all having to do with some aspect of food technology. Function of the new Institute was to study the characteristics of plant and animal products that affect food quality and consumer acceptance; to determine physical, chemical and biological changes in foods during storage and processing; and to develop new principles in food processing and new types of processed agricultural products. In association with the new Institute, a Food Research Information Office was established to make available the results. Further changes in the structure of the Department were made late in 1962. The former Production and Marketing Branch was split into two, the Production and Marketing Branch and the Health of Animals Branch. The latter Branch comprised three Divisions: Contagious Diseases, Meat Inspection, and Animal Pathology. The administration of the Research Branch was again reorganized in April, 1964. Involved was the appointment of Assistant Directors General whose designated areas of responsibility were: research establishments in Ontario, Ouebec, and the Atlantic Provinces; establishments in the Western Provinces and the North; advisory, liaison, and service activities; and Research Institutes. Effective July 31, 1964. the Economics Division was raised to the status of a Branch, bringing to five the number of Branches within the Departmental organization. The new Branch has a Farm Economic Services Division and a Marketing and Trade Services Division. For many years the regulation of the Canadian grain trade had been a matter for the Department of Trade and Commerce. The Board of Grain Commissioners, the body that controls and supervises the handling of grain under the authority of the Canada Grain Act, had been an adjunct to the Trade Department but in November, 1960, it was brought under the authority of the Minister of Agriculture. Similarly, the Canadian Wheat Board, the selling agency for western grain, bad since its inception reported to Parliament through the Minister of Trade and Commerce but it, too, was transferred to Agriculture. Thus, for the first time, all aspects of the grain business from production to ultimate disposal became the responsibility of a single department of government -- Agriculture. At present the Wheat Board reports through the Minister of Finance.

in http://collections.ic.gc.ca/ adapted and edited to be posted by Leopoldo Costa.