Successful Initiatives 207

The federal Department of Agriculture made the first move. The government representative for the dairy industry, Dr. James W. Robertson, came to the Island in 1890 to preach the virtues of dairy farming. He explained to the farmers the advantages of producing butter and cheese on a commercial .scale. Rather than selling grain, it should be kept as feed to produce profitable quantities of milk. The manure could be used as fertilizer*'. The basic concept was to complete the natural cycle by putting back the nutrients that cultiva- tion had removed from the soil.

The federal government made a concrete commitment to launch the new industry. Under the direction of Dr. Robertson, the govern- ment helped farmers get together to organize and build cheese and butter factories. It became directly involved in these processing plants by providing construction grants, making sure the personnel was properly trained and finding markets for the products. The direction and assistance provided by the federal government proved to be highly beneficial. The first cheese factory was constructed in 1892. Ten years later there were forty-four throughout the province*.

As a result of the growing interest in farming, the provincial government founded its own Department of Agriculture in 1901% which intervened at once by providing the farmers with numerous assistance programs designed to make their operations profitable. The federal government again made a substantial contribution to the im- provement of agriculture by establishing an experimental farm in Charlottetown in 1909**, All these measures were greatly appreciated by farmers. A correspondent from Egmont Bay wrote in L’Impartial in 1905:

If agriculture as a science remained for such a long time in obscurity, it was because our people were not supported by government as they are today. (TR)**

Acadians actually profited from the help provided by the Depart- ments of Agriculture. In Rustico they joined together with the farmers in the surrounding English villages to found, in 1894, the New Glasgow cheese factory®®. Similarly, the farmers in Egmont Bay and Mont Carmel turned to dairy farming and co-operated in the construction of a cheese factory in Abram’s Village in 1896°’. The Acadian farmers and their English-speaking neighbours did likewise in Tignish and Palmer