___________________________Legislative Aa—ably___________________________ A little of what our exhibitors from here had to contend with when they went up there: apparently a lot of this stock, the highest priced stock I think their breed¬ ing in most cases came from the United States, a lot of money involved, rich people involved, it is a hobby in their hearts. They certainly love it and take a great interest in being: there, and one cannot be there and not be interested because it is beyond all I have ever seen. Veterinary services are divided into three main categories. First, the portion pertaining: to subsidized practices, diagnostic laboratories, the artificial breeding program, and the administration of the thirteen artificial breeding clubs. The veter¬ inary services have had a very successful year. There has been an expaasion of services here by granting two new subsidies. One for Montague and one for Char- lottetown. The addition took place in Montague in June, and Charlottetown in Sep¬ tember 1966. The total farm calls reported by practising veterinarians have increased by 2,262 calls. This report is Table One, in the report of the Department of Agricul¬ ture. Meat inspection at our local slaughter houses and the actual carcasses in¬ spected carried out has increased this year by 1,867 for cattle and 3,552 more hogs. This increase was initiated by the Canada Packers strike. Laboratory work Kas been very similar to the previous year with a total of 733 admissions from all classes of livestock as well as the yeast and mould examinations of butter. Calf examinations for cattle were down slightly; swine examinations were up enough to pick up the slack in cattle. Enteritis and digestive problems made up the bulk of these post-mortem examinations. Enteritis is metal the animals pick up and it is in their stomachs and can be quite serious and cause death, but they have various ways of gathering them up, for the information of the members of the House, that possibly are not too much associated with agriculture. They sometimes put a magnet m the animals stomach and all the metals, staples and wires, nails and all the rest of it all stick to the magnet. There is some fur-bearing animal work done as well. We also do diagnostic work on pet dogs, farm dogs; these are nearly all referred to the veterinary and the work load in this respect is reasonably light. I would like to make a few comments on the artificial breeding program. The A.I. Program suffered a severe blow this past summer. We had semen that was poor semen and was distributed in June and July and August during the really heavy breeding season. This resulted in about 50% conception rate which is highly unsatisfactory. I don't know but this might have been contributed to the election. There were a lot of bulls going around ... (Laughter). The rate of conception wasn't too high. L. George Dewar : The First District, I suppose, was completely sterile? Honourable Daniel J. MacDonaM : This time of year the conception rate is 65%, and last year it was 70%. In September the conception rate jumped to 74%. The total number of cattle bred artificially has increased slightly, about three hun¬ dred breedings. I do hope the difficulty with semen this past summer will not alter the use of our artificial insemination. Advancements and bull proving are reaching the stage that we should be able to make better use of proven bulls and improve our dairy animals much quicker. It is very difficult for a small Province to provide these facilities and services but we are mainly an agricultural province with most of our population depending directly or indirectly on agriculture. Perhaps, Mr. Speaker , most of the members are aware we are in this artificial breeding plan in co-operation with the A.I. Breeding Unit in Fredericton , New Brunswick , and this makes it much easier for us. It does mean that some of the better bulls, not only in Canada but outside of Canada are available for breeding purposes in the dairy industry. It certainly gives us a great chance and opportunity to improve our dairy herds on this Island. A few remarks on the Poultry Division. As in past years, a great deal of time was spent at the hatchery supply flocks administering the approved flock policy as well as assistance to Island hatcheries and poultry people when required. Supply flocks for local hatcheries continue to decline as a result of the long period of unfavourable egg prices in 1964 and 1965. Chick hatching at Island hatcheries has declined 14% this year in spite of high egg prices prevailing almost through the —186—