Agriculture

Agriculture, as one of the staple industries of Canada from the seventeenth century to the present, constitutes one of the primary curatorial subjects within the Museum. Canadian technological innovations, machines and agricultural research achievements are reflected in the artifact collection and through exhibits and programs presented at the Canada Agriculture Museum. Research and collection development emphasizes the late nineteenth and the twentieth centuries when technological change and science applied to agriculture combined to make Canada one of the world's major producers of food, particularly cereal grains and dairy products, and for a time in the early twentieth century a major world producer of agricultural machinery.

Agriculture is closely linked to several other curatorial areas: industry, in relation to the processing of agricultural products, and transportation, in terms of the movement and marketing of agricultural products.

Primary Divisions and Guiding Principles

Agriculture at the Canada Science and Technology Museum includes the following primary divisions:

• land improvement
• power sources
• cultivation
• crop handling, processing and protection
• dairying
• animal husbandry

Canada is the largest country in the world, with an area of 10 000 000 km². While most of this area is unsuited to agriculture, farms do occupy 686 000 km², making Canada a major world producer and exporter of food. Canadian farms are spread unevenly within distinct geographic regions stretching from the Atlantic Maritimes, through the St. Lawrence valley and lower Great Lakes, across the western prairies and parkland and in interior lowlands and coastal valleys of British Columbia. Soil type, rainfall amounts and length of growing season have largely determined which of four basic types of agriculture are found in each region. The four main types of farms in Canada are: grain, livestock, combination grain and livestock, and special crops. The intent of the Canada Science and Technology Museum's agriculture program is to focus on representative types of agricultural production to illustrate how science and technology, with special but not exclusive reference to Canada, have transformed the lives of people. Although the program and collection provide a synoptic overview, emphasis is placed upon the post-1850 period when agriculture was rapidly transformed, through applied technological and scientific innovation, from mere subsistence practices to those required for a market economy. The mandate of the Canada Science and Technology Museum also provides a special opportunity to study and interpret agriculture in close conjunction with related transportation and industrial technologies.

Agriculture Collection

The agriculture collection consists of 2 300 artifacts that illustrate the six primary subject areas, eight minor subject areas, an extensive agricultural trade literature collection, and a specialized photograph collection dealing with the Canadian Agricultural Experimental Farms. The collection nucleus was the former Agriculture Canada and National Museum collections acquired in 1967. Since that time acquisitions have added quality and depth to areas such as tillage equipment, harvest equipment, power sources, dairying and land improvement. Within each of these areas there are individual artifacts recognized as among the most important in Canada.

Special topics which have been the focus of past and present museum exhibits also are worthy of note in terms of the size and quality of the artifact collection. These include artifact collections related to haying and forage crops, potato farming, poultry, grain harvesting and corn production. The collection continues to grow slowly and to be carefully refined with acquisitions representative of modern Canadian agricultural practice and scientific innovation in agriculture.

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