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He warned the Government against, Activities I in condition in the North country which' moting impr might in the immediate future result in agricultural disastrous forest fires such as swept ing the prcsl the North in 1916 and in 1923. All lined by Hor through the North country. he said. to refute tht there was an accumulation of vegetable Liberal Lead matter which in any dry season might Administratit be ignited into It confiagration. He sug- .ing interests. gested that the Government send men culture, tron Into the ttountry early each year to burn, said, gave tn. over trees on through the North. l [mg industry. pad the land of its timber tiiidiiiG moved on. In his opening remarks, continuing the debate, Mr. Slack referred to de- velopments in New Ontario. He sug- gested to the Government that they drain townships before there was set- tlement there. The charges might be made against settlers over a 20 or 30 year period. He thought it unwise to open up new sections tor settlement while cleared land was not already set- tled on. Ae often had .settlers strip- The Opposition voted en bloc for the truttarnendment, and the Conservatives similarly against it. And then they all agreed to consider the same vote "taken" on Mr. Sinclair's amendment and then on the Address. Susanna for North. The vote was first taken on a sub- amendment of John G. Lethbridge. Pro.. gressive Leader, to the amendment ot William E. N. Sinclair. Liberal Leader. While the Sinclair amendment con- demned the Government on the grounds that it neglected to give relief to farm.. ers, the Lethbridge subamendment add- ed to It condemnation for its "failure" to encourage po-operative enterprises. This final day of the debate was a, quiet one. with none of the crossfire that marked the earlier stages. The. end came peacefully. No tension. No, breathless moments on how the vote, mould so. It was just a simple matter; of 65 Conservatives being on hand to, vote, and of the Opposition musterlng§ There was only one other speaker in the wind-up yesterday afternoon, that being t K. Slack (Progressive, Duf- terin). He fired some final shots for the Opposition, aiming most of them, as did his fellows. at the Agricultural Department. Then he had a round or two of criticism for the Government on the subject of the Liquor Control Act. a topic which was the basis of much of the Opposition's censure throughout the debate. Thus it expressed confidence in itself generally. and in its agricultural policy particularly, for, by a similar vote, it killed two Opposition motions which were in the nature of an amendment and a subamendment to the Address, which "condemned" the Government tor "indifference and inactivity in neg- lecting to afford relief" to the farmers ot the Provznce, and for its "failure" to assist in co-operative enterprises. For it was Hon. John S. Martin, Min- ister ot Agriculture, who wound up the debate with a. review of farm condi- tions in the Province and a picture of the undertakings of his department. Scores Liquor Law. With the debate going on intermit- tently during the last three weeks, Op- Position members were bombarding the Government administration in general, but especially its agricultural admini- stration. And, while the Conservatives showed what they thought of this by their solid vote. there was another re- ply to this criticism. NEGLECT 0F FARM RELIEF Carried by Straight Party Split, 65 to 29----Martin "Winds Up" With the Liberal. Progressive and 01.0. members of the Ontario Legisla- ture voting in a solid Opposition block, the Government late yesterday after- noon carried its Address in reply to the Speech from the Throne try a vote of 65 to 29. A FARM nijijijjniu) IN GOVERNMENT Will 9N ADDRESS ill REPLY ilay-- 1:relrsu"urvr-- 2,204 . Mr. Slack had another suggestion for the Government. and that was that they should do something to aid the . potato growers. He observed that in his own district. which had as fine potatoes as any, "thousands of bags go begging." In fact. farmers were feeding six, seven and eight bags a day to their stock. "They can't ship to the Toronto market," said he, "be- cause the freightage runs away with the cost." He thought that the Govern- ment should "make some arrangements with transportation companies to help a He marvelled at the abundant water; ways of the North country that were; the potential sources of great powerct He believed that "there is nothing to prevent the development of that power , to substitute for one-half or two-thirds of the coal that we import from the IfUnited States now. " hope, he said. "that the Government sets machinery. going to develop the water powers in. Northern Ontario and throughout the, a'rovinee. ?Reformatory Segregation. Activities cf the Government in pro- moting improvement in the quality ot agricultural products and thus advanc- ing the prosperity of farmers were out- lined by Hon. J. S. Martin in an effort to refute the charge. contained in the Liberal Leader's amendment, that the Administration had neglected the farm- ing interests. The Department of Agri- culture, from the Minister down, he said, gave the greatest thought to tarm- ' Mr. Slack referred to the trip to Guelph on the previous day. He had noted in his inspection of the Ontario ;Reformatory that many inmates were youths of 18 or 19 years of age. And he had also noted some older men, who looked like "hard cases." And while he commended the administra- 'tion of the reformatory generally, its "s.pick and span" interior, he sug- ,aested that the young boys, who were {not hardened criminals, should at least, in their sleeping quarters, be segregated Irom the older inmates. He pointed out that more money was? spent on liquor than is represented in; the building boom of Toronto over B, year's, perzod, d _ - Hon. Lincoln Goldie, Provincial Sec- retary. stated that "You couldn't seg- regate them throughout the day. I'll admit that there are people there who shouldn't be there possibly. But I'm not the Magistrate or the Judge. After they come there we look after them." In further criticism of the liquor law, he declared: "In our own mu- nicipal Town Hall the caretaker reported that at a dance held there three girls under 18 years of age had been under the influence of liquor. I assure you that will not happen in that particular hall again, as the Municipal Council Ilia?! banned that element from using the a In . us." A good deal of Mr. Slack's address was devoted to the Liquor Control Act. With the large income from this source, he declared. the Government should rev 50 per cent. in the old-age pension scheme. Through the Liquor Control Act the Government would be responsible for many of those who, in the future, would participate in the old-age pension scheme. He advocated that the amount of liquor given to any citizen should be cut down to one quart a week. This (lid not refer to lighter alcoholic bev- erages. like beer. Serial numbers should be put on all bottles as a means of trace-back to its source liquor which had been short-circuited. Girls Under 18 Drunk. ' He pictured a movement off the land instead of on to it. "We are losing thousands of our best settlers," said he. "The Government should do some- thing about this." He pictured one area in his own section of Ontario where 10,000 acres that were being farmed and lived on in 1918 were not occupied today. Most of them were owned by large mortgage companies in Toronto. "The farmers," said he, "don't want bonuses or doles, but something to as- sist them stay the day that the mort- Rage companies are going to foreclose on their mortgages." - _ Mr. Slack stirred the Premier to a characteristic response when he refer- red to the St. Lawrence canal project. He. asked the latter it he proposed that Canada should construct this canal at its own expense, and then allow the Americans to use it. Premier Ferguson offered to answer the question at once. "I am opposed." said he, "to parting with any of the heritage of this country tor a tew paltry dollars.'f_ - - - - Farm Depopulation. will further explanation of the Gov- ernment's policy of encouraging im- provement in quality, Mr. Martin in- stanced butter, which, he said. now commanded a higher price in the To- ronto market than did Danish butter in Great Britain. Cheese and live stock were also mentioned by Mr. Martin in his description of the better markets that had resulted from improved and standardized products. With regard to the latter, he mentioned that at Chi- cago the Ontario live stock breeders had won 58 championship prizes out of a total of 103. Turkeys and Tobacco. "The farmers of Ontario," he next said, "must be business men. They must be able to handle their own at- fairs in a businesslike way. and fall in line with the spirit of the times." In reply to Chris Gardiner (Progres- sive. East Kent) he stated that the Government would be glad to give any assistance possible in a bean pool un- dertaking. He suggested that a duty of $1 a. bushel would revolutionize the bean business. Mr. Martin referred to failures in the Ontario tobacco industry, the chief cause of which was "absence of a qual- ity product." He spoke for a. moment of the turkey farm which the Govern- ment had established. It had paid $5,000 for the farm and last year 966 turkeys had been sold for $4,803. About $1,000 worth of tobacco had also been grown on the farm. Mr. Nixon wondered if the Minister had "any qualms of conscience" in mar- keting products which were the result of the use of taxpayers' money in com- petition with some of those very farmer taxpayers. "We're showing them the way," was Mr. Martin's view. Going on to touch on other agricultural topics, the Min- ister observed: "We are not worrying so much about the comborer. We are on the right track now." The department, said he, was in sym- pathy with co-operative enterprises. but because of some failures in such undertakings its attitude was "to so slowly." However, it was making a study of, and was in close touch with, co-operative movements. "In conclusion," said he, " suggest that it is not in the interest of agri- culture to paint a pessimistic picture at the present time. We have thousands and thousands of young men who are making. and going to make, their de- cision in choosing a. career. We must show them that all is not despair in agriculture, and that as the years go on there is a. better opportunity for a. man to devote. his_life to agriculture-" Mr. Martin said that while some peo- ple might think that the agricultural industry "suffered" in a comparison with the mining industry in the Province, they should not forget that the latest statistics available, and compiled by the Dominion Bureau. showed that the revenue from dairy products in Ontario in 1927 was $106,000,000, and that the total revenue from all farm products was more than $5,000,000. Must Be Business Men. "ri, J 2/- Fez. 2.2 00/. While Hon. John s. Martin's speech in the Legislature yester- day was one of his yearly reviews of. agriculture, he had something in the way of an announcement or two. He intimated that the Government would appoint, though not in the immediate future, a permanent ottieial at London, England, to supervise the distribution of shipments ot Eagadian fruit to favorable mar- ce . He also forecast a system of grading and shipping potatoes from Ontario with a view to commanding a more favorable position in the market. The Government plans handing this work to a man qualified by knowledge and organizing ability. ' He stated also that the Gov- ernment was studying co- operative enterprises in various places and would' soon be in a position to give the assistance that had been asked tor, if it was felt that it would be in the in- terest ot co-operative marketing. V vv - - s-..------"-'-"". New Farm Posts '