For four years the Provincial Association carried on its work and established itself as a part of the agricultural life of Canada West. In 1850 the government stepped in and established a board of agriculture as the executive of the association. Its objects were set out by statute and funds were to be provided for its maintenance. The new lines of work allotted to it were to collect agricultural statistics, prepare crop reports, gather information of general value and to present the same to the legislature for publication, and to co-operate with the provincial university in the teaching of agriculture and the carrying on of an experimental or illustrative farm. Professor George Buckland was appointed to the chair of agriculture in the university in January 1851 and an experimental farm on a small scale was laid out on the university grounds. Professor Buckland acted also as secretary to the board until 1858, when he resigned and was succeeded by Hugh C. Thomson. He continued his work for some years at the university, and was an active participant in all agricultural matters up to the time of his death in 1885. Provision having been made for agricultural instruction at the university, the board in 1859 decided to establish a course in veterinary science, and at once got into communication with Professor Dick of the Veterinary College at Edinburgh, Scotland. In 1862 a school was opened in Toronto under the direction of Professor Andrew Smith, recently arrived from Edinburgh. The _British American Cultivator_ was established in 1841 by Eastwood and Co. and W. G. Edmundson, with the latter as editor. It gave place in 1849 to the _Canadian Agriculturist_, a monthly journal edited and owned by George Buckland and William McDougall. This was the official organ of the board till the year 1864, when George Brown began the publication of the _Canada Farmer_ with the Rev. W. F. Clark as editor-in-chief and D. W. Beadle as horticultural editor. The board at once recognized it, accepted it as their representative, and the _Canadian Agriculturist_ ceased publication in December 1863. The half-century of British immigration, 1816 to 1867, had wrought a wonderful change. From a little over a hundred thousand the population had grown to a million and a half; towns and cities had sprung into existence; commercial enterprises had taken shape; the construction of railways had been undertaken; trade had developed along new lines; the standards of living had materially changed; and great questions, national and international, had stirred the people and aroused at times the bitterest political strife. The changed standards of living can best be illustrated by an extract from an address delivered in 1849 by Sheriff Ruttan. Referring to the earlier period, he said: