From 1792 to 1841 what is now Ontario was known as Upper Canada; from 1841 to 1867 it was part of the United Province of Canada, being known as Canada West to distinguish it from Quebec or Canada East. In 1867, however, it resumed its former status as a separate province, but with the new name of Ontario. In the formation of the government of the province agriculture was placed under the care of a commissioner, who, however, held another portfolio in the cabinet. John Carling was appointed commissioner of Public Works and also commissioner of Agriculture. On taking office Carling found the following agricultural organizations of the province ready to co-operate with the government: sixty-three district agricultural societies, each having one or more branch township societies under its care, and all receiving annual government grants of slightly over $50,000; a provincial board of agriculture, with its educational and exhibition work; and a fruit-growers' association, now for the first time taken under government direction and given financial assistance. One extract from the commissioner's first report will serve to show the condition of agriculture in Ontario when the Dominion was born. 'It is an encouraging fact that during the last year in particular mowers and reapers and labour-saving implements have not only increased in the older districts, but have found their way into new ones, and into places where they were before practically unknown. This beneficial result has, no doubt, mainly arisen from the difficulty, or rather in some cases impossibility, of getting labour at any price.' It would appear, therefore, that the question of shortage of farm labour, so much complained of in recent years, has been a live one for forty years and more.