Sub-series consists of incoming correspondence received by the Upper and Lower Canadian Boards of Agriculture, 1852-1867 (with certain gaps) and the federal Department of Agriculture, 1867-1920. The correspondence was received in most cases from individual Canadians or officials and agents of the Department or of other government agencies.
This sub-series has two very distinct parts, although the division between them is not a precise one. When the Department of Agriculture in 1893 lost its hitherto most important function of immigration, it reorganized its records system. Until that time, each letter received was given a sequential number (starting at 1 in 1865) as it was received in the Department and filed as a docket. Unlike modern file systems, therefore, if a correspondent wrote the Department ten times in one year, even if on the same subject, the ten letters are not on one subject file, but were individually registered and were placed in ten separate dockets. The replies by the Department to these ten letters -- or rather copies of the replies -- are not interleaved with the letters, but exist in an entirely separate sub-series of outgoing letterbooks and correspondence (see related records note). By the mid-1890s, however (around volume 760 of this sub-series), the Department began to create modern subject files, combining incoming and outgoing correspondence, although maintaining for these files the same sequential numbering system started in 1865. Despite this development for more important subjects, the old system of individual dockets was continued, also using the same sequential series of file/docket numbers. Thus, by the late 1890s, large subject files existed alongside the two and three page individual letter dockets of the earlier era.
The subjects covered by this sub-series reflect the rich diversity of the functions of the Department of Agriculture, including such topics as archives, agriculture societies, exhibitions (local and international) experimental farms, animal, crop and food science, census records, every aspect of immigration, copyright, patents, cattle exports, quarantine, public health and some land matters. The files are fewer in number before 1865, but after that date a fairly complete series has survived.
This sub-series was received by the National Archives of Canada in two parts: volumes 1-1366 (covering the years 1852-1920) and volumes 2729-2809 (covering the years 1889-1920). The more recent accession (Vols. 2729-2809) consists entirely of subject files; the earlier records (Vols. 1-1366) consist of both individual dockets and by the early 1890's, subject files as described above.