Available reels: 15
|Creator||Canada. Dept. of Agriculture. Quarantine and Public Health Branch. Office of the Director General of Public Health|
Department of Agriculture : Office of the Director General of Public Health, 1889-1912
Ministère de l'Agriculture : Bureau du directeur général, Santé publique, 1899-1912
RG 17 A V 3
Health and Medicine
|Document source||Library and Archives Canada / Bibliothèque et Archives Canada|
Originally called the Bureau of Agriculture during the pre-Confederation Province of Canada, the department was established by an Act of Parliament in 1868 to concentrate on the urgent need of the time to control livestock diseases and prevent their entry into Canada. The department, now called Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, was and is responsible for federal policies relating to agriculture and food, including grading and inspection, seed certification, regulations on pesticides and fertilizers, market development programs, farmer assistance, scientific research and dissemination of information. In addition, the department oversees race track betting in Canada. The Dominion Chemist of the Department of Agriculture oversaw the work of the Chemistry Division. Its responsibilities included, among other matters, analyzing natural and artificial fertilizers, examining the composition and digestibility of food for domestic animals, testing soils, conducting water tests, and analyzing pesticides.
The Director General of Public Health was responsible for the administration of the Quarantine and Public Health Branch within the Department of Agriculture until 1919, at which time a separate Department was created to administer these functions.
This collection consists of records created and maintained by the Director General of Public Health. The records relate to correspondence mostly with quarantine stations and with customs officers who acted as quarantine officials in small ports. The topics include epidemics, other medical problems and medical conferences. Each volume is indexed.