ANNUAL EEPORT 



ON THE 



EXPERIMENTAL EARMS. 



REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR. 



(WM. SAUNDERS, F.R.S.G., F.L.S. F.C.S.) 



The results of eight years of experimental work covering nearly all the departments 

 in which the farming class of the community is engaged, together with the testing of 

 fruits, vegetables, poultry, economic and ornamental trees, shrubs, plants and flowers, 

 are shown in the accumulation of a mass of facts relating to these several subjects, the 

 recital of which gives increasing value to the annual reports of the experimental farms. 

 Where conclusions are drawn from the results of the tests of a single year, they are 

 frequently found to be unreliable as a guide, and since no two seasons are alike, they 

 can scarcely be repeated with similar returns ; but where such tests have been carried 

 on through a series of years the average results may be taken as fairly trustworthy. 



The very low prices which continue to prevail for wheat and the coarse grain", 

 the returns from the sale of which give now but a small margin beyond the cost of 

 growing, has obliged many farmers to turn their attention to more profitable methods 

 of disposing of these crops than by their bulk sale in the markets. 



The census for 1890 shows that the number of persons engaged in agricultural 

 pursuits in the Dominion of Canada — farmers and farmers' sons — was in that year 

 649,506. These with the families depending on them will, it is estimated, make up 45 

 per cent of the entire population of the country. Where so large a proportion of the 

 community depend for their livelihood on the cultivation of the soil, it is of the utmost 

 importance for the welfare and prosperity of the entire country that their efforts should 

 be directed into the most profitable channels. The experiments which have been con- 

 ducted at the Central and branch Experimental Farms have demonstrated that wheat, 

 as well as other grain, may be made a greater source of profit if fed to steers and swine 

 and thus converted into beef and pork, than by selling these crops in their crude state, 

 at present prices. The feeding of these grains mixed with suitable succulent food, such 

 as ensilage, to c ~ws and converting their milk into cheese and butter, has also been 

 shown to be more profitable than the sale of such grain. Hence the dairying industry 

 has grown very rapidly in Canada of late years, and the demand for first class dairy 

 products seems to be almost unlimited. This branch of farm work has also this great 

 advantage, that the elements of fertility which have been taken from the land by the 

 grain during the process of its growth, is, to a very large extent, restored to the soil in 

 the barnyard manure. It has also the further advantage, when butter-making is carried 

 on during the winter months, of giving additional employment to the farm hands during 

 that season. The more general feeding of a proportion of wheat to swine and cattle 

 will also consume some part of the large stock which has been grown in excess of the 

 requirements of mankind, and which has, no doubt, had the effect of bringing down 

 the price to the present unusually low and unremunerative figure. 



