290 



EXPERIMENTAL FAB MS. 



Mr. James Elder, of Virden, has tried the following plan with decided success and 

 without injuring the germination of the seed. 



A quantity of liquid is prepared, composed of one pound of bluestone dissolyed in 

 two pails of water, a coal oil barrel is then three parts filled with the grain and sufficient 

 of the liquid is poured on to just cover the grain, this is allowed to remain for a few 

 minutes only, when the liquid is drawn off through a |-inch hole at the bottom of the 

 barrel, and the grain emptied out, by adding about three-quarters of a pail each time the 

 same liquid can be used a number of times. 



Red Fife on Land prepared in different Ways. 



In this test the potato ground was ploughed in the spring, 1894. The summer- 

 fallowed land was ploughed in June, 1893, and cultivated on the surface during the sum- 

 mer of that year, and sown without harrowing the following spring. 



The third plot was sown on land summer-fallowed in 1892, sown to wheat in 1893, 

 and simply drilled in on the stubble last spring. The soil was clay loam, and the plots 

 one-tenth of an acre each. 



The exactness of this test as a comparison between fall-ploughing and the other 

 modes of preparation was interfered with by the fall-ploughed plot being injured by 

 wind. 



Red Fife Wheat. 



How treated. 



Sown on potato ground 



" summer-fallow 



" stubble without ploughing 

 " spring-ploughed stubble. 

 " fall 







Beardless 



^ 





.2# 



H 



o 

 a, 

 o 



None. 



* Slightly injured by wind. 



SUMMARY. 



1. All kinds of grain crops sown after potatoes generally yield well, if the straw is only stiff enough to 

 stand the luxuriant growth. 



2. Summer-fallow prepared by ploughing in June and the surface cultivated during the summer 

 always ensures a good crop on this farm. 



3. For a second crop after a clean summer-fallow, on land free of perennial weeds, and in a dry year ; 

 simply drilling in wheat on the stubble will often give a good return, but if attempted under any other 

 conditions it is likely to bring a failure, and in any case it cannot be called good practice. 



Experiments with Oats. 



Many farmers throughout the province erroneously attribute the lessened yield of 

 oats for the past three years to the more general use of the white varieties so valuable 

 for milling purposes, and many inquiries for black varieties are being made for next 

 year's sowing. From tables published in last year's annual report from this farm it 



