REPORT OF THE CEREALIST 209 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



sorts produced at this farm and other varieties obtained from various sources. The 

 objects of these tests are to determine the rekitive productiveness, earliness, &c., of 

 the different varieties. Those which for a series of years are found to be distinctly 

 inferior are rejected, in order to keep the list within as small bounds as possible. 



The test plots of grain are one-sixtieth of an acre and those of field roots one- 

 hundredth of an acre. 



The number of these test plots grown during the past season was as follows : 

 Spring wheat, 36; durum wheat, 4; winter wheat, 20; emmer and spelt, 10; oats, 55; 

 six-row barley, 20; two-row barley, 25; peas, 22; spring rye, 2; winter rye, 3; field 

 beans, 4; flax, 4; turnips, 13; mangels, 12; carrots, 6; sugar beets, 3; Indian corn, 26, 

 making a total of 265 plots, and representing about 250 varieties. 



For some years the number of plots has been steadily reduced by the elimination of 

 the less desirable varieties. A large increase in the number will occur as soon as the 

 new cross-bred varieties produced during the last few years begin to take their places 

 in these larger plots. 



WEATHER. 



While the spring of 1908 was not perhaps unusually cold at Ottawa, so large a 

 quantity of rain fell at short intervals throughout April and May that seeding was 

 very seriously delayed. Warm weather followed almost as soon as the seed was in 

 the ground, and the prevailing character of the summer was dry. Early autumn was 

 very dry. 



Such conditions were extremely unfavourable to cereals and distinctly adverse 

 to almost all farm crops; so that the yields obtained were in many instances far 

 below the average. 



SPRING WHEAT. 



The test plots of wheat could not be sown until May 6, owing to the continued 

 wet weather. The seed was used at the rate of about IJ bushels to the acre. The soil 

 was a loam of variable character. Owing to the drought which followed the wet 

 weather those portions of the field which were of a somewhat heavier character than 

 the others became so hard that the growth of the young plants was almost stopped. 

 The yields of the following varieties (which suffered most severely) are not published, 

 as they would give no fair indication of their productiveness under average con- 

 ditions : Alpha Selected, Aurora, Bobs, Downy Riga, Ebert Selected, Hungarian 

 White, 7 E 3. Some of these plots were also injured by the larva of the Hessian fly. 



The variety designated Early Red Fife is an early strain of Red Fife selected by 

 the Cerealist in the year 1903 and propagated from a single plant. It was recorded 

 in previous publications as Red Fife B. 



Varieties without names are new cross-bred sorts produced by the Cerealist, but 

 which are not yet ready for distribution. Those varieties which have a letter after 

 the name are new strains propagated from single selected plants. 



The yield per acre is expressed in pounds and also in bushels of 60 pounds. 



The character of the straw is indicated by marks on a scale of 10 points, according 

 to the proportion of the plot standing erect at harvest time. 



* Varieties and selected strains produced at the Central Experimental Farm are 

 marked with an asterisk. 



16—14. 



