REPORT OF MR. R. ROBERTSON 



249 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



PRECIPITATION 



Month. 



April 



May 



June.'. 



July 



August .... 

 Sept^^irber. 

 October.. . . 

 November. 

 December. 



January. . 

 February . 

 March . 



1908. 



1909. 



Totals . 



Rain Fall. 



Inches. 



07 

 .08 

 •41 



73 

 •35 

 •G5 

 •73 

 •41 



14 



1^61 

 2-45 

 2 09 



31-72 



Snow Fall. 



Inches. 

 13- 



6^ 

 11- 



19- 

 14 • 



20 



83- 



Total 

 Precipita- 

 tion. 



Inches. 



37 



08 

 41 

 73 

 3.5 

 05 

 73 

 01 

 24 



3-51 



3-8.5 

 409 



40 02 



EXPERIMENTS WITH OATS. 



Experiments -were asrain conducted this year -w-ith the leading varieties of oats, 

 ■which were grown in uniform test plots of one-fortieth acre each. Twenty-fo-ur 

 varieties were included in this test. The plots received the same treatment and were 

 on soil practically uniform throughout. 



The ground was a clay loam on which turnips were grown the previous year (1907), 

 for which crop twenty-five loads of barn-yard manure per acre were applied with the 

 manure-spreader. The land was ploughed in the fall (1907) and harrowed in the 

 spring (1908) with the spring-tooth and smoothing harrows, until a fine tilth was 

 made. The seed was sown on May 21 with the seed drill at the rate of 2i bushels 

 per acre. 



This ground was also seeded down to clover and timothy at the rate of 7 lbs. 

 Mammoth Red clover, 3 lbs. Alsike clover and 12 lbs. Timothy seed per acre, by means 

 of a grass seed attachment to the grain seeder. 



The seed was from selected heads of the previous season's crop, cut from the 

 various plots at harvest time. 



No additional fertilizer was used on these plots this season. The grain started 

 well, as did also the grass seed, but owing to the heavy rains in the latter half of July, 

 and first half of August, the grain was beaten down and consequently did not fill. 

 The straw showed a slight amount of smut. 



