2-3 EDWARD VM. SESSIONAL PAPER No. 18 A. 1903 



EXPERIMENTAL WORK 



CONDUCTED AT THE CENTRAL EXPERBIENTAL FARM 



OTTAWA, ONTARIO. 



EXPERIMENTS WITH OATS. 



Ninety-seven varieties of oats have been under trial at the Central Experimental 

 Farm during 1902, for the purpose of ascertaining which are the most productive, and 

 which are the earliest in ripening. The soil on which these oats were sown was very- 

 uniform in character, a clay loam of good quality more or less mixed with sandy loam. 

 The pre\'ious crop was field roots. The land received a dressing during the winter of 

 1900-1901 of about twelve tons of fresh barn-yard manure per acre, which was placed 

 on the frozen ground in small heaps of about one-third of a cart load each, and spread 

 and ploughed under in the spring. No manure has been applied since. In the autumn 

 of 1901 after the roots were gathered, the land was ploughed about seven inches deep 

 and left in that condition until the following spring, when it was cultivated twice with 

 a two-horse cultivator and harrowed twice with the smoothing harrow before the oats 

 were sown. 



Seventy-one of these varieties were sown on April 18, the remainder on April 22 

 on plots of one-fortieth of an acre each. The seed used in each case was in the propor- 

 tion of two bushels per acre. 



By consulting the following table it will be seen that oats have given above an 

 average crop this year. Forbes, one of the new cross-bred sorts introduced last year, a 

 cross of Giant Cluster with Prize Cluster, stands second on the list at Ottawa with a 

 yield of 85 bushels 30 lbs. per acre. 



