2-3 EDWARD VII. SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 A. 1903 



EXPERIMENTAL FARM FOR MANITOBA. 



REPORT OF S. A. BEDFORD, SUPERINTENDENT. 



BR.A.NDON, Max., November 30, 1 902. 

 To Dr. "Wm. Saunders, 



Director Dominion Experimental Farms, 

 Ottawa. 



Sir, — I have the honour to submit herewith my fifteentli annual report, -wath details 

 of experiments undertaken and work accompli.shed on the Brandon Experimental Farm 

 during the past year. 



The past winter was milder than usual and practically free of storms. From March 

 14 to 17, however, we experienced one of the worst blizzards ever known here, the wind 

 blowing for many hours at the rate of sixty miles per hour. This was accompanied by 

 a veiy heavy fall of wet snow which piled up into unusually high banks, and the thaw- 

 ing of this quantity of water-saturated snow, later in the season, did much towards retard- 

 ing spring seeding. 



April was a very backward month, the mean temperature being much below the 

 average. 



The weather during May was cloudy and cool and the rainfall excessive, but there 

 was a total absence of injurious frosts. June set in with a deluge of rain on the first 

 of the month, four inches falling on the Experimental Farm, in the space of forty 

 minutes. The effect of such a deluge was to sweep away all loose soil from hilly fields 

 into the hollows. Roads were almost destroyed, and deep water furrows cut on all 

 sloping land. The balance of June was cloudy and the rainfall excessive. 



These two months of exceptional rainfall raised the Assiniboine much above the 

 usual level, flooding the valley aud destroying the crop in its coux-se. Fortunately the 

 larger portion of the uniform test plots were sown on the higher portions of the farm 

 and escaped injury. The rotation plots and quite a number of other interesting experi- 

 ments were, however, destroyed, and will have to be taken up again in future years. 



July was warm, the early rains had filled the soil Avith moisture, and growth was 

 unusually rapid, so much so that weeds were crowded out and the heads of grain filled 

 better than usual. Summer fallows on strong and moist land lodged badly, but the 

 grain filled better than was expected, and in spite of the late spring, harvest was only a 

 few days later than usual. Hired help was very difficult to pi-ocure throughout the 

 summer and thousands of acres of wheat in this province lay unstooked for weeks for 

 want of harvest hands. Fortunately the weather during harvest and threshing was 

 nearly perfect, otherwise the loss would have been great. 



Without doubt the past season has been the most satisfactory one, from an agricul- 

 tural standpoint, ever experienced in the province, although few districts report abnormal 

 returns. lu nearly all portions of the province the yield of all kinds of grain was above 

 the average, and the sample is generally an excellent one. 



All the uniform test plots of wheat on the Experimenta,l Farm, with one exception, 

 escaped injury and the returns both in quantity and quality were all that could be 

 desired. The difierent experiments with Speltz wheat were examined witli interest 

 during the summer, and numerous letters are being received from farmers seeking 

 information regarding this newly introduced grain. Flax culture is also receiving 

 increased attention throughout the province and in view of this, experiments with this 

 crop have been extended. Several new varieties have been tried and a test of the 

 suitability of a flax crop on new breaking has also been made. 



Farmers supplied, in former years, with pure bred swine fi-om tliis farm liave been 

 requested to express an opinion on them, and, in this year's r^iport will be found extra-cts 

 from their letters. 



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