6 EXPERIMENTAL FARMS 



5-6 EDWARD VII., A. 1906 



In Ontario the hay has been an unusually heavy crop, well above the average. 

 The same may be said of fall and spring wheat, oats and barley, all of which are now 

 important crops in this province. Field roots and Indian corn have given about an 

 average return. 



Pastures have made fair to good growth during the summer and fall, and all 

 classes of live stock are in good condition. Apples have been a medium crop and have 

 commanded good prices, while pears, plums, peaches and grapes have yielded well. 



In the western counties of Quebec, where the rainfall has been sufncient, hay has 

 yielded abundantly, and owing to the rich pasturage the dairy industry has flourished, 

 and field crops of all sorts have given satisfactory returns. The eastern counties have 

 suffered somewhat from drought, and there the crops have been lighter and the dairy 

 output has been lessened owing to inferior pastures. 



In 'the Maritime Provinces the hay crop as a whole is said to have been above the 

 average, while oats have given a fair average return; wheat and barley also have done 

 well. The early part of the season was cold and wet, and seeding was delayed. Later 

 the weather was very favourable and crops matured rapidly. In September dry weather 

 set in, which prevented the usual growth in field roots and the drought brought many 

 CI ops which promised to be heavy down to an average or less than an average yield. 



In the fruit producing districts the apple crop was a very fair one, the fruit was 

 large and of excellent quality and has realized good prices. 



Upon the progress of farming in all sections of Canada the experimental farms 

 continue to exercise a weighty influence. The results of nineteen years of ceaseless 

 inquiry into the needs of farmers in all parts of the country has resulted in the ac- 

 cumulation of volumes of information and experience which are placed within reach 

 of all, who need them. Instruction and information have been given out on every 

 liand covering every branch of agriculture and horticulture. Reports and bulletins 

 have been sent in thousands and tens of thousands, in response to inquiries from 

 earnest seekers after information from all parts of the country. The knowledge ac- 

 quired by long experience, close observation and careful study has been spread over the 

 whole Dominion, and none need dwell in ignorance as to the best methods to adopt to 

 Tender their work successful. Correspondence with farmers has been encouraged and 

 many thousands of letters have been written by the officers of the farms in response to 

 inquiries on special subjects. Many meetings of farmers held in the different pro- 

 vinces of the Dominion have been attended by farm ofiicers, and opportunities afforded 

 of bringing under the direct notice of many farmers some of the more imjwrtant 

 aspects of the work carried on at the several experimental farms. 



Thus, Canadian farmers are growing in intelligence and becoming more resource- 

 ful and successful in their work, while the stranger coming among us is helped in 

 many directions with information as to the best way of overcoming difficulties and of 

 directing his energies along profitable lines. 



THE GROWING OF WINTER WHEAT IN ALBERTA, 



The recent remarkable increase in the quantity of winter wheat grown in the 

 province of Alberta is a subject of much interest and is claiming the attention of grain 

 growers and millers in all parts of the western country. In the Annual Report of the 

 Experimental Farms for 1901, when giving an account of a visit paid during August 

 of that year to the district lying between Cardston and Pincher in Southern Alberta, 

 I said, ' Notwitlistanding its high elevation of 3,000 to 3,500 feet the climate is such 

 that winter wheat is grown in many localities quite successfully. This now forms an 

 important crop both at Cardston and Pincher, many of the farmers reaping from 30 

 to 40 bushels per acre. The variety chiefly grown at Cardston is a beardless red-chaff 

 wheat known as Odessa, that most grown at Pincher is a bearded wheat the name of 

 which has been lost.' 



