218 EXPERIMENTAL FARMS 



5-6 EDV/ARD VIL, A. 190o 



Most Productive Varieties of Spring Wheat. — Excluding ilie macaroni wheats, 

 whicli are considered separately, the most productive varieties of spring wheat at this 

 Farm for the last five yeai's have been Preston, Herisson Bearded, Advance and 

 Pringle's Champlain. Huron and Red Fern have given almost as large yields. All of 

 these are bearded wheats, Pringle's Champlain and Red Fern being probably the best 

 for milling purposes. 



Among the most productive beardless varieties may be mentioned Red Fife, White 

 Fife, White Russian and Laurel. Of /these Red Fife and White Fife are the best for 

 making strong flour. •- 



Earliest Varieties of Spring Wheat. — The earliest variety of spring wheat grown 

 on this Farm during the past season was Aurora. Only a very small amount of seed 

 of this wheat is on hand, and it is not yet availlable for distribution. The earliest 

 varieties grown in the regular plots were Early Riga, Ebert, Riga, Downy Riga and 

 Gehun. These ripen as a rule about two weeks before Red Fife or White Fife at this 

 Farm. The variety called Bishop, which was described in the report for last year, 

 ripens about 4 or 5 days later than the earliest group, and the well-known sorts, 

 Preston and Stanley, ripen about 2 or 3 days later than Bishop. 



The very early sorts mentioned are being selecited and propagated, but thus far 

 an extremely limited distribution of one or two of them is all that is possible. Such 

 samples are only sent when there is good reason to believe that they will be of real 

 value to 'the farmers applying for them. It should be kept in mind that extreme 

 earliness is usually associated with a rather low yield and short straw. It is there- 

 fore often unwise to grow such wheats in districts where the ripening season is long 

 enough to mature the more vigorous sorts such as Preston, Stanley, Pringle's Cham- 

 plain or the still later varieties Red Fife and Wliite Fife. 



The earliest kinds of wheat which are as yet included in the regular distribution 

 enough to mature the more vigorous sorts such as Preston, Stanley, Pringle's Cham- 

 plain. Sitanley and Percy are beardless sorts. 



MACARONI OR DURUM WHEAT. 



The term ' macaroni ' wheat is generally employed to designate those extremely 

 hard varieties with large kernels of which ' Goose ' or ' Wild Goose ' is the best-known 

 example in Canada. The different sorts of macaroni wheat are by no means identical 

 in quality, though they are usually considered to be so. They are looked vipon with 

 disfavour by millers ; and farmers who grow any wheat of this class should exercise 

 great care to prevent it from becoming mixed with wheat which is to be sold for flour- 

 making. 



As a rule, these wheats suffer less from drought and from rust than other sorts. 

 They may, therefore, in some cases, be grown to advantage, especially in any rather dry 

 district where rust is apt to be severe. They are not, however, to be generally recoiii- 

 mended for damp climates. It should also be borne in mind that the market price of 

 macaroni wheat is usually lower than that paid for varieties of wheat which are popular 

 for milling purposes. 



The plots of macaroni wheat were one-fortieth of an acre in extent. The seed 

 was sown on April 20th at the rate of If bushels to the acre. The soil was a sandy loain. 



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



