5-6 EDWARD VII. SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 A. 1906 



EXPERIMENTAL FARM FOR BRITISH OOLUMBIA. 



KEPOKT OF THO:\rAS A. SHARPE, SUPERINTENDENT. 



Agassiz, B.C., November 30, 1905. 

 To Dr. Wm. Saunders, O.M.G., 



Director DomiiLion Experimental Farms, 

 Ottawa. 



Sir, — I have the honour to submit the following report of the work done on the 

 Experimental Farm at Agassiz during the year 1905. 



The past year has in some respects been more or less unfavourable to fruits and to 

 some classes of agricultural products. The first part of the year was very mild and fine, 

 with a very light snowfall in January and none in February, while the lowest tempera- 

 ture recorded at this station in January was twelve degrees of frost on the 12th, and the 

 lowest in February was twenty-four degrees on the 24th. March averaged colder than 

 either of the two preceding months. There were several uniisually cold periods, the 

 coldest being nineteen degrees of frost on the 11th. Towards the end of the month, 

 the weather became warmer and many of the fruit trees came out in bloom. During 

 April the weather continued cool with frequent cold rains and several light frosts, 

 which, occurring during the blossoming of the fruit trees or when the fruit was setting, 

 caused a considerable loss in the strawberry, apple, cherry, plum and pear crops. The 

 weather became warmer in May, but remained showery and in consequence the spray- 

 ing of fruit trees for fungus diseases was not very effective, and plum rot was rather 

 prevalent. In many instances the showers were followed by bright sunshine which 

 favoured the development of fungus diseases in stone fruits and the cracking of the 

 cherries. 



After the middle of June the weather became dry and hot and the rainfall during 

 July, August and the first half of September was very light. As much of the land on 

 this farm is a loam more or less sandy or gravelly, underlaid with gravel it does not 

 resist drought, and late crops such as mangels, turnips, &c., suffered. The heavy rains 

 of the latter part of September and first half of October did some damage to late grain 

 crops, which were not harvested, but on the whole the loss throughout the country has 

 not teen heavy, and practically nothing was lost from this cause on the experimental 



farm. 



Some loss from the potato rot in low lands is reported, but up to the present time 

 we have not suffered to sny considerable extent from this disease. A severe frost on the 

 nights of October lY and 18 killed many tender plants and arrested the growth of 

 mangels and sugor b-ets, and is reported to have dor.e injury to potatoes yet undug or 

 insufficiently protected. Such a frost is very unusual so early in the season, this being 

 the first time in many years that a killing frost has occurred before the second week 

 in November. 



FRUIT CROPS. 



The frost during the early spring cut down the strawberry crop one-third, it also 

 lessened the plum and cherry crops and later on the brown rot and the cracking of the 

 cherries caused by rain lessened the crop of these fruits. Pears and apples are in 

 many places a light crop, but the bright clear summer and autumn favoured the do* 



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