64 VICTORIA SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 A. 1901 



REPORT OF THE AGRTOULTURIST. 



(J. H. Grisdale, B. Agr.) 



Dr. Wm. Saunders, 



Director Dominion Experimental Farms, 

 Ottawa. 



Sir, — I have the honour to submit herewith reports on Horses, Dairy Cattle, Beef 

 Production, Pork Production. Sheep, and Farm Crops. 



During the year, I have attended a number of meetings in Ontario, Quebec, Nova 

 Scotia, iSTew Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Manitoba. 



I am indebted to Mr. John Fixter, farm foreman, and Mr. C. T. Brettell, herds- 

 man, for assistance in the work carried on as well as for help in the preparation of the 

 submitted report. 



I have the honour to be, sir. 



Your obedient servant, 



J. H. GEISDALE, 



Agriculturist. 



HORSES. 



There are in the farm stables at present fourteen horses. A number of these are 

 quite old and will need to be replaced at an early date. During the year, one horse 

 has died. His death was caused by colic. A new team was purchased in April and 

 has proven entirely satisfactory. 



Three of the above horses are required for the omnibus which runs from the 

 farm to the city, making three trips daily. One is used for a driver and two for cart 

 or general jobbing horses. 



The remaining eight horses constitute the teams for general work upon the farm, 

 in the gardens and orchards, upon the lawns and in the arboretum, as well as for 

 cartage. This number of horses has, during the past year, proven to be very far short 

 of the requirements as detailed above, and another team is very much needed. 



On March 6, 1900, an experiment in feeding work horses was incepted, the end 

 in view being to ascertain the comparative economy of feeding whole as contrasted 

 with ground grain, also the gaining of some data as to the comparative value of oats, 

 barley and corn as grain rations for working horses. A uniform ration of 12 pounds 

 per diem was adopted to pei-mit of comparing results. The experiment was discon- 

 tinued after May 6, as it was found that on the heavy spring work a more varied and 

 better ration was required than was being fed some of the horses. 



It will be observed that in feeding ground vs. unground grain, the ground grain 

 was fed to old and the unground grain to young horses. 



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