REPORT OF MR. R. ROBERTSOy 



281 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



July was not unusually warm, but a good even temperature was maintaiiiea 

 throughout the month. The thermometer registered 81° on the 8th ; 82° on the 9th ; 

 81° on the 12th, and 82°, 84° and 81° on the 23rd, 24th and 25th respectively. The 

 rain fall during July and August, although not excessive, was continuous, except 

 during the latter part of August, making the haying season quite unfavourable. 



August continued a good even month, with no exceptionally warm, days, except on 

 the 26th and 27th, when the temperature was 83° and 84° respectively. 



The first part of September was fine, but broken and wet after the middle of the 

 month, making the harvest season backward. October was exceptionally wet, rain 

 falling almost continuously throughout the month. TMs made the season for 

 gathering the root crop very backward. The weather was mild, however, and no frost 

 was registered until October 18, when 4° of frost were recorded. On the 20th, 9° of 

 frost were registered, which did considerable damage to the inangel crop. 



Xovember was fairly fine with an occasional frost, and some quite heavy rain. 

 Ploughing continued with one exception until the 25th, when the ground froze up. 

 Snow fell on the 20th and 25th, followed by rain. 



METEOROLOGICAL RECORDS. 



Maximum and minimum thermometrical observations for the year beginning 

 with December 1, 1899, and ending November 30, 1900. 



^[ollth. 



1899. 



December . 



1900. 



Maxitiiuiii. 



Minimum. 



13th, 54" above zero. . 8th & 10th, 9° above zero. 



Januarv '20th, 42° 



Februarv loth, 43° 



March .'. -JOth, 46° 



April 22nd, 65° 



Mav ■ 30th, 79° 



June 125th, 77° 



July l24th, 84° 



August i27th, 84° 



September 3rd, 81° 



Octol^r 8th, 72' 



November |9th, (52 



18th, 7° below zero. 



27th. 7° 



6th, 0° 



1st and 6th, 20° above zero, 



28th, 29° 



4th, 31° 



29th, 40° 



13th & 24th, 42 „ 



29th, ,32 



20th, 23° 



18th, 1.5° 



EXPERIMENTS WITH OATS. 



The uniform test plots of oats were on land of a sandy loam character. The 

 previous crop having been turnips was manured with thirty one-horse cart loads of 

 stable manure, and complete fertilizer at the rate of 200 pounds per acre. The land 

 was ploughed after the root crop was removed in the fall of 1899, and worked up the 

 following spring by going over it twice with the spring-tooth harrow and once with 

 the smoothing harrow. 



The grain was sown on this seed bed, at the rate of 2^ bushels per acre, with the 

 Wisner seed drill, and complete fertilizer, i.e., containing nitrogen, potash and phos- 

 phoric acid, at the rate of 100 pounds per acre was sown with the seed by means of a 

 fertilizer attachment to the seeder. The field was seeded down to timothy and clover 



