REPORT OF MR. R. ROBERTSON. 289 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



EXPERIMENTS WITH BUCKWHEAT. 



The land on which this grain was grown was a clay loam. The previous crop 

 was mangels, having received 30 one-horse cart loads of stable manure per acre, and 

 complete fertilizer at the rate of 200 pounds per acre. The land was ploughed after 

 this crop was removed in the fall of 1899, and in the spring was worked up twice. 

 with the spring-tooth harrow and once with the smoothing harrow. 



The seed was sown June 16 in one-fortieth acre plots, and complete fertilize; v 

 at the rate of 100 pounds per acre was drilled in with the seeder. The following 

 yields were obtained from the five varieties under test : — 



BUCKWHEAT— TEST OF VARIETIES. 



a, 



s 



Name of Variety. 



ISilverhull 



2, .Japanese 



3 Rye .••••.• 



4 Tartarian or Siberian . 

 5Giev 



Length 



of 

 Straw. 



Character 



of 



Straw. 



Inche.^. 



43 

 44 

 45 

 42 



44 



Stiff. 



Weight 



per 

 Bushel. 



Lbs. 



52 



48 

 52 

 50 

 49 



FIELD CROPS OF BUCKWHEAT. 



Five acres of buckwheat was grown on land which had pease as a previous crop, 

 this crop being ploughed under as a gieen manure in September, 1899. The land 

 previous to that being exceptionally poor, never having had any manure applied. It 

 was again ploughed in the late fall of 1899. In the spring the field was worked up 

 and seeded June 21, one-half being fertilized with 200 pounds of Albert Thoma-^' 

 Phosphate per acre, and the other 2^ acres received no fertilizer of any kind. The 

 yield obtained is as follows : — 



Bush. Lbs. 



2 J acres fertilized . . . . 

 2i acres not fertilized. 



34 

 21 



10 

 19 



Five acres of new land was also seeded to buckwheat, it being in buckwheat the 

 previous year. No fertilizer was applied to this land. The yield was at the rate of 

 19 bushels per acre. 



EXPERIMENTS WITH CORN. 



The soil on which the corn was grown is a light clay loam. It was manured on 

 the sod in the early spring with twenty-five one-horse cartloads of stable manure per 

 acre. The previous crop was clover and timothy. The manure, together with a good 

 growth of grass, was ploughed under June 5. The ground was then worked up by 

 going over it once each with the spring-tooth, disc, and smoothing harrows. 



Shallow marks were made 3 feet apart, and complete fertilizer, at the rate of 200 

 pounds per acre, was scattered along, the seed dropped and all lightly covered. Dupli- 

 cate plots were sown in hills 3 feet apart. The same quantity of fertilizer as the 

 above was used per acre, the seed dropped, and both covered lightly-. 



]G— 19 



