352 



EXPERIMENTAL FARMS. 



64 VICTORIA, A. 190t 



EXPERIMENTS WITH FLAX. 



Like all other small seeds, flax germinated very unevenly this year, in some 

 instances the plants were over a foot apart. This greatly lessened the yield of both 

 seed and fibre. Owing to the large number of weeds which came up in the vacancies 

 between the plants, it was thought advisable to pull all the plots instead of cutting 

 one half of them with a binder as is usually done. 



All the plants were sown in rich black loam, which had been summer-fallowed. 

 The size of the plots was one-twentieth of an acre. 



CANARY SEED. 



A plot of Canary seed was sown on May 29, but owing to the dry season the seed 

 did not germinate in time for the grain to ripen. 



BUCKWHEAT. 



Three varieties of Buckwheat were sown on May 26, but the seed lay dormant 

 until July, and although all the varieties blossomed freely, no seed was formed. 



EXPERIMENTS WITH INDIAN CORN. 



The soil selected for a comparative test of varieties was not suitable for corn, 

 being too level, and for that reason the yield was below the average. The location 

 selected for the field crop was a warm soil, with a decided slope to the south, and the 

 yield there was much better. 



The corm was several inches above the ground on June 8, and the eight degrees 

 of frost which was then experienced, cut it level with the ground, but it quicl'cly 

 recovered, and was apparently none the worse for it. 



Besides the plots devoted to the test of varieties, 2i acres were cured as dry 

 fodder, and several bushels of Squaw corn, a very early native variety, was ripened 

 for seed purposes. This variety is much used as a table corn throughout the province. 



The land selected for the test of varieties was a black loam which produced a 

 crop of potatoes in 1899. It was ploughed seven inches deep in early spring, and the 

 surface cultivated until May 19, when the drilled plots were sown in rows three feet 

 apart, with a common wheat drill, and the hilled plots planted with a hoe three feet 

 apart each way. Owing to the hilled plots being planted too shallow, the seed did not 

 germinate until the rains, which came late in June. The yield per acre has been 

 calculated from the weight of crop cut from one row 66 feet long. 



