368 EXPERIMEXTAL FARMS. 



64 VICTORIA. A. 1901 

 POULTRY. 



The fowls have kept quite healtliy and twenty-six chickens were raised during the 

 year. The flock now consists of 13 Wliite Plymouth Rocks, 21 Black Minorcas and 

 16 Light Brahmas. Some experiments in feeding were commenced this autumn but 

 were not finished in time to be included in this report. 



BEES. 



The five colonies placed in the house cellar last fall, wintered without loss, but 

 agiiin we have had a poor year for bees. Owing to the very light rainfall very few 

 wild flowers blossomed in the early part of the season, and the continued rains in late 

 summer prevented the bees working to any extent on late flowers. The amount of 

 suri;lu3 honey gathered averaged only about 5 pounds per hive, spring count. Four 

 new swarms were hived during the summer. 



FRUITS. 



APPLES. 



The trees of the Wild Siberian Crabs (Pyriis haccata auranfiaca, Pyrns haccaia Intea 

 and Pyriis prunifolia), made a magnificent showing of bloom during the past spring, 

 and hopes were entertained that a large crop of fruit would be harvested. The frost 

 on the evening of June 8, however, almost totally destroyed the young fruit and only 

 very few specimens matured. The fruit of these varieties makes a capital preserve, 

 and the trees themselves are invaluable as stocks for grafting. 



The frost mentioned above, also destroyed the blossoms of the Transcendent Crab 

 meiitioned in last year's report, as the only survivor of a consignment of ten trees 

 received in 1899 from the Central Experimental Farm, and no fruit was gathered 

 this season. 



CROSS-BRED APPLES. 



With the object of producing hardy apples for the Xorth-west, the Director, Dr. 

 Wm. Saundirs, has during the past five years made a number of crosses of hardy 

 apples, such as Wealthy and Tetofsky, with two of the hardy Siberian Crabs, Pyrus 

 haccata and Pyrus prunifolia, both of which are perfectly hardy here. The experi- 

 ment was succes-ful and a number of seedlings resulted. Some of these have already 

 fruited at the Central Experimental Farm, Ottawa, and have produced some very 

 pood sized fruit, showing a wonderful improvement on the female parents. A number 

 of these seedlings, together with root grafts were received at Brandon during 1898-99 

 for the purpose of testing their hardiness here, and the results up to the present have 

 been very satisfactory. Following will be found a full analysis of the test at this 

 farm up to the fall of 1900. It will be noted that a large proportion of the grafted 

 roots received in 1699 did not make any start, which fact was attributable to the verj' 

 dry weather experienced during the spring months. The seedlings of all the consign- 

 nierit-s did miich better than the root grafts. An interesting and detailed account 

 of the work of making these crosses will be found in the director's annual report for 

 1899, which will be forwarded on application. 



