156 EXPERIMENTAL FARMS 



7-8 EDWARD VII., A. 1908 



material rich in nitrogen. This of course does not refer to all soils in the Canadian 

 Northwest, many of which are at the outset over-rich in organic matter and nitrogen, 

 leading rather to ranlcness of straw than to development of grain. But it is applic- 

 able to many areas which have now been growing cereals for the past 20 or 25 years, 

 without any manure and without a single season of sod to return vegetable matter, and 

 which moreover have every third year or so been put in fallow. Svich soils, in spite 

 of their great initial, inherited richness, are showing signs of decline, and unless 

 some remedial steps are taken, will continue to do so. All this may serve to empha- 

 size the desirability of abandoning, where practicable, the system of continuous grain 

 growing and substituting therefor a rotation in which at least one mem*ber shall add 

 to the soil's store of humus and, if possible, nitrogen. 



The value of Brome grass in this connection has been well brought out by experi- 

 m.ents conducted on the Experimental Farms at Indian Head, Saskatchewan, and 

 Brandon, Manitoba, a crop which not only adds humus, but which (though disliked 

 by many owing to difficulty in eradication) undoubtedly is of great service in supply- 

 ing a fibre that binds and holds the soil, thus preventing to a large degree the drift- 

 ing and loss of the surface soil under high winds. Inquiry shows that loss of S(nl 

 from this cause is common in many districts, the drifting being quite pronounced 

 even on heavy clay loam after the latter has been worked for a number of years, and 

 drifting is largely a result of fallowing. 



The last three or four years there has been an intelligent and persistent attempt 

 on the part of some farmers in Manitoba to grow clover, and these efforts have in many 

 instances proved successful. A general impression prevailed that owing to insuf- 

 ficiency of moisture or the severity of winters or other untoward conditions, clover 

 coiild not be grown in the Northwest, but the evidence is now ample that clover and 

 alfalfa can be grown in many parts of the northwestern provinces. On the Experi- 

 mental Farms at Brandon, Manitoba, and Indian Head, Saskatchewan, both of these 

 crops have been raised successfully for a number of years past, and this frequently 

 in spite of comparatively light snowfalls to protect the crop during the first winter. 

 Mr. Bedford, late superintendent, Experimeiltal Farm, Brandon, wrote in 1B04: 

 * As usual a number of the hardiest clovers have wintered here and given a fair return 

 of fodder. The plan usually followed in the eastern provinces of sowing clover seed 

 with a nurse crop has always proved a failure on this farm, our heavy crops of grain 

 so completely shade the ground that the clover plant has no opportunity of developing 

 and is too small and weak to withstand the severe winter. The system adopted here 

 is to plough grain stubble land in May or early in June, harrow once, sow the clover 

 seed broadcast, .then harrow a second time and roll. When the weed and volunteer 

 crop are up about one foot high, a mower is run over the land and the cuttings left 

 on the ground as a mulch. By autumn the clover plants are. by this plan, commonly 

 about two feet high, well rooted, and they usually pass the winter without loss.' 



PEASE AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR CLOVER. 



Notwithstanding the possibility of clover growing the inquiry is frequently made 

 by farmers in the Northwest, is there not some other legume that can be used for 

 keeping up the soil in the place of clover, one that will make its grov.'th in the season 

 of seeding so that winter killing would not enter into the calculation, one that by 

 plowing under at the end of the season would furnish the soil with large quantities 

 of humus-forming material and nitrogen? May not pease fulfil these requirements? 

 It is a fairly qiiick growing annual, a nitrogen gatherer, and one that will give a good 

 yield if climatic conditions are at all favourable. In districts where the storing up 

 of soil moisture for the succeeding crop is not necessary, the pease might be sown in 

 the spring and the growth be found to make sufficient cover to keep down the weeds. 

 Possibly a modification of this procedure that might he desirable in some districts 

 would be to fallow the land for one month, say till the middle of June, and then sow 



