904 EXPERIMENTAL FARMS 



5 GEORGE v., A. 1915 



EXPERIMENTAL STATION, CAP ROUGE, QUE. 



REPOKT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT, G. A." LANGELIER. 

 CHAKACTEE OF SEASON. 



The past year was not very favourable for forage crops. The mild weather, 

 during winter, left many pastures and meadows bare, and most of the clover was 

 killed. The temperature was rather cool during May and the earlier part of June, 

 36-2° F. being registered as late as the 27th of the first-mentioned month and on the 

 10th of the latter. But there was a marked improvement afterwards, and though hay 

 was ready to cut later than usual, it gave a much better crop than had been expected. 



August and the three first weeks of September were very dry, and this cheeked 

 Indian com and. roots. The first did not recover, though farmers who cultivated 

 often to conserve moisture fared much better than the others who did not. However, 

 with tlie frost Avhich nipped it on the night of September 14, corn gave a yield which 

 may be put down as 25 per cent lower than the average. This, after the very 

 unfavourable season of 1912, no doubt discouraged quite a number of farmers who 

 would have built silos later on. 



The cool nights of September and October helped out the roots which gave an 

 average crop ; it would have been a heavy one only for the drought of the latter end 

 of the summer. 



The early part of the season was very favourable to the germination and growth 

 of clover and grass seed, and as the young grass was still shaded by the nurse crop of 

 grain during the worst part of the drought, there was a very good catch. With snow 

 before the ground froze too hard, and average weather next spring, it may be expected 

 that the 1914 crop of hay will be a good and even a very good one. 



EXPERIMENTS WITH INDIAN CORN AND FIELD ROOTS. 



Fourteen varieties of turnips, eleven of mangels, tliree of sugar beets, six of 

 carrots, and eleven of Indian corn were tried on duplicate plots of Vno acre each for 

 the roots, and ^/ioo acre for the corn. There were two check rows at the ends of the 

 experimental field, and also between each kind of forage crop, so that no variety had 

 more room or light than any other one. 



ZNDIAN CORN. 



Seven varieties were tested in 1913 on a piece of uniform sandy loam, with shaly 

 subsoil at from 15 to 24 inches. This piece of land was also in corn in 1912, but as 

 that season was so unfavourable, the yield was very low and it practically could not 

 be of much detriment-to the crop of 1913. As manure was used both seasons, it seems 

 that the yield should have been higher. Corn was badly frosted on September 14, 

 and only cut on the 29th, so that it must have lost at least 25 per cent of its weight. 

 Even then, it was quite below expectations. s 



The land was ploughed in October, 1912, and during the first half of May, 1913, 

 it was disced twice with a big cutaway, harrowed twice with the spike-tooth, rolled 

 and sown with the hand Planet Jr. in rows 36 inches apart. A few days afterwards 

 the smoothing harrows were passed over the ground, and later tlie corn was thinned 

 to about 8 inches between plants. 



