6 EXPERIMENTAL FARMS. 



forty bushels per acre. In Saskatchewan and Northern Alberta the yield of all 

 cereals has been good, the beads being plump and well filled. 



In the interior climates of British Columbia, there have been few unusually 

 heavy crops, but the yields in most instances have been fairly satisfactory, while in 

 the coast climate the i-eturns from the grain harvest have been below the average. 



While the modifications in crops brought about by conditions of climate are 

 bej'ond the control of the farmer, there are many conditions which he can influence 

 which are most important in their bearing on plant growth and which under favour- 

 able circumstances materially affect the returns. Among these none is moreimpoi-t- 

 ant than the 



MAINTENANCE OF THE FERTILITY OP THE SOIL, 



which is the chief aim of all good farming and on which a continuance of good 

 crops mainly depends. In the soil a large store of fertility has been laid up for 

 man's use, which may be regarded as a savings bank reserve for the farmer, and 

 by judicious treatment may be continually added to and improved, but by careless and 

 injudicious management may be prodigally wasted. All soils are the result of the 

 disintegration of rocks by the forces of nature and the intermixture therewith of 

 organic matter, resulting from the decay of animal and vegetable remains. They 

 vary much in fertility, partly owing to diiference in composition of the rocks from 

 which they have been formed, partly to the variable proportion of organic matter 

 they contain, and partly to their mechanical condition and texture. These variations 

 are commonly distinguished by special terms such as clayey, loamy, sandy or 

 gravelly soils, indicating the materials which form the larger proportion of their 

 bulk. The productiveness of a soil also depends partly on its power of holding 

 water and of drawing supplies of moisture from below. Water which in the soil 

 is usually more or less charged with carbonic acid gas is the universal solvent 

 which nature employs to convey food to the rootlets of plants. A good loamy 

 soil will hold much more moisture than either clay or sand and retain it longer, 

 amd among the main advantages resulting from a thorough working of the soil are 

 the prevention of loss of water by lessening rapid and excessive evaporation during 

 the summer, also the opening of it and making it more porous, so that its power 

 of retaining moisture may be increased and its particles at the same time ex- 

 posed to tne beneficial action of air and frost. All soils contain more or less 

 plant food in a soluble form which is immediately available for the use of growing 

 plants — on the other hand there is always a large proportion of the elements of fer- 

 tility, the immediate use of which the farmer cannot command, and which can only 

 be made available gradually through the influences referred to. 



CONSTITUENTS TAKEN PROM THE SOIL. 



Of the mineral constituents which enter into the composition of soil, quite a 

 number are taken up by living plants in varying proportions, but of many of the 

 ingredients the quantities used are small and the store of such contained in the soil 

 is usually very ample. There are, however, three ingredients which plants take in 

 comparatively large proportions from the land, which must sooner or later in some 

 measure be restored to it if continual good crops are to be looked for. These are 

 nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash. All arable land contains these important in- 

 gredients and usually in considerable proportions. 



It is estimated that an acre of soil a foot deep, weighs on an average about 

 3,500,000 lbs., and that good ordinary loam in Europe, estimated from the results of 

 many analyses will contain an average of not less than 3,500 lbs. per acre of nitrogen 

 and sometimes more than that. The quantity of phosphoric acid varies in the same 

 area from about 3,000 to 6,000 lbs., and potash from 5,000 to 8,000 lbs. From the 

 analyses made by the Chemist of the Experimental Farms, Mr. F. T. Shutt, during 

 the past three years, some of the samples being representative of large areas, it 

 would appear that the soils of Canada compare favourably with those of Europe in 

 their richness in these important constituents. 



