2 GEORGE V. SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 A. 1912 



EXPERIMENTAL FARM FOR NOVA SCOTIA. 



REPORT OF R. ROBERTSON, SUPERINTENDENT. 



Nappan, N.S., March 31, 1911. 



To Dr. Wu, Saunders, C.M.G., 



Director, Dominion Experimental Farms, 

 Ottawa. 



Sir, — I have the honour to submit herewith my report of the operations on the 

 Experimental Farm for Nova Scotia at Nappan, N.S., for the year ending March 31, 

 1911. 



The summer season of 1910 was the most favourable for the growing of hay and 

 grass crops that the province has experienced for some years, as the growing period 

 opened earlier than is customary with an unusual amount of rain until well into May, 

 fair weather following this for some time. 



Seeding operations began somewhat earlier than the previous year, May 10, but 

 from May 24, practically all through June, the weather was so broken and wet that 

 the sowing progressed quite slowly, with the result that it was finished quite as late 

 as usual, i.e., about the end of June, some turnips being sown as late as July 3. 



All crops made very good growth until about the middle of July. From this out. 

 fall through the month of August, the weather was colder than usual, with little rain. 



Grain and root crops, particularly root crops, that seemed to offer exceptionally 

 well in July and early August, did not come up to expectations on account of the 

 unusually dry weather for this season, which continued well into October. 



Corn was below the usual crop, doing very poorly the first part of the season, but 

 improving considerably through August and September. 



While the apple crop was not quite as low relatively as in other apple-growing 

 sections of the province, it was by no means up to former years, particularly the late 

 varieties, possibly due to frost on June 5 and 6, while the trees were in full bloom. 

 The same would apply to strawberries, which realized not more than half the crop that 

 had been gotten in some past years. 



I have again much pleasure in taking this opportunity to acknowledge the services 

 of Mr. Thomas Coates, farm foreman, and Mr. Robert Donaldson, herdsman, who have 

 pg ably assisted me in their respective divisions. 



EXPERIMENTS WITH SPRING WHEAT. 



Ten varieties of spring wheat were sown in uniform test plots of one-fortieth 

 acre each. The land was a clay loam on which roots had been grown the previous 

 year (1909), for which crop, barnyard manure at the rate of twenty tons per acre had 

 been applied. No manure or other fertilizer was used for this crop. 



The land was ploughed in the fall of 1909, well worked up in the spring (1910), 

 and sown May 11, with seed selected from picked heads of the previous year's crop, 

 sown at the rate of one and three-quarter bushels per acre, together with common red 

 clover, seven lbs.; alsike clover, three lbs., and timothy seed, twelve lbs. per acre. 



