430 EXPERIMENTAL FARMS 



2 GEORGE V., A. 1912 



is followed. For the past fourteen years, the best, safest and cleanest grain has been 

 grown on fallow, worked in this way, and the method is therefore recommended. 



' Fallows that have been ploughed for the first time after the first of July, and 

 especially after July 15, have never given good results; and the plan too frequently 

 followed of waiting till weeds are full grown, and often ripe, and ploughing under 

 with the idea of enriching the soil, is a method that cannot be too earnestly advised 

 against. 



' In the first place, after the rains are over in June or early in July, as they usually 

 are, no amount of work, whether deep or shallow ploughing, or surface cultivation, can 

 put moisture in the soil. The rain must fall on the first ploughing and be conserved 

 by surface cultivation. 



' Weeds, when allowed to attain their full growth, take from the soil all the mois- 

 ture put there by the June rains, and ploughing under weeds with their seeds ripe or 

 nearly so, is adding a thousand-fold to the myriads already in the soil, and does not 

 materially enrich the land.' 



During the past two years the term 'dry farming' has been applied to what was 

 formerly known in the west as ' summer-fallowing.' 



With the exception of the addition of the use of a soil-packer there is no change 

 in the methods formerly employed, when the spring rains and frequent cultivation 

 were depended upon for the packing of the soil. 



Packers are, without doubt, most useful instruments on the farm and where from 

 any cause the soil is loose, they should be used. They are, however, expensive im- 

 plements and within the means of comparatively few of the new settlers. Fortunately, 

 parly ploughing and frequent shallow cultivation may be depended upon to produce 

 almost equally satisfactory results in the majority of cases. 



CULTIVATION OF STUBBLE. 



When farmers summer-fallow one-third of their cultivated land each year, as 

 they should, one-half of each year's crop will be on stubble. For wheat, the best 

 preparation of this land is to burn the stubble on the first warm, windy day in the 

 spring, and either cultivate shallow before seeding or give one or two strokes of the 

 harrow after seeding, the object being to form a mulch to conserve whatever moisture 

 may be in the soil, until the commencement of the June rains. 



The portion intended for oats or barley, should be ploughed four or five inches 

 deep and harrowed immediately; then seeded and harrowed as fine as possible. In 

 case time will not permit of ploughing, good returns may be expected from sowing 

 the seed oats or barley on the burnt ground, and discing it in; then harrowing well. 



FALL PLOUGHING. 



With regard to fall ploughing it may be said that, as a rule, on account of short 

 seasons and dry soil, very little work can possibly be done in the fall, but if the stubble- 

 land is in a condition to plough and the stubble is not too long, that portion intended 

 for oats and barley may then be ploughed, if time permits. 



It is, however, a mistake to turn over soil in a lumpy or dry condition, as nine 

 times out of ten it will remain in the same state until May or June, with insufficient 

 moisture to properly germinate the seed, and the crop will very likely be overtaken by 

 fro3t. 



Ajb to the quantity of seed to sow and the depth of sowing, long experience has 

 shown that the best results are had in Saskatchewan by the sowing of one and a half 

 bushels of wheat per acre or two bushels of barley or oats. Sowing about two inches 

 deep has given the most satisfactory returns, and the c er-d should be got in as early 

 as is practicable. 



