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



EXPERIMENTAL STATION FOR 

 CENTRAL ALBERTA 



Lacombe, Alta., March 31, 1911. 



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



Director, Dominion Experimental Farms, 

 Ottawa, Ont. 



Sir, — I have the honour to submit to you the fourth annual report of the work 

 of the Experimental Station for Central Alberta at Lacombe, Alta., for the past year. 



The spring of 1910 opened early ; seedings of wheat in the dates of sowing test and 

 test of varieties and trial seedings of oats and barley were made on March 31. There 

 was little growth during the first half of April, while night frosts made unfavourable 

 conditions for alfalfa and winter wheat. 



As the season advanced, growth was good, particularly on well-worked breaking of 

 1909 or summer-fallow of that year, well-worked. The rainfall for the season was less 

 than usual and dry weather made it hard for those who, being newcomers, had not been 

 long enough in the province to get their land in condition to meet a dry season by 

 storing moisture through cultivation. From April 1 to August 15, 8-34 inches of rain 

 fell at Lacombe. 



All grain crops on the Station matured well and, as there was no frost to injure 

 Indian corn till September 9, a fair crop of fodder corn was harvested. Notwithstand- 

 ing the limited rainfall, yields of grain and roots have been good and in one or two 

 instances almost phenomenal records have been established. 



Fall work was retarded by rather early freezing, no work on the land being possib!* 

 after November 1. 



EXPERIMENTS WITH WINTER WHEAT., 



As in 1909, winter wheat on breaking or on sod was able to withstand the con- 

 tmual thawing and freezing of the early spring better than the winter wheat sown on 

 §vmmp;--fallow. All the varieties of winter wheat were sown on summer-fallow and 

 were so badly spring-killed that it was not thought worth while leaving them. Turkey 

 Red and Dawson's Golden Chaff varieties were sown on land ploughed out of timothy 

 sod after the hay was cut in 1909. These varieties were used both in the tests a-> t» 

 dates of sowing and seeding at different quantities of seed per acre. 



16—31 



