REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR 21 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



The village of Grouard is situated at the northwest end of Lesser Slave lake, and 

 is bounded by the forest on the east side, with very little open ground between that 

 and the lake. The arable land here is limited in area, but here and there one finds 

 clear spaces for cultivation. The land bordering on the lake is very sandy. To extend 

 the cultivated area it was necessary to clear the forest and, accordingly, about ten 

 acres of new land was made. This work was commenced in 1894. The forest land 

 is generally good, with four or five inches of humus on the surface. The subsoil is of 

 friable clay. Grain does well on this land, but it has been little grown, potatoes and 

 vegetables being sown in preference. 



To grow the cereals, it was thought advisable to break some land about eight 

 miles to the northwest of Grouard on a hillside sloping to the southeast. The soil on 

 this area is of two kinds, the low land, a heavy clay, and the high land, a sandy loam, 

 containing possibly thirty per cent of vegetable mould. 



This land was cleared in part to commence with, and each year the clearing has 

 been extended. 



The success obtained in growing cereals and potatoes has been decided enough 

 in spite of some temporary setbacks from drought and frost (the latter rarely, twice 

 in eighteen years) to encourage the breaking of new land in order to practise rota- 

 tions as far as required. These rotations allowed the sowing of some eighty acres in 

 grain for several years without growing the same crop on the same land oftener than 

 once in three years. 



The harvest from the clayey and alkaline land is less than that on the higher 

 land, which is a sandy loam. The former, however, always yields good, heavy grain, 

 nearly always mature. 



The spring of 1911 was particularly unfavourable at Grouard, as in all Alberta. 

 The harvest was very late, although the grain was partly ripe. The bad harvest 

 weather made it very difficult to save the grain harvested when damp, and the wheat 

 especially heated in the shock. This injured its vitality greatly, as was evident the 

 next spring. 



Oats, sown on May 4, were harvested on September 2, 135 bushels yielding 1,578 

 bushels. The oats were sown in the most unfavourable location, a heavy clay, and 

 owing to the extreme drought the straw was so short that about a third of the area was 

 pastured. 



Wheat, owing to low vitality of seed, was very light, forty bushels, sown on May 

 2 and harvested September 5, yielding 350 bushels. 



Fifteen bushels of barley, sown May 1, yielded 186 bushels, harvested August 19. 

 The grain was much blackened by heating. 



It should be noted that the yield during the previous two years (1909 and 1910) 

 was three times as great on the same area, seed of good vitality having been used. 

 The seeding in 1911 could not be done at the usual time, April 20 to 25, owing to 

 heavy falls .of snow making outside work impossible. The rains of the previous 

 autumn had also prevented the usual preparatory work. 



Early Rose potatoes were sown May 18 and dug September 26. The field of three 

 acres yielded 600 bushels, or about one-third of the return from a field of the same 

 size in 1911. 



Two varieties each of carrots, beets, onions and celery gave good returns. Cab- 

 bage, garden peas, beans, tomatoes, lettuce, radish, turnips, pumpkins and squashes, 

 without exception, gave very satisfactory crops of properly-matured vegetables. 



Currants fruited freely and a tree of Pyrus baccata produced fruit which was 

 harvested September 11. 



THE AUTUMN SOWING OF GARDEN SEEDS. 



It may interest our readers who are engaged in gardening, especially those living 

 in the cold regions of the Northwest Territories, to hear of a method which has been 

 found advantageous in overcoming the shortness of the season there. 



