REPORT OF TEE DIRECTOR 23 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



Many of the above-mentioned varieties of fruit are selected sorts, got from British 

 and European nurseries for the Experimental Farm at Agassiz, B.C., and proved, on 

 being tested there, to be of sufficient merit to justify the test in the Salmon Arm 

 district. 



New varieties of merit will be added as opportunity offers. The annual rainfall 

 in this district is light, but, as there is seldom any frost in the ground during the 

 winter, the melting snows sink into the soil, and this carries the growth well on into 

 June, when, as a rule, there is a fair amount of precipitation in the form of gentle 

 rains. There is, thus, quite sufficient moisture to enable the crops to mature, and a 

 failure has not been recorded for over twenty years. On the uplands there are seldom 

 late spring or early autumn frosts, tomatoes, garden corn, muskmelons and water- 

 melons ripening well. 



REPORT OF EXPERIMENTAL WORK AT KAMLOOPS, B.C. 



Ten acres of land on the Harper Ranch at Kamloops are retained for experimental 

 purposes by the Department of Agriculture. The Kamloops district is one of very 

 sparse rainfall, and one of the main objects aimed at is the testing of methods of 

 conserving soil moisture and of drought-resistant varieties. 



The season of 1912 was exceptional in the amount of precipitation, the snowfall 

 being above the average. The spring was late, and the snow did not disappear until 

 the end of March. 



Slight showers of rain fell on five days in April, two days in May, and fairly 

 heavy showers on five days in June, ten days in July, ten days in August. Thi9 

 amount was far above the average for this part of the country. 



The fall wheat seemed to have gone through the winter well, except for a few 

 patches where the snow had thawed off quickly and the sun had burnt it up. 



On April 4 one acre of the fall wheat was harrowed, but no apparent difference 

 was discernible when harvested. The four acres yielded 1,155 pounds. 



The 100 pounds of Red Fife spring wheat and the 2 bushels of O.A.C. No. 21 

 barley were each sown, on one-acre plots, on May 6, and were harvested on August 13. 



The wheat threshed out 900 pounds and the barley 328 pounds; samples of all 

 the grain were sent to Dr. Saunders, Dominion Cerealist, and both the wheats proved 

 to be very good milling samples. 



On May 16 the summer-fallow wa3 harrowed. On July 19 and 20 it was skimmed 

 ploughed. On September 27 it was cultivated with a spring-tooth cultivator. On 

 October 15, a bushel and a half each of Kharkov, Turkey Red No. 380 and Girka wheat 

 were sown on half-acre plots which had been summer-fallowed. On October 20 tha 

 barley and wheat stubble was ploughed six inches deep. 



With regard to the orchard, some of the trees have done extremely well, e.g., Cups 

 of Wine and Red Stettin. Others that have done well and seem to be likely to make 

 good trees are Congo, Pinto, Lowland Raspberry, Walton, Salome and Wendel; also, 

 perhaps, Jonathan. 



EXPERIMENTAL STATION FOR THE UPPER COLUMBIA RIVER VALLEY, 



AT INVERMERE, B.C. 



The following is a brief description of the Station at Invermere, with an account 

 of the preliminary work carried on during the year. 



SITUATION. 



This farm was selected in the summer of 1910, and is located in the centre of 

 the Columbia River valley, midway between the main line of the Canadian Pacific 

 railway on the north and the Crows Nest line on the south. The valley is about 190 



