43 



EXPERIMENTAL FARMS. 



4 GEORGE V., A. 1914 



A classified list of samples received for examination from farmers and of those 

 in connection with the various investigations that have been carried on during the 

 year, is presented in the following table. The total number, 2,821, exceeds that of 

 the previous year by nearly 500, and of 1911 by over 1,000, a fair indication of the 

 increasing appreciation on the part of farmers of this branch of the work. 



Samples Received for Examination and Report for the Twelve Months ended 



March 31, 1913. 



CONSERVATION OF SOIL MOISTUItE. 



This important investigation was begun in 1910, with the object of ascertaining 

 the influence of various cultural operations and croppings on the moisture-content 

 of the soil. It comprises a series of cultural and rotation experiments conducted on 

 the Experimental Earms at Brandon, Man., Indian Head, Sask., and Lethbridge, 

 Alta., planned and arranged to include a number of systems of tillage, soil manage- 

 ment and crop rotation likely to prove suitable for farming in the open prairie dis- 

 tricts enjoying but a sparse and irregular rainfall. Soil samples from the experi- 

 mental plots have been taken to two depths — to 18 inches, and 18 inches to 5 feet, 

 periodically throughout the season, and their moisture-content determined. 



It will be understood that this work is still in progress and, therefore, that final 

 conclusions must be deferred. It will be possible, however, to indicate some of the 

 more striking results that have been obtained. 



In ' prairie breaking ' the plots were ploughed from 2 to 5 inches. In two seasons 

 of the three the soil of the deeper ploughed plots, for the first 18 inches, retained 

 the more moisture. Though the difference usually was small, it was fairly well main- 

 tained throughout the summer, the surface of the plots being kept well cultivated. It 

 was found that adjacent plots of recently broken land, sown, after due and similar 

 preparation by discing and harrowing, to a mixture of peas and oats and flax respec- 

 tively, differed considerably in their moisture-content as the season advanced. That 

 bearing the peas and oats was the more moist, probably owing to the greater protec- 

 tion against surface evaporation provided by the more leafy crop. 



The influence on moisture-content of 'depth and time of ploughing' was deter- 

 mined on a large number of plots. As regards depth, the ploughing varied from 3 

 to 8 inches, with an additional subsoiling of 4 to 6 inches on certain of the plots. 

 The times of ploughing were one month apart, in May, June and July. The trend 

 of the results from two seasons' records is in the direction of greater moisture stor- 

 age following the deeper ploughing, but evidently there is a limit — probably deter- 



