92 



EXPERIA'EXTAL FARMS 



4 GEORGE V., A. 1914 



were very promising, but with the continued dry weather until late in June the 

 meadows of two years' standing, or longer, became yellow and did not fully revive 

 again all summer. In the months of July, August and September, there was more 

 than average precipitation, which had a peculiar effect upon the grain crops. The 

 plants had adapted themselves to the dry weather conditions of June by stooling very 

 little, but with the heavy rains in July the stools developed and, at harvest time, there 

 was the unusual circumstance of several stages of development in the plants of any 

 one plot and, in many cases, in the heads of grain of one plant. Some of the wheat 

 was ripe while other heads in the same plant were in blossom. This condition of 

 irregular growth worked to the disadvantage of the farmer at every stage. In the 

 first place, there was no means of determining the best time to cut; after cutting, 

 the green straw delayed the drying of the grain; at threshing, a great deal of the 

 undeveloped grain blew out with the straw which very materially lowered the yield as 

 compared with the yield promised from the stand, and at marketing, the presence of 

 immature grain with the good grain lowered the grade. 



Following are the meteorological records for the past year: — 



METEOROLOGICAL RECORDS. . 



Month. 



1912. 



April. 

 May. 



June 



July 



August 



September. 

 October. . . . 

 November. 

 December . 



1913. 



January . . 

 February . 

 March . . 



Totals. 



Date. 



11 

 27 

 23 

 30 

 23 

 12 

 1 



18 

 27 



29 



17 



8 



Temperature F. 



Ma 



Min. 



16.8 

 28.2 

 34.0 

 38.2 

 37.2 

 20.6 

 17.7 

 

 ■23.2 



49.5 

 34.0 

 33.8 



Mean. 



39.21 



48.5 

 61.88 

 57.7 

 58.6 

 45.74 

 38.48 

 23.99 

 8 15 



13.3 

 0.6 

 4.25 



Precipitation. 



1911-12 



0.86 

 2.38 

 3.55 

 2.89 

 1.79 

 1.81 

 

 0.90 

 0.85 



0.30 

 0.30 

 0.60 



16.23 



1912-13 



.67 

 2.20 

 2.81 

 5.25 

 2.15 

 2.76 

 0.22 

 0.82 

 0.5 



0.55 

 0.32 

 0.35 



18.60 



Hours of 

 .Sunshine. 



251.4 

 246.7 

 363.7 

 164.9 

 192.2 

 133.0 

 107.4 

 64.3 

 62.4 



73.9 

 103.8 

 160.3 



1923.9 



EXPERIMENTAL WORK. 



The work begun in 1911 under the heading of Cultural Investigation Work, 

 was continued in 1912, but as such work requires time to collect reliable results, very 

 little can yet be deduced from most of the experiments. In the work begun at the 

 eame time on rotations, however, something can already be learned by studying the 

 results of this work carefully. Allowing a fair market value for all crops pro- 

 duced, and a fair wage, and necessary allowances for wear and tear of machinery, 

 rent of land and other incidental expenses, it will be seen in the first place, that the 

 more the variety of crops, within certain limits, the greater is the return from the soil. 

 Another notable feature in this work is the great returns obtained from somewhat 

 more than ordinary cultivation. The returns from land poorly cultivated and sown 

 to but one crop continuously show poor returns for the capital invested. 



In the work on test of varieties, several new varieties of wheat bred by Dr. O. 

 Saunders were under test, but none has shown any decided advantage over Marquis. 



Attention is called to the work carried on with potatoes last season, and par- 

 ticularly the different yields obtained from different methods of planting and cultiva- 



