414 EXPERIMENTAL FARMS 



4 GEORGE V., A. 19H 



an unfavourable one for early-maturing varieties of grain, general satisfaction was 

 found to prevail in regard to the harvest prospects for the early varieties of wheat, 

 Marquis and Prelude. In most instances the high expectations were fully justified 

 by the weight of grain threshed. 



While the varieties of cereals under cultivation in some of the older-settled por- 

 tions of Manitoba and Saskatchewan are satisfactory, and the need of new and im- 

 proved kinds is not now very great, the condition of affairs is quite otherwise in 

 northern districts and over a large portion of Alberta, where the early-maturing 

 varieties of wheat hitherto introduced, including Marquis, cannot be depended on to 

 ripen every season, especially when sown on summer-fallowed land. For these 

 conditions, Prelude wheat will be of enormous value but tests are also required of a 

 large number of the new cross-bred sorts produced by the Dominion Cerealist at 

 Ottawa, and now available for trial elsewhere. 



MARQUIS WHEAT. 



Marquis wheat was so fully discussed in the report of last year that a passing 

 reference will be t sufficient on this occcasion. The year 1912 has been another 

 ' Marquis year,' owing to the conditions being rather unfavourable for the growing 

 of Red Fife. Not only did Marquis give yields which, as usual, surpassed Red Fife 

 on the great majority of farms, but the winning of the highest award at the Inter- 

 national Dry-Farming Congress at Lethbridge last autumn attracted again the atten- 

 tion of the whole world to this variety. Marquis is now being grown by so many 

 farmers in almost all parts of the western country that there has been no difficulty 

 in securing good seed this winter. While any attempt to estimate the probable acre- 

 age of Marquis for this coming season will no doubt be quite inaccurate, it appears 

 that at least one million acres of this variety will be sown. The widespread popu- 

 larity of Marquis is all the more noteworthy when we recall that this variety was 

 introduced into Saskatchewan in 1907, when about half a bushel of seed was sent 

 from Ottawa for trial on the Experimental Farm at Indian Head. Almost the whole 

 of the seed now in the farmers' hands traces back to that first shipment, very little 

 seed grown at Ottawa having since been sent out. 



Many excellent yields of Marquis wheat were reported last season, the most 

 remarkable being on the Indian Head Farm, where a plot of one-fortieth of an acre 

 gave a crop at the rate of over 81 bushels per acre. This is probably a world's record 

 for spring wheat, 



PRELUDE WHEAT. 



Preliminary tests at Ottawa and at some of the branch Experimental Farms 

 having clearly demonstrated the great value of this new variety, a few small samples 

 were sent last spring to farmers in Saskatchewan and Alberta, so that a better idea 

 might be obtained as to its adaptability to various districts. The tests on the branch 

 farms were also increased in number and in acreage. The season was particularly 

 unfavourable for varieties which develop rapidly, because excessive heat and drought 

 prevailed during the early part of the summer, conditions which proved very trying 

 to all grains which were moderately well advanced. Those sorts which develop 

 slowly were not so seriously injured. In one or two cases, small plots of Prelude 

 wheat were almost entirely destroyed during this period; but, on the whole, the record 

 made by the new variety was most satisfactory, the yields in some instances being 

 really remarkable. 



Two special cases deserve mention. Mr. E. B. Cay, of Beatty (near Melfort), 

 Sask., sowed five pounds of Prelude wheat on one-fifth of an acre of land, and 

 threshed G03 pounds. Mr. W. J. Borton, of Bottrel, Alberta, sowed one pound of 

 seed on a relatively large piece of land and secured 12-3 pounds of clean grain. Of 



