DIVISION OF CEREALS 421 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



EXPERIMENTS WITH CEREALS, ETC., ON THE CENTRAL EXPERI- 

 MENTAL EARM, OTTAWA. 



In the following tables will be found the results of the tests of varieties of grain 

 at Ottawa in the season of 1912. The work here reported upon is carried out undej 

 the immediate supervision of the Dominion Cerealist. 



WEATHER AT OTTAWA. 



The spring of 1912 was rather wet, so that seeding was interrupted and delayed 

 to a serious extent. Later on, in early summer, a succession of exceptionally hot 

 days occurred, which injured crops somewhat, especially on any land that was easily 

 dried out. This hot period was followed by almost continuous wet weather until 

 about the first of October. All the grain was injured by the wet, and in some stoi 

 a good deal of sprouting occurred. The unfavourable conditions caused a large 

 amount of extra work and seriously lowered the yield and quality of all grain crops. 



UNIFORM TEST PLOTS OF CEREALS, ETC., AT OTTAWA. 



The regular test plots of grain at Ottawa are one-sixtieth of an acre each. The 

 number of these plots during the past season was as follows :— Spring wheat 201, 

 emmer and spelt 20, oats 55, six-row barley 88, two-row barley 1, peas 49, spring rye 

 3, field beans 7, flax 19, making a total of 443 plots and representing about 420 

 varieties and selected strains. 



Owing to the shortage of land for the Cereal Division, the variety tests of winter 

 wheat, winter rye and two-row barley had to be omitted. 



The tests of field roots and fodder corn, formerly carried on in this Division, 

 have been transferred to the Division of Forage Plants. 



In the following tables a discrepancy will be observed in some cases between the 

 figure given as the number of days maturing and that which is obtained by counting 

 the days between the date of sowing and the date of ripening. When any varieties 

 have been sown later than the others, it has been found necessary to introduce a 

 correction, because, owing to the great difference between spring and midsummer 

 temperatures, a delay of a few days in sowing does not produce a corresponding delay 

 in ripening. 



SPRING WHEAT. 



The regular test plots of spring wheat were sown on April 30 to May 2, the seed 

 being used at the rate of about one and one-half bushels to the acre. The durum 

 wheats were sown at the rate of about one and three-quarter bushels per acre. 



The following table includes only the named varieties. Those varieties which 

 have a letter after the name are new strains propagated at Ottawa from single 

 selected plants. 



Most of the varieties under test have been bred by the Dominion Cerealist, and 

 are without names, being recorded by numbers. As soon as the value of these new 

 sorts has been determined, names will be given to such of them as possess sufficient 

 merit to warrant their introduction to the public. 



The yield per acre is expressed in pounds, and also in ' bushels ' of sixty pounds. 



