2 EDWARD VII. SESSIONAL PAPER No. 10 A. 1902 



ANNUAL REPORT 



ON THE 



EXPERIMENTAL FARMS 



REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR, WM. SAUNDERS, LL.D., F.R.S.C, F.L.S. 



The year 1901 has, on the whole, heen an encouraging one for Canadian farmers. 

 While some crops in Ontario, Quebec and the maritime provinces have fallen below 

 the average yield, others have been unusually good, and the excellent prices received 

 for nearly all farm products during the year have helped to make up for any shortage 

 in particular crops. In Ontario, fall wheat, oats and pease have given yields unusually 

 light, while hay, which occupies a nearly equal area, has given a remarkably heavy 

 return, and the product has been of good quality. Hay has also given exceptionally 

 large crops in Quebec and the maritime provinces, in which sections, however, oats have 

 fallen below the average. Spring wheat and barley are said to have produced nearly 

 average returns in the eastern provinces, while Indian corn and field roots have gone 

 above the average. 



In the western provinces of Manitoba and British Columbia, agricultural crops 

 of all sorts have been very good, while in many parts of the North-west Territories the 

 yields have been extraordinary and probably unprecedented. 



The experimental farms have had results corresponding much with those of the 

 test farmers in their neighbourhood, and on the whole, as will be seen by consulting 

 1he following pages, the returns have been very encouraging. The Fifteenth Annual 

 Keport of the work of these institutions is herewith presented. The reports previously 

 issued, one of which has appeared annually for the last fourteen years, — covering prac- 

 tical experimental work to determine many points along all the different lines em- 

 braced in Canadian agriculture, horticulture, forestry and ornamental planting — have 

 had a wide influence in moulding the thought and practice of a large number of the 

 more intelligent people engaged in these various branches of work, and through them, 

 have wielded an influence on others. Object lessons, framed after the best methods, 

 and covering a very large field, have been provided every year at each of the experi- 

 mental farms, and visiting farmers who have come to learn, as many of them annually 

 do, have carried home with them useful ideas, which, put in practice on their own 

 farms, have added to the profits of their business. 



Those who are so situated that they cannot visit the farms, can receive free, by 

 asking for them, the annual reports and the bulletins prepared by the officers of the 

 farms, replete with information covering, as fully as is practicable, many of the differ- 

 ent lines of work undertaken, and the results can be studied at leisure. Thus, the in- 

 formation acquired is spread over the whole Dominion. Nearly fifty thousand farmers 

 now receive the publications of the experimental farms, and their number is steadily 

 increasing. 



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