1-2 EDWARD VII. SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 A. 1902 



EXPERIMENTAL WORK 



CONDUCTED AT THE CENTRAL EXPERIMENTAL FARM, 



OTTAWA, ONTARIO. 



EXPERIMENTS WITH OATS. 



One hundred and seven varieties of oats have been under trial in the test plots at 

 the Central Experimental Farm during 1901. The object of these experiments has 

 been to gain information as to the relative productiveness, earliness and other char- 

 acteristics of the different sorts. The soil on which these oats were sown was a heavy 

 sandy loam of good quality, more or less mixed with clay. The previous crop was 

 field roots. The land received a dressing in the winter of 1899-1900 of about twelve 

 tons of fresh barn-yard manure per acre, which was placed on the frozen ground in 

 small heaps of about one-third of a cart load each, and spread and ploughed under in 

 the spring. No manure has been applied since. In the aiitumn of 1900, after the 

 roots were gathered, the land was ploughed about seven inches deep and left in that 

 condition until the following spring when it was cultivated twice with a two-horse cul- 

 tivator and harrowed twice with the smoothing harrow before the oats were sown. 



The seed of most of the varieties was sown on April 17, the remainder from April 

 26 to 29 all on plots of one-fortieth of an acre each, seed being used in each case at the 

 rate of two bushels per acre. 



Among the new sorts brought under trial are Irish Victor, Beseler and Atlantic, 

 all white branching oats. Pioneer, a black branching oat, and Goldfinder, a large 

 yellow half-sided oat, both new introductions of the Garton Bros., of Newton-le-Wil- 

 lows, England. To Prof. C. Doxrud, of the Technical School, Christiania, Norway, I 

 am indebted for two varieties of oats from that country. Black No. 6 and Summer 

 No. 5, and from the United States Department of Agriculture I have also received two 

 new sorts, Tobolsk 2800, and Zhelanni 2963. 



Included in the list there are also thirteen cross-bred sorts, all of which have been 

 originated on the experimental farms: — Brandon, Cromwell, Holland, Kendal, King, 

 Master, Medal, Milford, Miller, Olive, Oxford, Pense and Russell. 



There are also two new cross-bred sorts in the list this year. These are further 

 results of the work in cross-breeding done by Dr. A. P. Saunders, at Brandon, in 1892. 

 The following are their names and parentage : — 



Dixon. — Black Tartarian female, with Early Gothland male. 

 Forbes. — Giant Cluster female, with Prize Cluster male. 



It will be seen from the following results that oats have fallen below the average 

 in yield this year. 



