458 EXPERIMENTAL FARMS 



1-2 EDWARD VII., A. 1902 



In the Regina, Pense, Moosejaw and Sintaluta districts equally heavy crops 

 have been harvested. One family of father and six sons in the Pense district are 

 reported to have between seventy-five and eighty thousand bushels of wheat to market. 



Settlers with ten, fifteen or twenty thousand bushels are numerous in the districts 

 mentioned, and no doubt the same may be said of the more easterly portion of Assini- 

 boia, although I have no direct information in the matter. 



The newly settled districts along the Soo line of railway have been equally fortu- 

 nate, and a large influx of settlers is expected in the districts north of Weyburn, 

 Milestone and Yellow Grass as soon as spring opens next year. 



Saskatchewan reports a good crop of wheat and oats, and Alberta has the heaviest 

 crop of oats it has ever secured. . 



The oat crop throughout the Territories is a heavy one. The majority of farmers 

 in the wheat-growing sections have paid little attention to this important cereal, being 

 content to sow on stubble land with little or no cultivation and thresh from 30 to 50 

 bushels per' acre ; whereas, some, and the number is increasing, are using fallowed 

 land and securing 75 to 100 bushels. In several instances the yield has been over 100 

 bushels per acre this year. 



Fallowed land, the past season, as in every other year, has given the highest yield 

 of wheat per acre, and so far as can be ascertained, the crop grown thereon has sus- 

 tained no injury from rust, smut or other cause. In some cases the quantity of straw 

 was excessive and lodged in places, but this apparently has had no appreciable effect on 

 the yield. 



Grain sowed on stubble land ploughed or cultivated in the fall of 1900 or just 

 before seeding, invariably gave good returns ; while on similar land without cultivation 

 the yield was comparatively light. 



Cattle throughout the Territories have not done as well during the past season as 

 in 1900. Flies and soft grass are no doubt accountable for this to a considerable 

 extent. The heavy rains in June and July made the grass soft and watery and caused 

 a most abundant crop of mosquitoes and flies. The price of export steers has kept up, 

 but the demand for stockers has not been so brisk as in former years. 



» 



EXPERIMENTAL FARM CROPS. 



The crops on the Experimental Farm the past season were, without an exception, 

 the best since the commencement of operations in 1887. Everything grown yielded 

 above the average and many varieties of grain were above any previous record. The 

 sample too, surpasses that of any other year. 



Pasture, hay, corn, potatoes, vegetables and roots (with the exception of field 

 carrots, which although above ordinary years, were not in keeping with the other 

 crops), were a most gratifying success. 



All the tests made with grain, roots, fodder-plants, &c, came through the season 

 without a single set-back from winds, frost or other causes, and all have been safely 

 eecured and threshed in good condition. 



Small fruits were a fair crop, and crab-apples and plums produced abundantly. 



Trees and shrubs of all kinds made a strong, healthy growth. 



EXPERIMENTS WITH SPRING WHEAT. 



Seventy-one varieties were tested on l-20th or l-40th acre plots ; eight of the 

 same varieties on plots ranging from § acre to 10 acres. Red Fife was used in the 

 test of fertilizers ; rotation test ; test of sowing selected, well-cleaned and small seed, 

 and in the test of blue stone as a preventive of smut. 



