516 EXPERIMENTAL FARMS 



1-2 EDWARD VII, A. 1902 



The Minorcas prove the best layers here and their eggs are large, but the chickens 

 are rather delicate and difficult to raise as they feather so young. 



The Brahmas are good layers and the chickens are hardy and easy to raise. 

 The parent stock should be kept thrifty by having a large run, a variety of food, and 

 change of male bird every year. It is always necessary for the heavy breeds to have 

 a large run, otherwise their eggs will not hatch well, neither will their chickens be 

 strong. 



The Barred Plymouth Bocks have done very well ; they lay nearly as well as the 

 Brahmas, and their eggs produce strong chickens, which matured a little earlier than 

 the Brahmas. They make a fine lot of even looking pullets and cockerels. Only one of 

 the B. P. Bock chickens died of illness. One B. P. Bock cockerel weighed 6 lbs. at 

 five months old, and a Brahma cockerel of same age weighed 5| lbs. A Silver Laced 

 Wyandotte and White Wyandotte cockerel weighed each 5£ lbs. at five months' old. 

 These chickens were well cared for but were not fattened and were always at large, 

 when the weather was dry. 



The Silver Laced Wyandottes and White Wyandottes are good fowls, both for 

 eggs and chickens, but are not quite so profitable here as the Brahmas and B. P. 

 Bocks. 



The Poultry are all allowed to run at large, except when put into pens for breed- 

 ing purposes, from January 1 to July. They are comfortably housed and regularly 

 fed, but are never forced either for fattening or for eggs. 



In allowing the hens to run at large not only are they much better and healthier 

 than when confined, but they also pick up many injurious insects on the lawn, and in 

 the fruit orchards. When the weather is fine they go a long distance from the hen 

 house, and are a very great benefit to the whole farm in picking up grasshoppers and 

 other insects. 



EXPERIMENTS WITH OATS. 



Sixty-three varieties of oats were sown in the uniform test plots. All were sown 

 April 18 at the rate of 1\ bushels per acre, on sandy loam which had been in pease in 

 1900 following clover. The size of plots was one-fortieth of an acre. There was very 

 little rust and no smut, and the sample is a very fair one and the yield in most cases 

 very good. The weight per bushel is obtained by weighing a half bushel of the oat.s 

 as they come from the threshing machine. 



Six plots were also sown with Banner Oats using different quantities of seed per 

 acre to ascertain what effect this might have on the crop. 



