REPORT OF MR. S. A. BEDFORD. 



313 



Pease — Early, medium and late sowings. 



* The crop from these two plots was badly mixed by a wind storm after cutting and the yield given 

 is the product of both. 



EXPERIMENTS WITH OATS. 



More Injury was done to the oat crop by spring frost last May than during any 

 year in the history of the province, where the frost was preceded by drifting soil, 

 carried by strong winds, many fields of oats were either completely destroyed or the 

 plants so badly thinned that weeds took possession of the ground choking out the grain. 



In the varietal test of oats on this farm, 15 varieties were completely killed out, 

 11 badly injured and many others more or less thinned; depending on their exposure to 

 the high north-west winds of 29th May ; for this reason the results obtained from the 

 series of plots planted as a comparative test of varieties are unfortunately this year of 

 little or no value for the purpose designed. 



All the plots uninjured by wind and frost gave a fair yield of grain and the straw 

 was unusually free from rust ; the seed of all varieties was immersed for five minutes in 

 a bluestone liquid composed of 1 pound bluestone to 3 pails (2-i quarts) of water before 

 sowing and very little injury was done by smut. 



Sixty-one varieties of oats were sown with a hoe drill, all on 1st May, on ^^j acre 

 plots, 8oU a fairly rich black loam which had been summer-fallowed. 



