50 EXPERIiTENTAL FARMS 



6 GEORGE V, A. 1916 



A crew was kept steadily at work digging ditches and laying tiles. Approximately 

 23,000 tiles were laid, of which three-fourths were made of concrete. These are being 

 compared with clay tile. So far as ease of handling and loss from breakage are con- 

 cerned, they have thus far been more satisfactory. The drains laid in 1913 have 

 given great satisfaction, permitting the working of the land three weeks earlier than 

 in the years before the drainage was done. 



CLEARING LAND. 



Approximately 63 acres was stimiped and ploughed during the season. Four and 

 three-quarters acres of this was sown in oats, 2 acres of it planted in orchard, and 

 7 acres sown to buckwheat. The balance was ploughed after the seeding season, and 

 will be put in crop in 1915. Bushes were cut and burned over 30 acres, and 20 

 acres of woodland was cut over and the wood sold. 



ROADMAKING AND GRADING. 



Twenty-five rods of the highway along the river bank was gravelled with beach 

 gravel after several low spots had been stone-filled, and 475 loads of earth were 

 taken off the sides of the farm road to give surface drainage from the farmyard, the 

 earth being used to make an embankment leading to the approach to the dairy barn. 

 Tlie surface of the farmyard was also graded to give an even slope and sufface drain- 

 age from the barns. Considerable grading on the farm road remains to be done. 



LIVE STOCK, 



A pure-bred Clyde mare, a grade Clyde mare, and two Percheron grade mares 

 had foals sired by pure-bred Clyde and Percheron stallions, respectively. The pure- 

 bred Clyde foal died from pneumonia four days after birth, and one of the Per- 

 cheron foals died at tliree months of age from the same cause. The two remaining 

 colts have made fairly good gro\vth, the Clyde colt weighing on March 31. at eleven 

 months, 8G0 pounds at a food cost of $32.17, and the Percheron filly weighing on the 

 same date at ten months and twenty days, 740 pounds at a food cost of $30.26. 

 Sires of these colts weighed 1,700 pounds, dams from 1,450 to 1,750 pounds. Ten 

 mares were bred, but only five proved pregnant. An odd grade Clyde mare was sold 

 and a general-purpose mare bought. The horses on hand at the end of the year were 

 three pure-bred Clyde mares, five grade Clyde mares, two Percheron grade mares, two 

 geldings of draught breeding, a general-purpose mare, a cross-bred standard bred 

 3[organ driving mare, and the two colts above mentioned. Two non-pre.anant marea 

 were wintered on oat straw, hay and roots; their health was excellent, but they lost 

 weight. The mare on turnips coS't for food $3 per month, and in three months lost 

 115 pounds in weight; the mare on carrots cost for food $3.60 per month, and in three 

 m>)nths lost 90 pounds in weight. 



Of the thirty-nine feeding cattle mentioned in the last report, thirty-six steers 

 were sold on May 27, after a feeding period of 141 days, at 6^ cents and 5^ cents per 

 pound according to quality. Two cows calved and were added to the dairy herd, and 

 one cow died of blood poisoning. 



Eleven heifers of no definite breeding, and typical of the average dairy stock 

 among the farmers remote from towns, were bought for the purpose of testing their 

 production from year to year, breeding them to good, pure-bred dairy bulls, and te.=;ting 

 the resulting heifers to the third or fourth generation to ascertaiu what results can be 

 obtained in increased production by the use solely of dairy-bred bulls. Ayrshires 

 Pairy Shorthorns, and Holsteins will be the bulls used. 



Three small pure-bred herds of Dairy Shorthorns, Ayrshires, and Holsteins werej 

 put in and all are breeding. Two iiure-bred Ayrshire calves died from pneumonia. 



