DITISIOy OF CEREALS 1037 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 ' 



EXPERIMENTAL STATION FOR CENTRAL QUEBEC. 



GUS. LANGELIER, SUPERINTENDENT. 

 TEMPERATURE AT CAP ROUGE IN 1915 



As far as grain growing is concerned, the season can be considered one of the best 

 in years, and yields were higher than usual in this district. Seeding operations were 

 in full swing during the second and third weeks of May, which means that spring 

 was about an average one for earliness. From the 16th of the above month until the 

 23rd of October there was not a single frost, which is unusual in this part of the 

 country. As a whole, the five months which may be called the growing season for 

 grain, May, June, July, August, and September, were a little warmer, drier, and duller 

 than the average for the past three years, the mean temperature for this period being 

 1-07 degrees higher, the precipitation 0-67 inch less, and the number of hours of sun- 

 shine 5-2 fewer than during 1912-13-14. 



INVESTIGATIONS WITH GRAIN. 



Investigations with grain at this Station comprise; (1) tests of different varieties 

 of spring wheat, barley, oats, peas, flax, to find out their relative yielding power and 

 earliness; (2) the improvement of the leading kinds by selection; (3) the production 

 of seed under field conditions; (4) the comparison of different mixtures for live stock 

 feed; (5) the growing of grain for hay production. 



VARIETY TESTS. 



The trial plots, all in duplicate, are of one-sixtieth acre and come in a regular 

 three-year rotation of hoed crop, grain and hay. They are on a uniform though rather 

 poor piece of sandy loam with shale about eighteen inches from the surface. The land 

 gets an application of 20 tons of bam yard manure every three years; it was ploughed 

 in October 1914 and double disced twice, harrowed, rolled, and sown with a drill on 

 May 17 and 18. All the plots were rogued and kept clean during the growing season. 

 The grain was not hurt by disease, lodging, or pests; it was cut by hand, and threshed 

 in a specially constructed and easily cleaned machine. 



SPRING WHEAT. 



Eight varieties were tested: Bishop, Chelsea, Early Red Fife, Early Russian, 

 Huron," Marquis, Prelude, Red ife. The highest yielder was Chelsea, tried here this 

 season 'for the first time; it gave 1,738 pounds of grain per acre, and matured in ninety- 

 three days. The earliest was Prelude, which ripened in eighty-five days, and gave 

 1,508 pounds of grain per acre. The average of five years places Huron first with 1.406 

 pounds per acre; during that period, it was just two days later to ripen than Marquis, 

 which only gave 1,049 pounds per acre. Huron is a bearded variety, and its baking 

 qualities are not of the very best, but it is unquestionably the highest yielder of any 



