332 



EXPERIMENT STATION BECOED. 



iiii.xuire of peas, oats, and vetches, and the crop plowed under for two successive 

 years. The "take" of clover and timothy was good and the field appeared 

 lo be in good condition for croj) growing. Marsh or dike soil was treated with 

 nuiriate of potash, sulphate of potash, basic slag, bone meal, and complete 

 fertilizer in varying amounts and combinations, harrowed in before planting. 

 On a parallel series on which the fertilizer was applied after planting and 

 without harrowing, the yields were distinctly greater, the maximum difference 

 being nearly 22 bu. of oats per aero. The maximum yield, however, was i)ro- 

 duced from an application of 300 lbs. of fertilizer harrowed in before seeding. 

 Experiments on marsh lands with lime, basic slag, bone meal, and a commer- 

 cial fertilizer were continued from those of 1907 with the most perceptible 

 residual advantage from basic slag and bone meal as indicated by the hay crop 

 grown on these plafs during this year. On the plats for special experiments 

 with fertilizers, the residual benefit, during this, the fifth season without addi- 

 tional fertilization, was, in the series without clover, most marked on the plats 

 previously treated with manure, complete fertilizer, and marsh mud. The 

 plats with clover almost invariably gave decisively greater yields than those 

 without, the maximum increase being 10 bu. 10 lbs. of oats on plats treated 

 with marsh mud. 



At the Brandon farm, seed oats dipped or sprinkled with either formalin or 

 i)luestone, or dipped with anti-fungi, in every case produced cro])s entirely 

 free from smutty heads. In a rotation experiment testing the feasibility of 

 substituting the turning under of leguminous crops for bare summer fallow, the 

 1908 yields were as follows: 



Relative value of legumes plowed under every third year and bare summer 

 fallotv, at the Brandon and Indian Head farms. 



Oats as a nurse crop at Brandon produced a heavier crop of grain and left 

 a better stand of grasses and clovers, which stood the winter better and pro- 

 duced a heavier crop of hay the following year than resulted when clovers and 

 grasses were started with spring rye or barley. 



At Indian Head, injury during 2 successive years resulted from artificial 

 infection of the soil with smut, whether the seed was treated with bluestone 

 or formalin or left untreated. Bluestone appeared to excel formalin, and the 

 tests indicated that " wheat treated 1 year in advance of sowing is not ruined 

 for seed." 



At Lacombe. summei'-fallowed land gave yields of wheat more than 3 times 

 as great as those produced by brome grass sod plowed under and 2.8 times as 

 great as timothy sod plowed rnder. Wheat following sod matured in about 

 4 days less time than that following summer fallow. Successive sowings of 



