74 



SAUNDERS ON EAELY 



cultivation accommodated themselves to the conditions in which they were placed and 

 acquired this early-ripeuing habit. 



From a seed dealer in Riga, who has made a special study of the cereals grown in 

 Northern Russia, I succeeded in obtaining in the spring of ISST one hundred bushels of a 

 very promising variety of spring wheat known under the name of " Ladoga " which had 

 been grown in lat. 60° near Lake Ladoga, north of St. Petersburg. This locality is 840 

 miles further north than the city of Ottawa, and north of the northern boundary of Lake 

 Athabasca, in the Peace River country. The wheat arrived late in the spring of 1887, and 

 although promptly distributed, it did not reach the farmers in Manitoba and the North- 

 west Territories until from two to three weeks after the bulk of their crop had been sown. 

 667 sample bags of this variety, weighing three pounds each, were sent to different parts 

 of the Dominion, a large proportion going to the Northwest. The reports received from 

 the parties to whom it was sent for test, place the period of ripening of the Ladoga wheat 

 from ten to fifteen days earlier than the other varieties in general cultivation. Judging 

 from past experience, this difference of time, if maintained, woiild probably to place this 

 variety of wheat beyond reach of danger from early autumn frost. 



The earliness of the Ladoga wheat being in some degree established, its fertility may 

 be considered, and in this respect it makes a fair showing, as will be seen from the figures 

 in the following table of statistics : — 



The season, both in Ontario and Quebec, was exceptionally hot and dry, hence the 

 crops of all cereals were light and their ripening premature. On the Central Experimental 

 Farm at Ottawa, a field of 14| acres of this wheat, sown on May Tth, was harvested in 

 16 days from the date of sowing, but the grain was small and shrivelled, and weighed 

 only 57J pounds to the bushel ; the yield was 11| bushels to the acre. Under the excep- 



