LXVI THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
almost four times the combined products of our forests, mines and 
fisheries, makes the solution of these problems of paramount import- 
ance. This was recognized by the Act of 1886 which authorized the 
Dominion Government to establish a system of Experimental Farms. 
The results of their work form a distinct contribution to human 
knowledge. Research in agriculture, as conducted at these farms, 
is the only illustration on a large scale of systematic scientific research 
that we have in Canada to-day. Valuable scientific research is sys- 
tematically pursued at the various fishery stations, but it is of lesser 
proportions. There are in Canada to-day the Central Experimental 
Farm at Ottawa and eighteen Branch Stations, one on Prince Edward 
Island, two in Nova Scotia, one in New Brunswick, three in Quebec, 
two in Manitoba, two in Saskatchewan, two in Alberta, and four in 
British Columbia. There are also six sub-stations, chiefly towards 
the northern boundaries of the areas that may be cultivated. The 
Central Farm at Ottawa is equipped with chemical,. botanical, ento- 
mological and bacteriological laboratories with a staff of trained men, 
and is adequate to enter upon the solution of the various problems 
that’present themselves. The farm of 465 acres affords opportunity 
for conducting experiments in field and animal husbandry. Many 
stations scattered over the Dominion are necessary by reason of the 
numerous problems presented by so vast a country with so varied a 
climate. ; 
The following are illustrations of problems attacked and of prob- 
lems solved at these experimental farms: It has been shown that by 
continuous grain growing the soil lost to a depth of eight inches 
more than 2,000 lbs. of nitrogen per acre in twenty-two years. The 
merigs and economy of different crop rotations have been tested. 
The amounts of nitrogen extracted from the air and stored in the roots, 
stems and foliage of various leguminous plants have been determined; 
and the increase in crops succeeding them has been noted. By 
cross-breeding varieties of wheat of high quality have been produced 
which ripen early and which, therefore, are adapted to the northern 
wheat-growing areas of the Dominion; one of these varieties ripens 
three weeks earlier than the famous Red Fife. By cross-fertilizing, 
hardy varieties of apple-trees have been produced, capable of enduring 
the severe winters of the Northwest. The organisms so disastrous 
to economic plants and trees have been studied, and means for their 
control have, within limits, been arrived at. Experiments have 
been made in the destruction of injurious insects by innocuous parasitic 
insects. The amount of the fertilizing nitrogen compounds intro- 
duced into the soil by rain and snow has been determined for some 
localities. These are but a few of the subsidiary problems that have 
