1917] AGRICULTURE IN WAR-TIME. 225 
We may now proceed to some of the more important conclusions 
reached by us in our fertilizer investigational work during the past 
twenty-five years. 
THE PRAIRIE PROVINCES.—Particular interest attaches itself to 
possibilities of increasing wheat production in Manitoba, Saskatchewan 
and Alberta by the use of fertilizers. A study of our results would 
not justify us in the prediction that this could be profitably brought 
about by a general application of fertilizer. For ten consecutive years, 
1900-1909, we had a series of fertilizer experiments on the Experimental 
Farms at Brandon, Manitoba, and Indian Head, Saskatchewan. The 
series contained plots dressed with nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash, 
singly and in combinations of twos and threes. The results, taking one 
year with another, failed to indicate any material increase in the yields 
of the fertilized over those of the unfertilized plots. Frequently the 
latter gave the larger crops, but it was seldom that the difference between 
the plots exceeded the amount that might be attributed to experimental 
error. Certainly there was no consistent increase due to any fertilizer 
and in no case was the increase sufficient to cover the cost of the 
fertilizer. These soils, it must be admitted, were typical wheat soils 
of high quality, but they were in no way exceptional. Hundreds of 
thousands of acres equally good are to be found in all three of the Prairie 
provinces. 
Experiments carried on in northern Saskatchewan and northern 
Alberta likewise failed to indicate any specific deficiency in plant food 
in the soil, the results being irregular and the increases on the dressed 
plots (when such occurred) not being of that magnitude to warrant 
definite conclusions as to the virtue of the fertilizer employed or the 
expenditure for the purchase and application. 
With respect to the future, my opinion is that the time will come 
when phosphates will be found useful. My reason is that of the three 
essential elements these western soils are least rich in phosphoric acid 
and that the extensive grain growing will tend to diminish the store of 
this element that is more or less available for crop use. Moreover, 
phosphates may be found of value in inducing an earlier ripening of the 
crop—a matter of much importance in districts where early autumnal 
frosts endanger the wheat crop. Our hope for these western provinces 
is that the abandonment of exclusive grain growing and the adoption 
of mixed farming and of rotations will serve to maintain fertility 
and obviate the necessity of relying generally on fertilizers for the up-keep 
of fertility. At the present time I feel assured that the determinative 
factors in crop production in these regions are the seasonal conditions. 
If our northwestern lands are not to be allowed to deteriorate, mixed 
