ON AGRICULTURE TO CANADA 131 



Spring Wheat 



But spring wheat is the great stand-by oi the prairie farmer. 

 The best known variety is "Red Fife." It suits the conditions 

 well and seems to hold the field in mosl districts against all other 

 varieties. Practical experience in Canada has satisfied mosl men 

 that a few standard varieties of grain of proved utility are better 

 than a lot of new ones, and that the best results are obtained 

 through improving the reliable varieties by careful selection and 

 cultivation. For some years great efforts have been made to 

 propagate early ripening varieties. The difficulty is to maintain 

 the yield and quality in attaining this end, but the varieties known 

 as Preston, Huron. Stanley, and Percy are said to fairly combine 

 the merits of yield, quality, and early ripening. The farther north you 

 penetrate the season becomes the shorter, but in summer the days 

 are longer, and quick maturing wheat would greatly extend the area 

 of production. Along these lines lies the work of the Canadian 

 Seed Growers' Association. A member of this Association fixes 

 upon a foundation stock, such as " Red Fife," procures sufficient 

 to sow a hand-selected plot of at least a quarter of an acre. Then. 

 before reaping, sufficient of the most typical heads are selected by 

 hand from strong, vigorous plants to yield seed for a quarter of an 

 acre the following year. When the grower has complied with the 

 regulations of the Association in respect of the selection of seed for 

 a period of three years, and has bred his stock up to a high standard 

 of excellence, he gets it registered by the Association. The Associa- 

 tion receives a subsidy from the Department of Agriculture, and in 

 this is found another striking illustration of the practical assistance 

 to farmers rendered by the Government. 



Seed-time and Harvest 



The wheat farmer prefers to break prairie land between the 

 beginning of May and the end of June. The object of this is evident. 

 The success of a crop very often in Canada depends upon the mois- 

 ture, and if the land is broken up into a fine tilth early in the year, 

 it conserves all the available rain and thus has a moisture supply 

 of two years to produce its first crop. The cost per acre of bring- 

 ing the prairie into cultivation so far as we could make out, is : — 



Breaking .... $3.50 



Discing . . . . 1.75 



Harrowing .... .70 



Total . S5.95 



Field operations then cease till the following spring. During winter, 

 the hard frost pulverises the soil and its deep penetration 5 or 

 6 feet opens up the subsoil, keeping it in good condition for 

 capillary action. In the spring, a matter of supreme importance is 

 to get in the seed as soon as the weather conditions permit. It is 

 sown from 10th April to 1st June, at the rate of from 1| to 2 bushels 

 per acre. During the growing season statements of condition and 



