28 



CANADIAN FARM YEAR BOOK. 



like the firm seedbed and the hoed 

 crops leave the soil too late for its 

 preparation and settling. 



An all-clover stand is a good fore- 

 crop; a clover-grass stand is not as 

 good on account of weeds. Flax is a 

 poor fore-crop. Manured peas and 

 beans are good fore-crops. 



Wheat (Winter) : The heavy loam 

 and clay soils, rich in humus, are 

 wheat soils. In cold and wet locali- 

 ties the dense soil, well supplied with 

 lime; in warm localities, the deep 

 soil well supplied with water. Tery 

 dry or very wet soils are not adapted 

 to wheat. 



Wheat should not follow wheat. 

 Wheat should not come on new land 

 until the second or third year. 

 - The legumes, by mellowing the soil 

 and keeping the weeds down, are 

 good fore-crops. Winter-swede — 

 like rape, heavily manured, shades 

 and mellows the soil, keeps down the 

 weeds, and by being harvested early, 

 permits of a partial black fallow. 



On heavy clay soils the horse bean 

 (Faba vulgaris) has proved a splen- 

 did fore-crop. Red clover and al- 

 falfa are highly prized fore-crops. 



Winter wheat can follow manured 

 hoed crops (potatoes, beets) to ad- 

 vantage, provided these crops are off 

 the field in sufficient time for its pre- 

 fore-crop. 



Wheat loves the settled soil, hence 

 after hoed crops is not the ideal place 

 paration and settling. Wheat, sugar 

 beets, to be followed with alfalfa la 

 a profitable succession under certain 

 conditions. On strong land, heavily 

 manured, flax may be used as a good 

 for wheat unless the soil is prepared 

 for it in time to settle closely. 



Selection of Seed Potatoes. 



Of all the factors in potato growing 

 se'leotion of seed is by far the most 

 important. Had we bred our Short- 

 horn cattle as many of us have 'been 

 in ithe hahit of selecting and breeding 

 our seed potatoes, we would now have 

 no breed of Shorthorns. If we used 

 only the culls and scrubs to Ibreed 

 from, our 'breeds of stock would soon 

 run out. It has been careful selection 

 and the application of scientiflc prin- 

 ciples of breeding that has 'brought 

 our pure-bred live stock up to the 

 present high standard. One reason 

 why potatoes on many farms in this 

 country have degenerated is that culls, 

 screenings and small ipotatoes have 

 been .pilanted. 



If no method of selection has hither- 

 to heen followed, the seed for this 

 year's crop will have to be taken from 

 the bin. (Potatoes which are of med- 

 ium siize, smooth, free from disease and 

 true to the type of the variety being 

 shown, should be selected. During the 

 late summer or early autumn, when 

 the vines are beginning to die down, 

 the 'best and most vigorous hills should 

 be marked iby putting down a small 

 stake or twigg. When the crop is har- 

 vested, any poor hills among those 

 marked should be discarded and the 

 rest saved for next year's planting. 

 One farmer doing illustration work for 

 the iCommission of Conservation plant- 

 ed potatoes thus selected and ordin- 

 ary potatoes side iby side. When har- 

 vested, four rows from the selected 

 seed yielded ten ibushels per row, 

 while the four rows on either side of 

 the ordinary seed yielded seven and 

 one-ihalf ^bushels per row. 



Direction of the line of draft for plows. 



