27 I THE farmers' handbook. 



An early maturing variety of wheat must be used. Thew has been tried, 

 but with only a fair amount of success on the Experiment Farm, and with 

 farmers who arc sowing late wheat crops in this district, Florence is becoming 

 a great favourite. Any grower who is disposed to try some other variety 

 should avoid rust liable wheats, and all seed should be treated with bluestone 

 .solution as a preventive of bunt. .Sometimes oats arc sown instead, and 

 then such a short-season variety as Sunrise or Guyra is used. Occasionally 

 White Tartarian is sown, for though slower in maturing it is more adapted to 

 late harvesting, and is cut in January or even in February 



This late-sown cereal crop is used very much as the season directs. It is 

 not so certain as the early sown crop, and it has more often to be cut for 

 hay than for grain, but in some seasons excellent grain crops have been 

 harvested. 



This cereal crop is followed, as indicated above, by a fodder crop sown in 

 the early part of the fall. Rape or turnips, sown alone or in alternate drilU 

 with a good stooling variety of wheat or oats, or perhaps with Cape barley 

 may be planted in February ; another useful combination according to our 

 experience on this farm, and of other farmers in the district, is red clover, in 

 combination with Italian rye grass or some other annual or biennial grass ; 

 the seed is sown in March or April. The fodder crops are fed off through 

 the winter, the sheep being turned in once, twice or more often as the growth 

 permits, and if possible, some growth is left to be turned under with the 

 residues in the early summer. 



This gives a short period of fallow before the sowing of the long-season 

 cereal crop of the rotation. Any weeds or other growth that appear are fed 

 off prior-to a second ploughing, about the early part of April. 



The first ploughing, when the fodder crop residues are turned under, is 

 usually a deep one — about 5 inches — while the second ploughing is a little 

 shallower — not exceeding 4 inches. The sowing of the wheat immediately 

 follows this second ploughing, a long-season or slow-growing variety being 

 used. Haynes' Blue Stem is sown on the earliest paddocks, but Genoa has 

 also done well on the farm if sown a little later. For New England con- 

 ditions, in fact, Genoa may be considered a mid-season to late wheat, whereas 

 Haynes' Blue Stem is a very late variety. 



The last-named variety has been a useful one locally, but it may shortly 

 be superseded by one of several varieties of long-season wheats that are now 

 attracting attention in the experimental ai*ea. Though producing a very 

 bulky crop for hay, Haynes' Blue Stem has the fault that the chaff is so 

 light as to necessitate the use of too many bags to the ton ; moreover, the 

 grain shells too freely. 



While some of the Manitoba and other Fife wheats, such as Power's Fife 

 and Marquis, have yielded well at times, here it has been found that, not- 

 withstanding that i hey may be ver}' strong when imported, the grain quickly 

 deteriorates under local conditions, and in a few years their flour strength is 

 no better — and sometimes worse — than the local varieties. Some imported 

 varieties are uncertain } T ielders, for in some years they fill well and yield 

 heavily, while in other seasons, without any discovered cause, large patches 

 of the crops fail to set grain. Marquis has given good yields of hay and 

 grain in wet seasons. Rust-liable varieties, of course, will always have to 

 be avoided. 



The early-sown cereal crops are more certain than the late-sown crops that 

 follow maize. In a dry season they have the advantage of a certain amount 

 of moisture conserved in the soil by the short fallow, while in a wet season 

 they are apt to make such heavy growth as to go down. The best grain 



