36 DOMINION EXPERIMENTAL FARMS 



THE CEREAL DIVISION. 



The investigations carried on within this Division may be 

 conveniently considered under five headings, (1) Testing of 

 Varieties, (2) Importation of new Sorts, (3) Selection, (4) 

 Cross-breeding and (5) Distribution. 



(1) Testing of Varieties. 



In a series of uniform test plots comparisons are made every 

 year between the best varieties of grain which are commonly 

 grown in Canada, and such sorts as have been recently imported 

 from other countries, as well as the selected strains and new 

 cross-bred varieties produced at this Farm. These plots are 

 usually one-sixtieth of an acre in extent and are laid out in regu- 

 lar blocks with suitable spaces between. The number of plots 

 varies greatly from year to year. New varieties are being con- 

 stantly added, but an effort is made to keep down the total to a 

 rather small number, by rejecting the inferior sorts as soon as 

 their qualities have been clearly demonstrated. In laying out 

 the plots, great care is taken to locate them on soil of as nearly 

 uniform character as possible and extra plots are sown whenever 

 unusual variations occur. Under the ordinary spring condi- 

 tions, the plots of grain are put in as early as practicable, com- 

 mencing about the 20th of April on well-drained land. Each 

 group of plots is sown on one day, if possible, and, when the 

 number of varieties is too large to permit this, the seeding is 

 concluded on the following day or days, as expeditiously as may 

 be. Different dates of seeding produce marked results, in 

 this climate, on the yield of most kinds of grain. 



Observations are made, in the plots, on length and strength 

 of straw, time of ripening and any other points of special interest. 

 Yield and quality of grain are determined after threshing. 



Since it is impossible, even under the most favourable con- 

 ditions, to obtain perfectly trustworthy information in one 

 season, in regard to the relative merits of similar varieties, the 

 average results of a series of years are utilized whenever com- 

 parisons are being made. In most cases, new varieties are 

 kept in the plots for at least five years, unless they clearly 

 show some serious defect. 



(2) Importation of New Sorts. 



The introduction from abroad of varieties new to Canada 

 has been in the past a very valuable feature of the cereal 

 investigations, but this has become less important in certain 



