66 DOMINION EXPERIMENTAL FARMS 



The land at the north toward the De Blois Road slopes to 

 the north and west. The central portion of the farm slopes to 

 the west, there being quite a steep hill between the buildings and 

 the Railway. From the buildings toward the City the slope is 

 to the south as far as the St. Avards Road. The area south of 

 this cross-road has a slight ridge across its centre from the N.-W. 

 to the S.-E., the land sloping gently away on either side. 



Soil. 



The soil in general is a sandy loam underlaid with a hard- 

 pan of brick-clay. The sub-soil over a large area of the Farm is 

 so impervious to water that it was found necessary to underdrain 

 not only the low areas but also several sections of the higher 

 land. Many different types of soil are represented in the low 

 areas, ranging from almost pure sand to a heavy clay. Two 

 acres of swamp land, that was cleared and tile-drained, has a 

 pure peat soil three feet deep. 



About 20,000 ft. of tile drains have been laid. The drains 

 are 33 ft. apart, except where they are used to carry off the seep- 

 age along the hillside. The regular system extends over 14 

 acres. The partial system drains a little more than 6 acres. In 

 the swamp, blind wells were sunk, into which the tiles discharge, 

 the underlying strata of rock being open and porous. 



Buildings. 



The Superintendent's residence was repaired and suitable 

 buildings erected, namely, a barn 60 x 40 ft., machine house 80 

 X 25 ft., and a foreman'^ house 32 x 28 ft. These are prominently 

 situated to the south of a beautiful shelter belt of hardwoods 

 and young conifers. 



Horses. 



Three draft horses and one heavy driving horse have been 

 purchased to do the work on the farm. 



Sheep. 



Experimental work with sheep began in 1911, when thirty 

 lalnbs were purchased on November 15th. These were divided 

 into three groups and fed a uniform grain ration with three 

 different types of roughage: 1st, alfalfa hay and oat straw; 

 2nd, corn stover and timothy hay; 3rd, timothy hay and roots> 

 the grain ration being gradually increased as the fattening period 

 progressed. Work along this line will be continued. 



