DOMINION EXPERIMENTAL FARMS lOl 



The obtaining of early varieties was obviously of prime 

 importance in a country which depended then entirely, and still 

 does to a great extent, on its wheat crop for revenue. The 

 varieties which were successful in the East were in great danger 

 from frost each year in Saskatchewan. Marked success has 

 been achieved in the production of early varieties of wheat, and 

 this branch of the work has not been confined to that cereal 

 alone, but has gradually been extended to most of the other 

 varieties of field and garden crops where the necessity for 

 earliness in maturing exists. 



The evil effects of constant grain growing were early fore- 

 seen, and systems of rotation which would keep up fertility, 

 prevent the land becoming overrun with weeds, afford a com- 

 parison between the value of summer-fallow and the ploughing 

 under of leguminous crops and, at the same time, by giving the 

 farmer a wider range of products, afford him a better opportunity 

 of having at least one good crop in almost any year, were com- 

 menced in 1899 and carried on until 1909, on half-acre plots. 

 This work is now being continued on a much larger scale. (See 

 Plan.) 



An elaborate system of cultural experiments is also in 

 progress, to test the advantages of various methods of soil 

 treatment, fertilization and methods of cultivation. This work 

 is under the immediate charge of the Superintendent's Assistant. 

 (See plan for details of Cultural Plots.) 



The best time and methods of breaking new land on the 

 prairie have been thoroughly worked out and the experience 

 obtained has proved of the greatest value to the new settler. 

 These results have been published in pamphlet form under the 

 title of Preparing Land for Grain Crops in Saskatchewan. 



In connection with all cultural operations in this district? 

 the problem of conservation of moisture must be taken into 

 account. For the past twenty-one years, the average rainfall 

 during the six months of growth, April to October, has been 

 12' 93 inches, showing the necessity of preserving this moisture 

 in the soil as long as possible by suitable methods of cultivation, 

 applied at the proper season, if the crops are to have sufficient 

 for good growth. 



The testing of varieties of cereals, roots, grasses and clovers, 

 including alfalfa, and of flowers, trees and shrubs has been 

 carried on continuously since the farm was established. Varie- 

 ties which have proved inferior have been discarded from 

 time to time; others, after some years of partial failure became 

 acclimatized, and are now grown with almost uniform success. 



The development of varieties of garden and orchard fruits 

 and of ornamental trees and shrubs suitable to the prairie country 

 has always been one of the chief aims of this farm. When the 



