268 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



two or three men, and been provided with a stump puller, and other 

 farm implements, much more could, of course, have been accom- 

 plished. I would respectfully submit that if the work is worth doing 

 at all it is worth the expenditure necessary to equip and maintain the 

 station in a modest way — with a team, stump puller, plows, and other 

 necessary farm implements. To do this, however, will cost about five 

 times more than it would cost to equip a similar station anywhere in 

 the States. I had Mr. Jones look up a team of horses with a view to 

 buying them if they could be purchased within our available means. 

 He found a team of average weight and in fair condition, which the 

 owner was anxious to sell, but he could not afford to sell them for less 

 than $800, and considering the expense of importing them, they were 

 worth that; but we were unable to buy. For the same reason no 

 house or cabin was built at this station the past year. Mr. Jones 

 could not handle the logs alone and I was unable to authorize him to 

 hire labor to help. He was fortunate enough, however, to get the 

 use of a wood chopper's cabin, which had been built on the bank of 

 the river a year or two before. It was poorly built and in a dilapidated 

 condition, with the roof leaking so badly that until repaired Mr. 

 Jones found it necessary to put a tent up inside in order to keep dry 

 at night. It had a single small window, and a floor made of poles 

 after the fashion of a corduroy road. Such were the quarters we 

 were obliged to occupy the past year. A photograph is produced 

 herewith (PI. XII, fig. 2). 



EXPERIMENTS WITH GRAIN. 



Mr. Jones found a clump of volunteer rye in the lot back of the 

 North American Transportation and Trading Company's store. How 

 it got there nobody knew, but in all probability it was a handful which 

 had been scattered from a sack of feed. It was a fall variety which 

 had stood the winter and had come out in the spring in a sufficiently 

 healthy condition to mature seed. .This fact was proof of its hardi- 

 ness. He gathered the grain and seeded it in raw, rough ground on 

 August 15. A few spears had pushed through the soil on the 28th, 

 and the growth from that date until the patch was covered with snow 

 proceeded slowly. Apparently every seed germinated, and the rye 

 went into winter quarters in good condition. It began snowing early 

 in October, before there had been any severe frost, and the amount of 

 snow gradually increased with the cold. By the 1st of November the 

 snow was about 15 inches deep, and later in the winter it was increased 

 to 3 feet. This appeared to be a sufficient covering to protect the 

 grain from the severe frost for, although the thermometer is said to 

 have registered more than 70° below zero, the rye was not injured in 

 the least. It came out in excellent condition in the spring. The snow 

 was not a sufficient covering, however, to keep the ground from f reez- 



