10 CHAIRMAN, COMMITTEE ON LANDS, COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



2 GEORGE v., A. 1912 



tion of crops on our Exi)erimental Farms — they have done so for years — but the point 

 is how to get into touch and contact with the indifferent farmer and cause him to 

 feel that he can do this on his own farm and get him to begin to put it into his 

 practice. 



In New Bruswick, the summary of the best farmers' judgment is that where a 

 four or five year rotation is followed the results are far ahead in every respect of those 

 farms where no systematic rotation was adopted. In Nova Scotia a good many far- 

 mers reported they were intending to begin this practice. On a few farms where 

 systematic rotation was followed the farmers reported they had obtained results of 

 from two to three times as much feed for the live stock as they had previously obtained 

 from their farms. In Quebec systematic rotation prevails on comparatively few 

 farms, except in Huntingdon County, where it is rather general. The farmers, for 

 instance in Bellechasse and L'Assomption acknowledge the value of the system in 

 theory but few make a practice of carrying it out on the farm; and the consequence 

 is that from these and other counties they report that weeds are getting very bad. 

 Take a few items from the reports from the Province of Ontario. In the county of 

 Dundas a great many have not considered the meaning of systematic rotation of crops 

 as applied to their own farms. In Lanark County most of the farmers follow it on 

 some part of the farm. In Ontario County a few follow a well planned system, most 

 follow plans indefinite and irregular. They admit that shorter rotations are coming 

 into use and are of advantage. In Waterloo County some farmers follow a syste- 

 matic plan. Anyone who knows the Province of Ontario can almost trace the agricul- 

 tural prosperity on the lines of the areas wdiere systematic rotation of crops is followed. 

 There you find the best buildings, the cleanest land, the largest crops, and the most 

 prosperous and contented farmers. Apart from the systematic rotation of crops, or 

 as a part of the practice in carrying out the system, an increasing number of farmers 

 are following an after-harvest cultivation of fields to kill weeds and to put the soil 

 into a good condition of tilth for the following crop. 



SKED GRAIN. 



Some information has been obtained as to the use of seed selected according to 

 some system. Since Mr. Newman, of the Canadian Seed-Growers Association, is to 

 address you on this subject in the near future, I will not take up time to-day by dis- 

 cussing the subject, beyond saying it is becoming a somewhat general practice for a 

 farmer to choose a part of the crop which is particularly good and clean, to cut and 

 .store that portion by itself, and to use the grain from it for seed. That is a most 

 excellent practice as far as it goes. However necessity for improvement is shown 

 by the fact that some farmers reported that they sowed half a bushel extra per acre 

 of common feed grain to make up for the dirt and the weeds it contained. How can 

 we get at such farmers, and others far less careless, except by somehow inducing tliem 

 to associate themselves with the best farmers in their locality, to watch how they 

 manage, to get advice from them and then to seek to put into practice what they have 

 learnt. Seeing that the seed is reasonably clean and vital is not going far enough. 

 The best farmers select strains of seed of fine quality for the market, strains with 

 vigor in the plants which enables them to resist the attacks of rusts, and strains which 

 liave been proven to be suitable for their kind of soil and their locality and to be more 

 than usually productive. IMay I cite two cases to make very clear the fact that 

 immense improvement to Canadian agriculture is practicable by the systematic 

 selection of grain for seed. One farmer told me that he had sold 15,00'0 bushels 

 of wheat from his farm since harvest of 1911 at $2 per bushel; and the men who 

 got it will be, I am sure, immensely satisfied with the results on their own farms. 

 He could not nearly meet all the demand. The farmer who took that thousand dollar 

 prize in gold for the best wheat in America at the New York ' Back to the Land Ex- 

 position,' the other day was a Canadian, Mr. Seager Wheeler, of Rosthern, Sask. It 



