ILLl'STRATIOy FARMS OF THE COMMITTEE ON LANDS 7 



APPENDIX No. 3 



A. On tlie whole farm by the acre. Of the htinclred farmers in Manitoba, 4G 

 per cent reported a decrease since ten years ago, and 50 per cent reported a decrease 

 since twenty years ago. These farms are in the older settled parts of Manitoba. 

 The results are not surprising-, because in that Province it has not been the practice 

 to grow any gathering crops such as clover, beans or alfalfa, or any grass crops, in 

 between the crops of grain. The farming has consisted in this kind of rotation ; 

 two years of grain and one of summer fallofw, or three years of grain and one of 

 fallow. What does summer fallow treatment do? It helps somewhat to clean the 

 land from weeds, it conserves the moisture, and it destroys some of the elements of 

 fertility. It destroys the fibre in the soil which is needed to hold loo;"e particles of 

 soil in position in the spring. Whole districts are menaced by the winds blowing 

 the soil and the seed off the fields. The conditions of farming-, the soil, the popu- 

 lation and climate combine to perpetuate the kind of rotation which consists of two 

 or three years of grain and one of 'fallow, with, no crop in between that either gathers 

 nitrogen or leaves the plant fibre from root, stems and leaves in the soil to hold it 

 together. I do not want to be understood here, or 'quoted elsewhere, as blaming 

 the farmers of Manitoba. The best farming there so far has followed in the main 

 the only known lines for making profits by growing wheat. And out of that, and 

 particularly out of the neglect of weeds in the older districts, conditions have been 

 created which call for earnest consideration and action. It ought not to be a case 

 of shutting one's eyes and asserting: 'You must not say one word about such a 

 matter as that, because the statements will damage Manitoba.' Manitoba and the 

 other prairie provinces do not need, and I am sure the farmers do not want, the false 

 protection of such silence. The Provinces would damage themselves in perpetuity 

 by shutting their eyes and maintaining silence in the presence of serious dangers 

 to good farming which protects the fertility and cleanness of the fields; whereas 

 the other course would help them to adopt methods towards conserving their heritage 

 and ours, while obtaining good crops and good profits. 



By Mr. Schaffner: 



Q. What has the Experimental Farm at Brandon been doing all these years that 

 it has not determined this matter for the farmer and given him some information? — 



A. The Experimental Farm at Brandon has been doing a great deal. It has been 

 engaged in experimenting with the growing of clovers, but it takes a good while to 

 prove out systems and' methods under new conditions and have them seasoned by 

 experience. Some years ago Mr. S. A. Bedford, Superintendent at the Brandon 

 Experimental Farm, did an immense amount of missionary work in agriculture, going 

 among the farmers and informing them according to his knowledge and lights; and 

 I should be happy to see Mr. Bedford in a position to use in a wider way the increased 

 knowledge and light he now has. But while the Experimental Farms have been car- 

 rying on experiments and discovering some results on the Government Farms, hardly 

 any body has been going to the farmer who has been farming for profit, and asking: 

 'What have you discovered?' If you have 1,000 of the most successful farmers, each 

 experimenting for profits on his own farm, with the benefit of scientific counsel from 

 experts, they will find out much of real value to the practical farmer; and they will 

 be the men who will send to the Experimental Farms for more information and more 

 light. By all means let us get the double light on the difficulties of the indifferent 

 farmer, the light from the experimental farms made effective by the local illustra- 

 tion. I cannot impress tliis as deeply as its importance merits, but I want to im- 

 press it as deeply as I can this morning. 



EXAMPLES FROM EUROPE. 



Let me turn here to an illustration which comes to me when I think of agricul- 

 ture in England. As far as the meagre and imperfect records show, the yield of 



