SOIL CULTURE, CEREALS AXD FRUITS. 37 



" My potato crop will bring me something over $120, and I also raised 40 bushels 

 of onions which netted me $42, carrots $5, milk 12 to 15 cows, sold 1200 lbs. of but- 

 ter, average price 17-| cents, hen fruit some $40, besides a family of eight supplied, 

 also 1,850 bushels of wheat, 560 of barley, 1,700 busbels of oats, from the seed which 

 I obtained from the Experimental Farm (Banner oats). "We work two teams, five 

 horses altogether, hire one man at the harvest. 



" I am one who thoroughly believes in mixed farming, a conclusion I came to 

 some years ago in reading your literature which your department has kept me sup- 

 plied with. Please accept my thanks for same and I trust the department will find 

 more who will appreciate the work you and your staff have undertaken." 



Hundreds of such letters could be produced if required, showing that the good 

 seed sown is bringing forth fruit on all hands. With regard to the rapidity with 

 which grain increases, I received a report a few days ago from Mr. O. Belanger, 

 Chelmsford, Algoma, who received a three-pound sample of Banner oats four years 

 ago, and this season he has threshed over H,000 bushels, most of which he has for 

 sale. That seems a large quantity, but it might have been much larger. Supposing 

 the three-pound sample to have produced two bushels the first year, which is a low 

 estimate, and 50 bushels per acre from subsequent sowings, sowing 2 bushels of seed 

 per acre, the crop of the second year would be 50 bushels, which would sow 25 

 acres ; continuing at the same rate the third year's crop would be 1,250 bushels, 

 and the fourth year 31,250 bushels. 



Q. What is the average weight per bushel of the Banner oat? 



Q. It does not go much above the standard of 34. Ours this year ran about 37. 



Q. Of course, the reports given are always by weight ? 



A. Yes, always by weight. The work on all the branch farms has progressed 

 satisfactorily during the past year, and the crops have been good. Further experi- 

 ments have been conducted at Nappan with the herd of milch cows, and experi- 

 ments in the fattening of steers have been conducted at nearly all the farms, also 

 experiments in the fattening of swine. 



The uniform trial plots of all the more important farm crops have been conti- 

 nued and the results of these have been published in Bulletin 34. A large number 

 of other useful experiments have also been conducted. The season at Agassiz, 

 while fairly favourable for the growth of cereals and roots, has not been favourable for 

 fruits. The very wet weather which prevailed in the spring extended all through 

 the blossoming period and prevented the fruit from setting, and the crop has been very 

 light. The trees, however, have made a thrifty growth and at present are full of 

 promise for the coming year. At all the experimental farms much time and atten- 

 tion has been given during the past season to growing a great variety of products 

 for the display now being set in order at Paris. These include a large number of 

 varieties of cereals, fodder crops and grasses, also fruits and some vegetables. The 

 material which has gone forward from the farms will form a very considerable and 

 important contribution to the Canadian display. 



Having read over the foregoing transcripts of my evidence of the 21st and 22nd 

 March, 1900, I find them correct. 



WM. SAUNBEKS. 

 Director of the Dominion Experimental Farms. 



