DR. WM. SAUNDERS. 





CoMMITTEE BOOM 46, 



House of Commons, 



Wednesday, March 21, 1900. 



The Select Standing Committee on Agriculture and Colonization met here this 

 morning at 10.30, Mr. McMillan, Chairman, presiding. 



By request of the Committee, Professor Wm. Saunders, Director of the Dominion 

 experimental farms, was present and gave the following evidence : — 



Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen, — It affords me very much gratification to have 

 the opportunity of again coming before you and reporting on some of the work which 

 has been carried on during the past season at the experimental farms. 



BENEFITS OF THE PLOUGHING UNDER OF GREEN CLOVER. 



Last year I submitted to you the results of some of the tests made with the 

 ploughing under of clover, showing the beneficial effect to the subsequent crop by 

 the ploughing under of green clover. In 1897 eight plots of one-tenth of an acre 

 each were laid out at the Central Farm, four of which were sown with grain and 

 seeded with clover in the proportion of ten pounds per acre, and the other four were 

 sown with grain without clover. After these plots were harvested, the clover grew 

 very vigorously, and by the end of October on those four plots which had been 

 sown with clover, there was a heavy growth of clover to plow under. The other 

 plots on which no clover was sown were treated similarly to those on which clover 

 was used. The cultivation, soil and treatment were the same. The duplicate plots' 

 in each case were sown with the same kind of grain, so that the test was in every 

 way a fair on<\ In 1898 the whole of these plots were sown with one variety of 

 grain, Banner oats. 



INCREASE IN GRAIN AND STRAW. 



I reported to you last year that the results of that sowing were such as to 

 demonstrate in a very clear and marked way the great benefit of the ploughing under 

 of clover, there was a great difference in the height of the grain and in its vigour of 

 growth. One could see exactly the area that had been covered with clover by the 

 stronger growth on these plots, and this unusual vigour was manifested right up to 

 the time of harvest, when it was found that the average product of the plots so 

 treated was eleven bushels and one pound per acre more than the average of those 

 plots where no clover had been sown. This was an increase of 28 per cent in the 

 grain. There was also an increase of 78 per cent in the weight of the straw. 

 Experiments were conducted this year to try and find out whether the effects of the 

 clover would last longer than one year. These plots were all ploughed towards the 

 end of the season and after thorough cultivation in the spring, they were sown with 

 Mensury barley. During the summer, when the crop was growing, it was still quite 

 easy to discover the lines that had been occupied by the plots where clover had been 

 growing, in the greater vigour of the barley, although it was not so manifest as it was 

 in the first year when the oats were growing. The result was that while the increase 

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