CHAPTER XXV 



CANADIAN FIELD EXPERIMENTS 



THE government of Canada established an agricultural experi- 

 ment station (Dominion Experimental Farms) in 1886, and a series 

 of field experiments were begun by Director Saunders in 1887, 

 which have been continued under his direction for more than 20 

 years. 



The following quotations taken from the Annual Report for 

 1897 g' ve general information concerning these experiments: 



"A piece of sandy loam, more or less mixed with clay, which was originally 

 covered with heavy timber, chiefly white pine, was chosen for these tests. The 

 timber was cut many years ago, and among the stumps still remaining when 

 the land was purchased there had sprung up a thick second growth of trees, 

 chiefly poplar, birch, and maple, few of which exceeded six inches in diameter 

 at the base. Early in 1887 this land was cleared by rooting up the young trees 

 and stumps and burning them in piles on the ground from which they were 

 taken, the ashes being afterwards distributed over the soil as evenly as possible, 

 and the land plowed and thoroughly harrowed. Later in the season it was 

 again plowed and harrowed, and most of it got into fair condition for cropping." 



"The plots laid out for the experimental work with fertilizers were one tenth 

 of an acre each, 21 of which were devoted to experiments with wheat, 21 to 

 barley, 21 to oats, 21 to Indian corn or maize, and 21 to experiments with tur- 

 nips and mangels. Owing to the difficulty and unavoidable delay attending 

 the draining of some wet places, it was not practicable to undertake work on all 

 the plots the first season. The tests were begun in 1888 with 20 plots of wheat 

 and 1 6 of Indian corn; and in 1889 all the series were completed excepting six 

 plots of roots, Nos. 16 to 21 inclusive, which were available for the work in 1890. 

 In all cases the plots in each series have been sown on the same day." 



"In 1890 it was found that all the grain plots had become so weedy that the 

 growth of the crops was much interfered with, and with the view of cleaning 

 the land, one half of each of the wheat and oat plots was sown with carrots in 

 1891, and one half of each of the barley plots with sugar beets. In 1892 the 

 other half of each plot in each of these series was sown with carrots. In 1893 

 it was thought desirable to continue this cleaning process, and carrots were again 

 sown, on the half of the wheat and oat plots occupied with this crop in 1891, 

 and also on the half of the barley plots cropped with sugar beets that year. In 



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