58 The Ottawa Naturalist. 



REPORT OF DOMINION EXPERIMENTAL FARMS 

 FOR 1895. 



By Wm. Saunders, LL.D., F.R.S.C, etc., Director. 



The annual report of the Experimental Farms for 1895, 

 recently issued, is a volume of 426 pages, full of information to 

 all those who are interested in agriculture or horticulture. It 

 opens with the report of the Director, which covers 73 pages. 



Following a few introductory paragraphs, we find details of 

 experiments with 45 varieties of oats, 36 of barley, 43 of spring 

 wheat, 25 of fall or winter wheat, and 68 of pease, making in all 

 192 different sorts of grain which have been experimented with 

 during the yast year. The results are given of the sowing of 

 these in groups or plots on similar soil and under similar con- 

 ditions in every particular. The growth of each sort, showing 

 that there are great variations, which are evidently due to 

 individual characteristics possessed by these different samples. 



Among the wheats, barleys and pease tested there are 

 included 87 new sorts which have been produced at the Exper- 

 imental Farm, by cross fertilizing. Among these there are a 

 considerable number of varieties which are of high quality and 

 very productive. 



To gain information as to the best time for sowing, a large 

 number of plots have been devoted to successive sowings of oats, 

 barley, spring wheat and pease ; the first sowing having been 

 made in each case as soon as the land was in fit condition to 

 receive the seed, and the subsequent sowing a week apart. The 

 crop in each of these plots has been harvested and threshed 

 separately and the yield of each determined and compared. 



Many experiments have also been conducted with a number 

 of varieties of Indian corn, turnips, mangels, carrots and potatoes 

 and information gained as to the quality and usefulness of the 

 several sorts. Tests have been carried on with many fertilizers 

 and combinations or fertilizers, for the purpose of ascertaining 

 their effect on particular crops, and further tests also to learn the 



