WINNIPEG, 1909. 765 
IIT. Southern Ontario.—The mild winter and the rather hot and dry 
summer make the conditions in this region more favourable to winter 
wheat than to spring wheat. Most of the sowing is therefore done in the 
autumn, September and October being the favourite months. The winter 
wheat of Southern Ontario is typically large, plump, and quite starchy. 
When spring wheat is sown a variety of durum wheat known in Canada as 
‘Goose’ or ‘ Wild Goose’ is often used because it gives a better yield than 
the ordinary varieties used for bread-making. Goose wheat is used chiefly 
for feeding purposes or for the manufacture of macaroni. 
IV. Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and the Northern and Central Parts of 
Alberta.—This enormous tract of country is devoted very largely to the 
cultivation of spring wheat, which, as a rule, gives a good yield and 
produces kernels of a hard, glutinous character scarcely to be surpassed. 
Winter wheat has been tried in some sections but has not proved uniformly 
successful. 
V. Southern Alberta.—Winter wheat has been profitably grown for 
many years in the south-western portion of Alberta, and the area devoted 
to it of late has been largely extended northwards and eastwards. Spring 
wheat is also grown in this portion of the Province but to a smaller extent 
than winter wheat. The yield per acre of winter wheat is usually large 
and the kernels are exceptionally heavy and hard. 
VI. British Columbia.—This Province does not produce very much 
wheat, though it is found profitable where grown. Both winter and spring 
varieties are sown. The diversity of climates in this Province is so great 
as to render impossible any general descriptive remarks on the subject. 
From the details just given it will be readily seen that the position of 
winter wheat in Canada is distinctly subordinate to that of spring wheat. 
In order, therefore, to bring the subject within reasonable limits all dis- 
cussion of the work which has been done in this country with winter wheat 
is omitted. 
Most of the breeding and selecting of varieties of wheat in connection 
with the Dominion Experimental Farm system has been carried on at the 
Central Farm at Ottawa, where the climate in many respects resembles 
that of most of the spring wheat districts of Canada. The selections made 
at the Ottawa Farm are only provisional; the most promising varieties 
are afterwards sent to the various branch farms for further trial and for 
the rejection of any found unsuited to the local conditions. 
When the Dominion Experimental Farms were first established the 
settlement of the great prairie country of Central and Western Canada 
had not progressed very far, so that there were various problems of vital 
importance connected with the growing of wheat on the plains which 
awaited investigation. While, therefore, the needs of the older farming 
districts have not been overlooked, the most interesting branches of the 
work have been those concerning the great wheat-growing plains. The 
short summer of the prairies emphasised the need for early-maturing 
varieties of wheat, while the long distance between the farmer and the main 
centres of wheat consumption made it essential that only such varieties 
should be grown as would command an exceptionally high price in the 
world’s markets, so that the cost of transporting the grain would be rela- 
tively low. 
The prairie settlers found the famous Red Fife wheat very satisfactory 
on the whole, except in regard to the time taken to mature the crop, which 
in the less favourable seasons was rather too long; so that the fields were 
sometimes touched with frost before the grain was ready to be cut, thus 
very seriously lessening the farmers’ income. In hardness of kernel and 
in flour strength (the characteristics which perhaps chiefly determine the 
selling price of any wheat) this variety ranks at the head of its class. 
