FIELD EXPERIMENTS IN 1915. 7 



It will be noted that the two highest yielding varieties were 

 the Early Pearl and the Siberian, 74 and 71 bushels per acre 

 respectively. These two varieties are the latest maturing varie- 

 ties in our collection. It was supposed that some of the earlier 

 .maturing varieties would prove best for Aroostook. For the 

 present year such does not seem to have been the case. It is, 

 however, unsafe to generalize upon the results of one year. 

 The use of early varieties has much to commend it for Aroos- 

 took conditions. The earlier varieties mature in time so that 

 harvesting does not interfere with potato digging, while many 

 of the later varieties are not ready to harvest before that time. 



The variety which ranked third in this year's test was the 

 Kherson with a yield of 68 bushels. The Kherson is one of the 

 early varieties, maturing about 10 days before the medium vari- 

 eties. The Daubeney, another early variety, gave 61 bushels 

 per acre. The Kherson is a yellow oat, while the Daubeney is 

 a white. They mature at about the same time. 



The Prosperity variety gave 67 bushels per acre. This variety 

 is being used as a farm oat at the present time. It is. a very good 

 standard variety, maturing in about 1 10 days in Aroostook. 



The Silver Mine, Gold Rain, Ligowo and Maine No. 246 

 yielded above 60 bushels per acre. The latter variety is one of 

 our own breeding produced at Highmoor Farm. 



The Banner, Irish Victor and Carton No. 5 yielded in the 

 neighborhood of 55 bushels and the remaining varieties, Im- 

 ported Scotch, Senator and Swedish Select, gave about 50 

 bushels per acre. 



It is expected to continue these experiments in 19 16. After 

 the results of several seasons have been obtained, they will un- 

 doubtedly indicate which of the more common commercial varie- 

 ties are best adapted to Aroostook conditions. At the same 

 time efforts are being made to breed new varieties which will be 

 still better adapted to Aroostook conditions. It is clear that 

 there is a need for such varieties, for the yields so far obtained 

 at Aroostook Farm are 10 to 15 bushels per acre less than 

 obtained at Highmoor Farm. It is not believed that these are 

 by any means the maximum that might be expected from well 

 adapted varieties. 



