14 THE DIRECTOR, EXPERIilEXTAL FARMS 



Q. My only point was, I wondered whether the land was giving out or maintaming 

 its fertility and producing as good-^ results as it did when we had the virgin soil la 

 JManitoba over thirty years ago ? 



♦A. I think on the Portage plains, where in many instances twenty to twenty-five 

 crops have been taken off, the yield is not so large, although the average for Manitoba 

 is pretty nearly the same as the average which the Territorial government has given 

 for the Territories, that is, about twenty-five bushels. But you must bear in mind 

 that i,n the Territories there are probably a larger proportion of inexperienced farmers, 

 and a good many that have sown their grain on fresh ploughed land and stubble, and 

 have given it very little cultivation, and you have to take these small crops and put 

 them with the larger ones, and that brings down the average to twenty-five bushels. 



By Hon. Mr. Fisher : 



Q. With regard to the average, I suppose that is for the actual area of wheat in 

 any one year without reference to how much summer-fallowing there was to it ? 



A. Certainly, it takes in the whole area in wheat for the year. 



Q. I think, in Manitoba there is a larger area in summer-fallow there, alternately, 

 or every second year, than there is in the Territories in proportion, is there not ? 



A. I think, perhaps, there is. There is not so much summer-fallowing of land 

 in Southern or Northern Alberta ; the largest amount of summer-fallowing is in East- 

 ern Assiniboia. 



Q. Is there as much in proportion as there is in ifanitoba ? 



A. I think probably there is as large a proportion in that part of the Territories 

 as there is in Manitoba, but taking the whole wheat area in Manitoba, there is a larger 

 proportion of summer-fallowing than there is in the whole of the wheat land in the 

 Territories. 



Q. But the yield from summer-fallow will be greater ? 



A. Yes, much greater. 



By Mr. Davis : 



Q. The samples you have here are nearly all from Eastern Assiniboia, from the 

 districts surrounding the farm ? 



A. Tes. 



Q. You have no means of getting samples from the other districts, from Saskatche- 

 v/an, for example. Of course, there is no experimental farm there, and you have no 

 means, I suppose, of getting information from that district ? 



A. Oh, yes, we have received a number of samples from all parts of- the North- 

 west, as there are farmers everywhere who co-operate with us« in testing the best varie- 

 ties. It is not practicable to bring a very large number of samples with me here, and 

 among those chosen this morning I do not appear to have brought any from that dis- 

 trict. 



Q. But it is natural that the farmers in the districts surrounding the experimental 

 farms obtain greater advantages from them than those at a distance ? 



A. There is no doubt that the people living near the experimental farms have a 

 greater opportunity of benefiting from the w.irk of the farms than those who live 

 200 or 300 miles away. But farmers everywhere can receive the reports of the farm 

 containing all the results of the experiments if they apply for them, and they can 

 then read for themselves and learn what results have been obtained, and in this way 

 every farmer can derive profit from the work we do. They can also get samples from 

 the farms for tests, of the most productive and best sorts of grain, which are sent free 

 to all those who ask for them. 



Q. As it is now, you raise a sample of wheat like that on the experimental farm 

 in Assiniboia in the Territories, which answers the requirements of tliat particular sec- 

 tion very well, but the Territories are so large that it might not be any good in another 



