206 



Varieties of Wheat. 



Duly, 



since then the same crops have been grown on all the plots 

 from year to year without fertilisers, sowing clover with the grain 

 each season. The ploughing under of clover was found most 

 effective as an additional source of fertility, and notwithstanding 

 the discontinuance of the use of manures the crops have in 

 many instances been considerably increased. Even in the case 

 of the two plots which had received farmyard manure up to 

 the year 1898, no appreciable falling off in the yield seems to 

 have taken place. In fact, in the case of barley the yield in 1903 

 was 41 -J and 37 bushels respectively on the two plots, compared 

 with an average for the preceding fourteen years of 35 bushels 

 per acre in both cases, although the yield of straw was some- 

 what less. 



The influence of the clover was very marked on the un- 

 manured plots. Where wheat had been grown for eleven years 

 without any manure the crop averaged io? bushels ; the yield 

 during the five years during which clover was ploughed in 

 showed an average increase of bushels per acre, or over 

 40 per cent. In the case of barley, unmanured for ten years, 

 the crop averaged 13! bushels, but the tenth year the crop was 

 reduced to 8 bushels per acre. Subsequent to the use of clover 

 the crops yielded I of, 9^, 10 J, 2j\ and 23 f bushels per acre, 

 an average increase of 20 per cent. The average crop of oats on 

 unmanured land was 30J bushels per acre ; with the use of clover 

 they have stood for five years at 29, 47^, 48 46 and 371 bushels 

 per acre, giving an average increase of io| bushels, or over 

 31 per cent. 



Experiments for the purpose of testing varieties of wheat 



and other cereals suitable to the soil and climate of Canada 



have been carried on at the Dpminion 



Testing Varieties Experimental Farms, and in view of the 

 of Wheat . - . ■ f 



in Canada. importance of the work the Canadian 



Minister of Agriculture has recently 



authorised the formation of a Division of Cereal Breeding. 



Dr. Saunders, the Director of the experimental farms, in his 



Report for 1903, gives an account of the progress of this work, 



