302 



GENERAL AGRICULTURAL NOTES. 



[Doc. 1896. 



Iii the present Report are recorded the results obtained with 

 oats, which is the largest of all the grain crops grown in 

 Canada. It is found that in 1891 there were produced in the 

 Dominion 82,515,413 bushels, which, estimated at an average 

 value of 1 cent per pound, were worth about 28,000,000 dollars 

 (about 5,800,000^.). 



According to official statistics the average yield of oats in 

 Canada is 26*7 bushels, which, ia this respect, is in advance of 

 that of the United States, where the average yield is given as 24*2; 

 bushels; and a long way in advance of another formidable 

 competitor, Russia, where the yield is said to be only 11*9 

 bushels. On the other hand, the yield is much less than in 

 Great Britain, where the oat crop gives 40*2 bushels, and still 

 more behind that of Norway with 43'9, or Holland with 46 , 8 > , 

 bushels per acre. 



The analyses which have been made by the chemist of the 

 Experimental Farms of soils in different parts of Canada go to 

 show that they are in no way inferior in regard to their 

 important fertilising constituents to the average farm soils in 

 Europe. The climate in the countries referred to, where the 

 larger averages are obtained, is probabty, as a rule, more 

 favourable to the oat crop than the climate of Canada, but these 

 climatic variations are not sufficient in themselves to account 

 for the wide differences in yield. This has been abundantly 

 proved from year to year by the better class of farmers all over 

 the Dominion, whose crops average much larger than those of 

 their less enterprising neighbours. It has also been proved by 

 the yields obtained during the past five or six years at the 

 Experimental Farms. This difference of nearly 14 bushels per 

 acre between the average yield of oats in Canada and Great 

 Britain, or of 20 bushels when compared with the yield in. 

 Holland, is a very serious question in its bearing on the profits 

 of farming, since every bushel per acre of increase on the average 

 crop of Canada makes a gain to Canadian farmers, estimat- 

 ing the oats at an average value of 1 cent per pound, of 

 825,000 dollars, or about 172,000£. According to Director 

 Saunders, there are two lines of advance open in regard to the- 

 improvement of this crop as well as others. The first is better 

 farming ; and the next is, perhaps, equal in importance, namely,, 

 the exercise of greater care in the selection of seed, so as to sow 

 only the more prolific sorts. 



Cold Storage for Canadian Fruit. 



The Board have received a report of the evidence lately taken 

 by a Committee of the Canadian House of Commons, where it 

 is stated that at the request of the Fruit Growers' Association 

 of Ontario an experiment was made last year to carry to 



