280 
Canadian Agriculture. 
I have had to take a few liberties with the balance-sheet, not, 
however, affecting its correctness, but simply to present it in a 
form, shown on the opposite page, in which it will perhaps be 
more easily understood. 
My visit to the Bell Farm was made on September 14th, 1884. 
Major Bell, who was exceedingly kind, gave Sir Richard 
Temple, Professor Sheldon, and myself seats in his v/aggonette, 
and obligingly answered the many questions we showered upon 
him during our tour of inspection. The following statements 
are derived from the notes I then took. In 1884, there were 
7000 acres in wheat, and in 1885 it is proposed to have 
14,000 acres under this crop. The harvest is usually over by 
the middle of August, but the summer of 1884 having been an 
abnormally cold backward season, the in-gathering of the crop 
was in full-swing at the time of our visit, so that we had an 
opportunity of seeing 35 self-binding reaping-machines at work 
side by side. The sheaves are left in stook for a day or two, 
and then carried to the threshing machines, the grain from 
which is shot into large wooden granaries in the fields. During 
winter, when work in general is slack, the granaries are emptied 
and the wheat is conveyed in sleighs across the snow to the 
elevators adjoining the railway, whence it is transferred to the 
freight waggons as required. The standing corn presented a 
good, regular, and clean appearance. The variety of wheat 
grown is that known as Red Fyfe, or No. 1 Hard ; and it 
rubbed out into a dry, bright, even sample. No " docking " or 
weeding of any kind has yet been resorted to, and though, in 
the case of one field, the prairie rose seemed to have acquired 
undisputed possession at the beginning of June, the wheat 
eventually overpowered it, and ultimately gave a good yield. Of 
poppy there was no trace whatever, and I only saw one solitarv 
plant of corn-cockle, and that, too, in a field of wheat measuring 
seven miles from corner to corner ; most of the fields, however, 
are two miles long, by one mile wide. The straw was of fair 
length and beautifully clean, being free from even the faintest 
trace of rust ; at present it is burnt as it comes from the 
threshing-machine, being used as fuel for the engine, and the 
ashes are returned to the soil. The steam machinery comprises 
seven threshing-machines with complete outfit. There are no 
less than 100 sulky or gang ploughs, and a large number of 
seeders. 
The soil of the Bell Farm is a rich, deep, black loam, with a 
clay sub-soil. A three-horse team and a sulky plough, working 
on a 16-inch furrow, {ind set to a depth of three inches, can turn 
up two acres a day, at a cost of 8s. per acre. On an adjoining 
farm belonging to Colonel Sykes, and where steam-ploughing 
