292 
Canadian Agriculture. 
barlev was harvested on Julv 23rd : oats on August 6th ; and 
wheat on August 7th. Barlev thus occupied three months 
eighteen days for its growth : oats, four months one day : and 
wheat, four months two davs. In some cases good vegetables 
were grown ; and at Gleichen, in particular, I had an opportunity 
of inspecting some reallv excellent garden produce. The farm 
at Secretan, which gave an average vield in wheat and oats, is 
interesting, because it is situated at the summit of the Grand 
Coteau of the Missouri, a description of which is given in an 
earlier part of this paper. 
At each farm an acre of land was set apart to determine the 
results of autumn sowing, spring-wheat and oats being sown 
and harrowed in at the time of breaking the sod in October. 
!Much of it germinated in November and December and showed 
green above ground, but it was subsequently killed by frost 
during the winter. A few patches of wheat which managed to 
survive the winter, ripened %'erv irregularly and much later 
than the spring-sown grain. Fall-sowing of spring-wheat, which 
has proved successful in Manitoba, is therefore not likely to 
be a success in the western countrv, where the winter is more 
mild and open and the grain liable to germinate and perish. 
Fall-wheat has not yet been tried on the western prairies. 
The results obtained from these experimental farms cannot be 
regarded as other than satisfactorv, especiallv when the rough 
methods of cultivation, which perforce had to be adopted, are 
taken into consideration. The matter was, of course, of very 
considerable importance to the Canadian Pacific Railway 
authorities, who base the following conclusions on the results 
arrived at : — 1. That, for grain-growing, the land of the third 
prairie-steppe is capable of giving as large a yield as the heavier 
lands of Manitoba. 2. That a fair vield can be obtained the 
first year of settlement on breaking. 3. That from fall seeding 
with spring grain on the western plains a satisfactory result 
cannot be looked for. 4. That cereals, roots, and garden pro- 
duce can be successfully raised at elevations of from 2bOO leet 
to 3000 feet above the sea-level. 5, That seeding can be done 
sufficiently early to allow of all the crop being harvested before 
September 1st. With regard to this last point it might be 
thought that the summer of 1884 was abnormally early on the 
prairie, but I know that the contrary was the case ; it had been 
an unusually wet backward summer — just the reverse of what 
we experienced in England — and, at the Bell Farm, 130 miles 
east of Secretan, the most easterly of the experimental farms, 
harvesting was, as I have already stated, in full operation on 
the 14th of September, a much later date than usual. 
I may add that samples of wheat from the experimental 
i 
