Overview

Excerpt from Experimental Farms: Reports of the Director, Agriculturist, Horticulturist, Chemist, Entomologist and Botanist, Poultry Manager, Supt; Experimental Farm for 1891 After the young plant has begun to grow a period of comparative rest is needed, during which growth above is scarcely perceptible, until the roots are sufficiently extended to gather food for further development; the rapidity with which this progress is made depends very much on the plumpness and inherent vigour of the seed. Crops are thus often enfeebled at the start and delayed in ripening by the use of poor seed, or they ripen unevenly and lack that vigour so necessary to a liberal return. As an illustration we may take the oat crop. How often it has occurred that farmers have held over for seed such oats as were too poor in quality to sell to advantage, thinking that any sort was good enough for this purpose, and how frequently has the yield been poor and the grain of light weight. It is not unusual for good farmers who provide good seed of fertile sorts to have crops of this grain of from 50 to 60 bushels per acre, while the average is about 35 bushels; by the exercise of greater care in this respect the average production may be materially increased, and every additional bushel per acre would in Ontario alone add to the returns of the farming community nearly $625,000 a year. Or, taking the improvement in another line, it is well known that some farmers by the selection of good plump seed and thorough preparation of the soil grow oats from four to eight pounds heavier per bushel than many of their neighbours. It should not be forgotten that with an equal yield in measured bushels per acre an average increase in the single province of Ontario of one pound per bushel in weight in the entire crop would be a gain to the farmers, basing the estimate on the crop of last year, of $750,000 per annum. An addition of one bushel per acre on the wheat crop of Ontario, including both fall and spring wheat, would in like manner add to the gains of the farmers over$1, 300, 000 in a single season. These statements respecting wheat and oats will apply with more or less force to every other crop. Good varieties of grain sometimes deteriorate by long and careless cultivation to such an extent as to make them unprofitable, when they are usually replaced by other sorts. Judicious selection and change of seed would no doubt conserve this fertility and add greatly to the length of life of such varieties. New sorts are obtained either by careful selection and cultivation, by the preservation of occasional sports which occur in nature or by artificial crossing. The watchful farmer may do much to improve his own grain, and furnish good seed to his less thoughtful neighbours by the first method, and occasionally secure new varieties by the second, but the third requires much more skill and care and is usually practised only by the expert in such matters. On the experimental farms all these methods are in operation, and in a very few years a large number of new sorts which have been originated in this climate will be available for test in different parts of the Dominion. Distribution Of Seed Grain. In view of the importance of placing within the reach of Canadian farmers the best varieties of seed grain obtainable, all the most promising sorts are yearly brought together and tested at the experimental farms. The crops of such sorts as are likely to be generally useful are preserved, and under instruction of the Minister of Agriculture distributed the following season to those who apply for them as long as the supply lasts. The character of this free distribution is sometimes misunderstood. Some farmers think they have the right to demand samples of the seed of every sort of grain and crop grown on the farm, and lists are often received covering several pages of a letter enumerating all sorts of grain, vegetable seeds, bulbs, flowers, &c., wh.

Full Product Details

9781332306992

Table of Contents

Reviews

Author Information

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available