CROP PRODUCTION IN CANADA.

Evening Post, Volume XCIII, Issue 89, 14 April 1917, Page 10

CROP PRODUCTION IN CANADA.

The Department of Agriculture of the Canadian Government is carrying on illustration work in crop production and cultural methods with farmers in the provinces of Quebec, Alberta, and Saskatche.wan.

Farmers owning or operating land favourably situated for the carrying on of such work co-operate with the Department. The farmer puts under the direction of an officer, of the' Dominion-exper-imental farms system a. part of his farm having a good wide frontage on a welltravelled highway, each field having the same frontage along the same highway, so that the crops and cultivation a.re unavoidably in evidence to the casual traveller and easily inspected by the interested visitor.

The Department, for the first year at least, .furnishes the seed necessary tp cow euch of the fields as it is decided to put under crop that year. In subsequent years the farmer saves enough of the best of the crop grown, on these fields to do the necessary seeding. This, of course, provided the grain produced is satisfactory- as to purity and germinative power. All cultural ajid harvesting operations in connection with these fields, that is,the ploughing, harrowing 1, etc., of them, and the sowing, harvesting, and threshing of the grain therefrom, are done by the farmer. All work indicated above is done in exactly such ways and at exactly such times as directed by the illustration station division of the Dominion experimental farms system. The farmer keeps a record of the amount of time taken to perform the different operations on each field and threshes the grain harvested separately, so that it will be known, how much is harvested from each field. ;

The records just mentioned of the work and crops resulting, together with brief notes made each week, are. duly /entered on blank forms provided for that purpose. The work of making such notes and entering up the work don© on each field does not entail more than one hour's work each month. Each week the farmer mails to the central experimental farm, Ottawa, a form, filled out, with full particulars as to the work done, general weather conditions, and crop progress on. the different fields. The farmer permits to be placed in front of each field asign. stating briefly the method^ of preparing the land for the crop growing thereon,'or the treatment given to the plot that year. On all these farms, whether located in the province of Quebec, or in Saskatchewan, or Alberta, systematic rotaiaons of crops suitable to the district served, as well as the best cultural methods and most suitable varieties of crops, are beingg demonstrated.

Weight-carrying capacity, so far as horses are concerned, is usually associated with size, yet the Russian war campaign has demonstrated that comparatively small horses of the Russian type are able not only to carry a great deal,of weight, but to go on enduring it for a long time They are so "well put together," according to a cavalry authority; that "although there is not much of them, it is all quality," and "their gameness is 'so characteristic that there is scarcely a soft one to be found amongst them." The Russian soldier is, as a rule, a heavy man, and his saddle, accoutrements, etc., increase the impost materially. He is kind to his horse, but he does not spare him during, a period of exigiency. There is rarely a collapse. Nor can it be said that such horses are exceptionally well done in the matter of corn, for they are used to roughing it, and oats—least of afl at war prices—do not overow customarily in their mangers. They are hardy enough to live on what they can get. "The secret of their weight-carrying capacity," adds the authority quoted, "is that they have plenty of good bone and a big heart, whilst their Btamina is more remarkable than their speed." , .•,-..-.-■

One big dealer in Southland is evidently manipulating a corner in bulls for they coming season (says the Otautau Standard), as at the last two Otautau sales he has bought up every animal, in the first case about 11 animals falling to his bids.

The accounts for Armour and Co., Chicago, for the, year ending 28th Ootober, 1916, show a net profit of £5,432,433, as against £3,609,740 in 1915. The total sales during the last twelve months amounted to.tho huge sum of £105,000,000 — a record for the company.