EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH WORK IN CANADA.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1248, 30 January 1896, Page 5

EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH WORK IN CANADA.

The Dominion Government have issued a bulky volume of 400 pages giving a most exhaustive account of

the agricultural experimental work that is being carried on by that Government. From this volume we learn at the outset that the Canadian farmer is feeling the pressure of low prices just as keenly as the farmers in England are doing. According to the report —" The very low prices which continue to prevail for wheat and the coarse grains have obliged many farmers to turn thtir attention to more profitable methods of disposing of these crops." Experiments at the farms have demonstrated that wheat, as well as other grain, may be made a greater source of profit if fed to steers and swine, and thus converted into beef and pork, than by the sale of these crops in their crude state at present prices. The feeding of these ceieals, mixed with suitable succulent food, such as silage to cows, and the conversion of their milk into cheese and butter, have like wise been shown to be more profitable than the sale of the grain. Hence the dairying industry has recently extended very rapidly in Canada, and the demand for first-class dairy products is said to be almost unlimited. The gratuitous distribution of seed of varieties of wheat, barley, oats, peas and potatoes, whose qualities have been proved at the farms, is being continued, and is apparently much appreciated. As the result of experiments extending over a period of three years in the fattening of 112 pigs upon grain, it was found that on the average 4-38 lbs of grain (barley, rye, peas, wheat, frosted wheat and wheat bran) was the quantity consumed per pound of increase in live weight. In the feeding of grain—considering the quantity consumed and„ the general animals—it is

is found profitable to grind the grain and soak it in water for about thirty hours. It is profitable, 'moreover, to add from 31b to 51b of skim milk or butter milk per head per day to the grain fed to fattening swine. For the last four years an experiment has been in progress at Ottawa, wherein 40 acres are set apart for the purpose of growing cereals and green forage crops, all of which are used in feeding cows. The object is to show how many cows can be fed per annum from such an area of arable land. The cultivation is only of the kind that is within the scope of the ordinary farmer, and it is sought to direct the attention to the practicability of keeping cattle in larger numbers than is usually the case on the moderate and small-sized farms in Canada. Thii ty cows per annum have been fed on the crops from the 40 acres, a little wheat, bran and oil-cake being allowed in addition. The total quantity of milk yielded in the second half of the year was 59,9861 b, equivalent to about 15001 b per acre. The total quantity of butter-fat was 23061 b, equivalent to about 601 b per acre. The yield of butter has been at the rate of 1151 b for every 1001 b of butter-fat in the milk. If the whole of the milk had been made into butter the 40 acres would have yielded 26521b—0r 661 b per acre—in the half-year July to December. Numerous other points of practical interest are touched upon in these reports which cannot be other thin useful and suggestive to the farmers of the Dominion.