Varieties of Potatoes. Five varieties of potatoes were distributed for co-operative experiments in 1903. Only two varieties were sent to each experimenter, but they were distributed in such a way that the sum mary results can be so arranged as to represent the comparative yields per acre, all reckoned on a uniform basis. One late, one medium, and three very early varieties of potatoes were used for the cooperative tests. The average yields per acre of the two hundred and twenty-seven successfully conducted experiments are as follows: Empire State, 222 bushels; Burpee's Extra Early. 173 bushels; Early Pinkeye, 164 bushels; Early Ohio, 125 bushels; and Stray Beauty, 119 bushels. The late variety, therefore, gave the largest yield per acre, and the medium variety the second largest. Of the three early varieties. the Early Pinkeye gave decidedly the largest yield per acre. In per cent. of small potatoes, the Empire State produced nine, and the Early Pinkeye, eleven; the Early Ohio produced sixteen, and the Stray Beauty, twenty-two. The percentage of small potatoes in the Stray Beauty was, therefore, double that of the Early Pinkeye variety, and both of these are very early varieties. In meali ness of the cooked potatoes, the Early Pinkeye stood the highest, and the Stray Beauty the lowest of the early varieties. On the whole, the Empire State was the most popular of the lot. Of the very early varieties, the Early Pinkeye was the most popular, and the Stray Beauty the least popular among the experimenters.

Methods of Cultivating Potatoes. For three years in succession, potatoes have been distributed throughout Ontario and instructions given for carrying on a careful experiment in comparing the practice of "hilling up" potatoes as against growing them on the level. The results for 1903 are somewhat in favor of "hilling up" the potatoes, probably due to the peculiar season. In each of the two years previous the results were in favor of level cultivation. Taking the average of three years, during which time exactly one hundred successfully conducted experi ments have been reported, we find that the potatoes which were grown on the level gave 208.2 bushels, and those which were "hilled up" gave an average of 205.9 bushels per acre, or about 2 1-3 bushels per acre in favor of the level cultivation.

Preparation of Seed Potatoes. In experiments conducted at the college in cutting potatoes and planting the pieces after they had been sprinkled with lime, plaster, etc., in comparison with planting the pieces without being sprinkled with any material, it was found that those potatoes which were sprinkled with land plaster gave better results

than the potatoes prepared in any other way. For four years an experiment has been conducted throughout Ontario in order to let farmers ascertain for themselves whether there would be any marked advantage fron using land plaster on their seed potatoes before planting. In 1903, as in 1900 and 1901, the land plaster showed a marked advantage. In 1902, however, the results from the two methods were very similar, showing a slight advantage where no land plaster was used. In the average of the four years, in which there were in all exactly eighty successfully-conducted experiments, we find that the potatoes which were not coated with land plaster produced 168.7 bushels, and those which were coated with land plast er produced 177.6 bushels per acre. In the average results of four years, therefore, the sprinkling of seed potatoes with land plaster or gypsum increased the yield by about 9 bushels per acre throughout Ontario.

Mr. W. J. Brown: Can you give me the feeding values of the different varieties of mangels?

Mr. Zavitz: The results of analyses ma de by Prof. Shuttleworth showed that the Globe varieties were slightly the richest ; next came the Intermediate, and last the Long Red; but there was not much difference in the composition of the three classes. I think that Prof. Shutt of Ottawa found that some of the larger varieties of roots gave as good results as some of the smaller varieties of roots.

Q. Where do you classify the Giant S gar mangel?

Mr. Zavitz: It seems to resemble a beet rather more than a mangel.

Mr. T. H. Mason; In southern Ontario, we find that the parsnip increases very materially in weight by being left in the groun 1 over winter. In some cases they were fed to hogs in the spring.

Mr. James McCabe: Would it not be well to sow them in the fall? Parsnips sown in the fall have given good results in our neighborhood, and made an earlier start than if sown in the spring.

Mr. Zavitz: It is often very difficult to get a good stand in the spring, owing to the lack of germination. The autumn sowing would likely furnish the most uniform stand of plants.

Q. Do you have any trouble with the Japanese Panicle Millet shedding its seed before it is ready for harvesting?

Mr. Zavitz: When grown for seed, it does sometimes do so.

Q. A great many of the varieties have this habit.

Mr. Zavitz: The Japanese Panicle variety is not so bad as some others in this respect.

Mr. N. Monteith: The Wisconsin Earliest White Dent corn has shown itself to be one of the biggest croppers we could get in the Stratford district.

Mr. T. H. Mason: We have grown it extensively for some years. It is one of the most satisfactory varieties we have ever grown there. It will give a large yield of shelled corn per acre, and will mature almost any year; that is in East Elgin, and on the lightest soil. We find it resists drouth, and is better for our light lands than the Flint varieties.

Q. Have you any data as to the value of sowing the Hairy Vetch in the spring? Mr. Zavitz: We have had better results from sowing in the autumn. It goes through the winter well and gives better results the next year than when sown in the spring. We distributed Hairy Vetch seed throughout the Province in the autumn of last year, and the results have been very satisfactory.

Q. For the cultivation of seed, should it be sown in the autumn?

Mr. Zavitz: The yield of seed is about twice as great when sown in the autumn. We have grown seed for three or four years with fairly good results, obtaining ten bushels per acre.

Q.: Mr. Tweddle says it is necessary to have some crop to hold the vetch up, if you are to get good results in the way of seed.

Mr. Zavitz: We have found the same thing. Where the vetch is grown with a few oats, it will give a better quality of seed. Mr. Tweedle has used it as a in his orchard and is very much pleased with it.

cover crop

Mr. A. E. Sherrington: I have not used it, but it has given good satisfaction in the Walkerton neighborhood.

Prof. W. J. Spillman: Has any one sown it with rye? We find rye the best crop to sow with the vetch. They ripen together, and the rye allows the vetch to develop well. We sow about three pecks of rye to three or four pecks of the Hairy Vetch. Prof. J. W. Gilmore: In New York State we prefer rye to oats, because it is stronger, and also has the advantage of being thinner on the ground.

Q. Is that for seed production?

Prof. Gilmore: Yes; for fodder we prefer oats.

Mr. J. E. Brethour: We have found the vetch very successful as a pasture for hogs. Mr. Mason: I think three pecks of rye would be too thick in this locality, as the rye stools out so.

Mr. Fraser Is there no danger of its becoming a weed?

Mr. Zavitz: I do not think there is any more danger of the Hairy Vetch becoming a weed than the Common Vetch, which is extensively grown in the Old Country for green fodder purposes. With regard to Mr. Brethour's statement, I may say that there is no other crop which we sow in the spring that gives as much pasture as the Hairy Vetch.

Prof. Spillman: In the eastern part of Washington Territory the Hairy Vetch is an extremely bad weed, but it has not become a weed in any other part of the United States.

Mr. Mason: Mr. Orr objects to it as a cover crop in the orchard, for the reason that it makes such a complete mat as to provide a perfect shelter for mice in the winter time, and he has discarded it on that account.

Q: What about Pencilaria?

Mr. Zavitz: It was advertised extensively a few years ago, and we obtained some of the seed. We found it exactly the same as Pearl Millet, which we have grown for several years, and which we have found to require a much longer season for growth than we possess in Ontario.

Mr. J. W. Clark: We grew two acres of Emmer last year, yielding 58 bushels to the acre. We did not sow till May 24th. The weather was very dry, and it did not come up till the early part of June, but then it stooled out rapidly. The grain was very plump, and the straw of excellent feeding quality.

Mr. Zavitz: This year we sowed Emmer on six or eight different dates, and found there was not much difference between the crops from seed sown on different dates during the spring.

Q. Why is it classed among the spring wheats?

Mr. Zavitz: It is one of the seven classes of wheat.

Q.: Could it be used for making flour?

Mr. Zavitz: Yes; it is grown in the southern part of Germany and in northern Italy, and they have special machinery for separating the hull from the grain, and then the grain can be made into flour.

Prof. Spillman: There are also winter varieties grown in Europe.

Mr. Zavitz: We tested one winter variety, but it did not give very good results. Q. What is the percentage of hull?

Mr. Zavitz: There is from twenty-three to twenty-five per cent. of hull on the Emmer. It has a very thin hull. The average hull of oats is thirty per cent. Mr. Glendinning: If you deduct the hull, 23 per cent., from the yield given on your table, the yield would be about the same as that of Hulless barley.

Q: Is there any particular value in the hull?

Mr. Zavitz: The principal part of the hull consists of woody fibre, but at the same time, when it is ground with the grain, it makes a lighter and a more satisfactory food

to use.

Q. Would there be any difference in the feeding value of the hull of Emmer and that of the oat?

Mr. Zavitz: I suppose there would be some difference, but I have not seen an analysis showing the composition of the hulls of the Emmer.

Q. How would it do to mix Emmer with oats and barley in the seeding, instead of using wheat for the mixing?

Mr. Zavitz: We tried it in each of the past two years, but it did not give as good results when sown with other grain as when sown alone. It does not seem to stand crowding.

Mr. T. H. Mason: The late Mr. Tillson grew great quantities of Soy beans and put them in the silo, mixed with corn silage, and was well satisfied with the result.

Q. It was difficult to get them dry enough to keep well last year, was it not? Mr. Zavitz: It was an exceptional year. We matured the crop here, however, and we find by taking the average of eight years' experiments, that the Early Yellow variety usually ripens well.

Q. Are all the varieties of winter wheat here mentioned of good milling quality? Mr. Zavitz: They are all good milling wheats.

:

Q. How far north can you grow these varieties, of corn and obtain the results here indicated?

Mr. Zavitz: All three varieties can usually be ripened in nearly all parts of Old Ontario. Yields equal to those represented in these results should be obtained a considerable distance north of Guelph. The King Phillip proved to be slightly the earliest and the North Star Yellow Dent slightly the latest in the cooperative experiments

in 1903.

Q. Do you not find that you get potato es sunburned with flat cultivation ? Mr. Zavitz: Not if you plant them deeply enough. If planted at a depth of four inches, we have found that not more than one or two per cent. were sunburned. We have obtained a better yield per acre from level than from hilled cultivation.

Mr. W. J. Brown: Have you any idea as to the amount of available fertility there is in cow manure?

Mr. Zavitz: We decided in every case to use good average cow manure for the sake of uniformity.

Q: Is not 40,000 pounds a heavy application?

Mr. Zavitz: That is twenty tons, or about twelve good-sized loads, per acre. Q. Do fertilizers have any effect on the length of time a crop takes to ripen? Mr. Zavitz: Some of them exert some influence in the time in which a crop wi ripen. If you use nitrate of soda, it is apt to cause a vigorous growth and to prolong the ripening of the crop; I think it would retard it even more in a wet than in a dry

season.

Prof. Harcourt: It is always supposed that phosphates hasten maturity and nitrates retard it, potash being practically without any effect in either direction.

Q. Which fertilizer would give the best results the year following?

Mr. Zavitz.: You would undoubtedly obtain the greatest influence in the second year from farmyard manure. The commercial fertilizers which were used are all readily available, and the fertility would likely be nearly all used by the crop in the first year. Prof. Harcourt Muriate of potash and superphosphate would not leach away, and any of the plant food not used the first year would remain for future crops.

Q. Do you think it would be wise to adopt the use of commercial fertilizers on grain crops?

Mr. Zavitz: The results of the co-operative experiments strongly indicate that it would be unwise to use these fertilizers extensively with grain crops. In the case of turnips, however, where we increase our crop at a cost of 1.7 cents per bushel, it shows a profit.

samples of fer

Mr. J. W. Clark: I conducted an experiment last year with some tilizers sent me from Germany. I took three plots of one-third of an acre each, and planted them with barley. One plot was fertilized with pure phosphoric acid, one plot with nitrates and phosphoric mixed, and one plot was not fertilized at all. The yield from the plot fertilized with phosphoric acid was 80 bushels to the acre; with mixed fertilizer it was 60 bushels, and on the unfertilized plot it was only 30 bushels per acre. The plots fertilized were perhaps a week or ten days earlier in ripening, and their green appearance made them noticeable at a great distance.

Mr. Zavitz That shows the value of individual experiments. What might apply on Mr. Clark's farm might not apply on some other man's farm. In our experiments the results of which I have submitted, we have taken an average of the different tests made all over the Province. In the Eastern States I have seen fertilizers used with exceedingly marked results, but when used here they did not give anything like the same. results. I think the reason is that we still have a good deal of the natural fertility in the soil, and as we are raising stock extensively, the soil is about holding its own in fertility on many farms.

Próf. Harcourt: The following table indicates how much fertilizing material was shipped out of the country in 1902, in the form of wood ashes, bones and tankage:

These figures represent fairly well the amount of the various materials exported annually, but we cannot estimate the tons of bones and ashes which are allowed to go to waste throughout the country. We can get nitrogen in abundance by caring for the farmyard manure and by plowing down certain crops which gather nitrogen from the atmosphere; but potash and phosphoric acid are being continually taken away from the farm in grain, beef, and milk, and the bones, tankage, and ashes are our natural substances for replenishing these losses.

In the case of ordinary fertilizers, it is impossible for a man to use these economically without having an intelligent knowledge of the food requirements of the different crops, and how these requirements are likely to be met by the soil upon which they are to be grown. This knowledge can soon be gathered by a system of experimenting.