46

i have extracted the following from information
supplied to me by the courtesy of Mr. 7.D. Albright,
Superintendent of the Experimental Station fer the
Grande Prairie district.

“Grange Prairie is distinctly a mixed farm-
ing rather than a ranching or grain growing country.
Perhaps about fifteen per cent of the total area is
reasonably safe for the growing of Marquis wheat
in a commercial way. ‘his fifteen per cent is
chiefly the higher lanés bordering the larger lakes.
Cats are the spring grain to which thia country is
pre-eminently adapted. They flourish well, attain
an excellent sample, although on the higher lands
only are they reasonably sure to mature a crop with
a high percentage of germinationse However, the
aistrict will nesrly always be able to supply its
own cemand for seed oats, and often grow a larse
surplus to ship oute Harley is not nearly so sure
as oats, being very susesptible to frosts after it
heads out. Flax is not generally well adapted.

Peas yielé well then they mature but are too tender
in the advanced stages of growth to be at all sure

ef ripening save on the very highest and safest Land.
Winter wheat of the Kharkoff or Turkey Red variety
is moderately safe and winter rye has proven entirely
so in two seasons’ trial, yielding over fifty-seven
bushels per aerése This erop is believed to have a
large place to fill as @ means of providing late

fall ané early spring pasture, to be then cut for
hay if other hay erops fail, or left for ripening

if not required for hays

"fhe best yielding spring wheat has been Huron,
Ottawa, three, with a five year average yield of
forty-two bushels thirty-five pounds to the acre, as
compareé with thirty-two bushels thirty-eight pounds
for Harquis. Best i919 yielé oats, Sarmer, 122
bushels thirty~two pounds per acre.

*In the matter of grasses and clovers, the.
great permanent handicap is the dry spring and easly
summer to which we are subject. In those exceptional
seasons Like 1917, when abundance of moisture falls
in May and early Jume, good crops may be raised. In
thet year we had plots of alsike clover and aifalfa
which exceeded two and a quarter tons per acre. Tim-
othy went sbout two and a helf* tens, and vestern rye
grass nearly four tone per acre. In ordinary years
it is quite different. Hewever, our experiments in-
éieate that Western rye grass and timothy will gielé
one and a helf to two tons per acre even in adverse
seasons, if seeded alone on clean well prepared land.
We think we are also in a way of demonstrating that
these grasses may be advantegeously seeded with a
erop of barley or of oats for green feed, the grain
being sown thinly and late, and the erass seed simul-
taneously or immediately afterwards. The idea is to
sow both grains and grass just nicely ahead of the i
June rains so that the smell seeds will germim te
promptly and get an even start with the grain. Where a