Canada To-day and To-morrow

by Arthur E. Copping

THE OAT HARVEST: EIGHTY BUSHELS TO THE ACRE

As to the wheat most suitable for Manitoba, I learnt that many kinds have been grown on the homesteads, while the search for new knowledge is never slackened at the Government experimental farms; but accumulated experience may be summed up in seven words—there is nothing to beat Red Fyfe. The plant is healthy and vigorous and very productive, the hard and white berry having unequalled milling qualities, with thin bran and high gluten contents.

Concerning oats, I derived the following information from the Premier:

With proper care, this grain does very well in Manitoba, and there is a yearly increase in the demand (both for feeding purposes and oatmeal), and consequently an increase in the price obtainable. In some districts the soil is more favourable for oats than for wheat. Careful selection of seed and thorough cultivation result in immense yields, many farmers reporting an average of eighty bushels per acre on large holdings. For a number of years the Banner oat has been most favoured by growers, this being a thin, hulled sort, very productive, and of excellent quality. The white varieties, known as Abundance, Ligowa, and Newmarket, also receive attention and sell at good prices for milling purposes. What can be done by good cultivation on the rich soils of Manitoba is illustrated by this fact: At the Brandon experimental farm, over a period of five years, the average yield of Banner oats, on summer fallowed land, and without the use of a fertiliser, was one hundred and sixteen bushels and four pounds per acre. In the rotation of crops the place occupied by oats is usually after wheat and before either a barley crop or summer fallow.

I learnt that the Chevalier varieties of two-rowed barley have not given satisfaction. Two-rowed Duckbills, such as Canadian Thorpe, are stiffer in the straw, and, as a rule, the heads fill well. The six-rowed varieties—notably Mensury and Odessa—have been found best adapted for general cultivation. They can be sown later than any other grain, and mature so early as to escape danger from autumn frosts. It nearly always happens that the straw is stiff and bright and that the ears fill well.

With regard to fodder crops, I learnt that farmers in newly-settled districts have no need for them, abundance of excellent hay being obtainable from the natural prairie grass on the lower lands and water meadows. When, with the growth of a district, those areas are drained and utilised as grain fields, the farmers have no difficulty in raising fine crops of timothy, western rye, millet, broom, and other grasses. Lucerne and the clovers also thrive well under proper treatment, while Indian corn grows to a height of from eight to ten feet, and, yielding about twenty tons to the acre, is excellent as green fodder or as ensilage.

Having thus gleaned the salient facts as to preliminary operations and the crops that do well in Manitoba, I obtained the following particulars as to methods of farming practised in the province:

“Most of the wheat crop is grown on land that has produced a grain crop of some kind during the previous year. After the stubble land has been ploughed as early in the autumn as possible, it is furrowed and left ready for sowing in the following spring. In the case of new land, this inexpensive method of cultivation usually results in large profits. Sooner or later, of course, a regular system of rotation has to be adopted. The common practice is to include a summer fallow in the rotation, the grain stubble being usually ploughed in June, when the weed seeds have begun to germinate. Then the soil is compacted with a sub-surface packer, or similar implement, this operation being followed, during the summer, by thorough surface tillage, to kill weeds and prevent evaporation.

“Some of the largest and best crops of wheat are associated with summer fallowing, which greatly improves the condition of the soil. The more advanced farmers include grass in their rotation, timothy or western rye being usually sown with a nurse crop of grain, and the land being used for pasture after two season’s hay crops have been cut. Where clover is grown, a nurse crop is not recommended, although in favourable seasons there may be a light seeding of hay to be cut early as a green feed. Excellent results have been obtained by ploughing grain stubble in spring, harrowing once, then sowing about twelve pounds of red clover to the acre, harrowing again, and rolling. When weeds of the ‘volunteer’ grain crop are about a foot high, a mower should be run over the land, the cuttings being left to form a mulch. The clover plants become large and well rooted before the autumn, and there is no danger that they will be killed by the winter. In the following year two cuttings of clover can be taken.”

My attention was drawn to the fact that, the areas under cultivation being large, farm operations have to be carried through as expeditiously as possible. Hence the most improved machinery is in use on the homesteads. Immediately upon the ripening of the grain, large binders are set to work, and are kept in operation from dawn to sunset. At times a score of these machines, each drawn by four horses, are to be seen moving in close succession around an immense field, with the result that, in a few days, the crop from hundreds of acres is safely stooked. In a few more days the standing grain is cured; then the farm is visited by one of the threshing outfits, which consist of powerful steam traction engines and separators. The threshing is done direct from the stook, and is carried out so quickly that only a few days intervene between the ripening of the grain and its delivery on the market.