Thursday, April 6, 1967

and the provincial championship was held in conjunction with the Queen's County Plowing Match. Messrs. Barry Wilson, Cornwall, and William Maclnnis won the right to represent Prince Edward Island at the Canadian Plowing Contest. This will be8 held in Ontario in the fall of 1967. The P.E..I Plowman’s Council made all ar- rangements for the two provincial representatives, Dr. Carl Willis and Mr. Edwin Mills to attend the Canadian Plowing Contest in Chilliwack, B.C. Dr. Carl Willis brought back the honour to this province by winning The Canadian Plowing Cham- pionship. (Applause).

There were 2,200 acres of corn in 1966 compared to 1,600 acres in 1965. J. David Stewart: We have had a lot of it here in the last three or four weeks.

Honourable Daniel J. MacDonald: The average yield was 14.1 tons per acre. In early September a corn tour was organized and attended by approximately 75 farmers. Vgrieties of three farms were weighed and evaluated as well as the pub- lication of three newspaper columns. The reason I bring this up p, our Department, the Extension Division, participated in this quite a lot and it went off quite well. As you know there is quite a heavy production of corn taken off an acre; 14.1 tons per acre whereas with hay you often get less than two tons per acre. This is silage corn.

Crop Improvement. In the fall of 1966, some encouragement was given to in- terested farmers to organize a Crop Improvement Association. Indications are that this organization will be formed and will be a major factor in improved crop pro- ductions in the years ahead. This is something that was started last fall and shows great interest; most of the meetings were held at Birch Court and the Department 3f Agriculture ha s been participating by staff and also by providing coffee and

oug nuts.

A word about tobacco production; it was really a good year for tobacco pro- duction on P.E.I. The number of growers increased; in 1965 there were 15, and in 1966 there were 16. The average increased some. 403 acres in 1965; 469 in 1966. The average yield per acre in 1965 was 900 pounds, and this year it was 1200 pounds. Apparently this is the highest production these fellows have ever had, and this re- lates to experience. It was a very good year for growing tobacco and they made a bit of money, those fellows. The average price they received was 68c a pound. Pos- sibly this tobacco business may flourish a little more than it has in the past. There is not so very much soil on the Island that is suitable for growing tobacco.

A Soil Advisory Service was established designed to take the guesswork out of liming and fertilizing by providing the farmers with information available on all phases of soil management. Soil samples submitted by farmers are analyzed in the soil lab and chemical tests determine accurately the lime requirements as well as the amount of nitrogen, phosphorus, calcium and organic matter in the soil sample. If the sample is not pro rly taken then the test results can be very misleading. The soil sample must tru l; represent the area under consideration. More and more farmers are making use of the soil testing service. In 1965, 2,100 samples were tested compared to 3,200 samples tested in 1966. This is an increase of approximately 52%. Last fall the gentleman in charge of this soil testing, Mr. Andrew Humphrey, came to see me and he said there was every indication that there would be an in- crease in this so we had to increase his staff by two. So he certainly was busy and is a very conscientious gentleman, and I do feel he is doing a very good job indeed. He is one of our best men, we have other good men, but Mr. Humphrey is certainly one of our better men.

The Research Program under ARDA. Our program in this field has been a very active one indeed. During the year we have been involved in different projects throughout the province; we have seen the completion of the Lot 16 Pasture this year which consists of 1,450 acres. At O'Leary we have started a new pasture. Where does the Honourable Doctor come from! At O’Leary, we have started a new pasture in two areas to serve the district. The total acreage will amount to approxim- ately 1, 200 acres. The Eastern Queen’ s Grasslands in the Vernon-Orwell area also got underway this year and consists of 700 acres. In the Skinner's Pond area another

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