HELIANTI, THE NEW FODDER PLANT.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIII, Issue 214, 6 September 1912, Page 9

HELIANTI, THE NEW FODDER PLANT.

On several occasions reference has been made in our columns to Helianti as a new sourpe of fodder for stock, and a recent issue of the "Journal of the British Board of Agri-culture" contains the following notes on its cultivation aud use, which may be of interest ;to our readers, more particularly in view of the fact that a shipment of tnbers was imported eoine months ago into the Dominion.

A new fodder plant, a cultivated form of ithe plant Heliantohus Alacrophyllus, has been sold during the lost three or four years under the name of "Helianti' , or "Salsefis." It is a perennial species of Helianthus, allied to the sunflower and Jerusalem artichoke, but produces tubers that differ from those of the Jerusalem artichokes in being slender and spindle-shaped. The plant is remarkable ior its enormous production of tubers and generally luxuriant growth. The stems above ground grow as high as nine or ten feet, and may be used as fodder, neither green or as hay or silage. If the crop is not cut for fodder the grrowth matures and then dies back, while a heavy crop of tubers is produced, which may be fed to horses, cattle, pigs, or sheegj They are also saidi to be superior u> Jerusalem artichoke* for culinary jDtujioses. Up 'to the

present no report of trials of the plant as a field crop in this country is available, but an article in a German paper calls attention to the value of the Heliantlii as forage plants.

According to analyses made by Prof. Dr. Kuste.r, of Jluncheberg. the composition of the green fodder is as follows: Water, 68.0 per cent., protein 3.5 per cent, fat 1.0 per cent., carbohydrates 17.5 per cent., while the dried leaves contain protein 13 per cent., fat 2 per cent., and carbohydrates 48 per cent. These figures show greater feeding values than either clover or lucerne, :Lssuming that all are similar as regards digestibility and suitability for stock, the composition of the latter being as follows: — Clover Clover Lucerne (green). (hay). (hay). Percent. Percent. Percent. Protein 3.3 12.3 14.4 Fat 0.7 2.2 2.0 Carbohydrates 7.0 33.2 28.0 The tuber.3 of the plant contain a substance (inulin) akin to starch, which is of value for feeding purposes, and they arc also quite palatable and suitable for use as a vegetable. No special soil or situation is apparently needed for the cultivation of the plant, but it is preferable that land which can be permanently assigned to the crop should be selected, owing to the diißcuHy of eradicating the plants. As a rult, the plant is not propagated by seeds but by tubers, as in the case of potatoes. If left to grqw undisturbed, a ■ hick bush is in time formed.