THE LAND

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 253, 24 October 1919, Page 11

THE LAND

(By AGRICOLA.)

It has been conclusively demonstrated! that lucerne will thrive under a great variety of soil conditions in the Auck j land Province. In view of this encouraging fact it is of the greatest im-j portanee that the most reliable information regarding the establishment and management of lucerne should be disand this as widely as possible. Naturally the Department of Agriculture is looked to as the source from which such information should come. It is therefore much to be regretted that the misleading information being published by the 'lucerne expert" of the Depart-! ment for the enlightenment of Southern j farmers should be circulated in this pro-' r_o.ee. Take this remarkable statement he has made, and which is actually being printed and- circulated: "As lucerne is a deep-rocted plant every encouragement should ibe given to it to develop its root system to the greatest depth possible, so that it may draw the nourishment necessary to it from the ■ vast unexploited sources of supply deep down in the earth. -Lime wi-I'l assist it to this end. _H_t manure will not." On reading such advice one wonders if this "expert" ever read even the most elementary text book on soil. Just as the farmer of the most ordinary intelligence knows, the agricultural scientists of the world without exception have taught, ii is only the top layer of well-worked soil! that is fertile, and that roots that pene-} trate the lower strata bring nothing but j moisture to the plant. To say that lucerne does not require manure is the most dangerous advice ever promulgated by the army of amateur experts with which this country has been cursed. There are soils which will grow almost any crop without the aid of manure, the rich pockets to he found here and. there in favoured areas, especially the river-silt terraces, the mo3t congenial home of the lucerne plant, hut on ordinary soils it is obviously necessary,: and repeated experiments in several) parts of the world have conclusively i proved it, that lucerne will respond just as well as other plants ,to judicious arti-j Srial manuring. In an (English, experi-] ment even a nitrogenous dressing had a marked effect on lucerne growth. With the majority of soils in this country lucerne demands manure and will never givethe great continuous yields of fodder it is capable of doing in the absence of it.' If it were not necessary .to make the statement to expose the error of the "expert" in question, it should be unnecessary to state that, a plant which admits of heavy continuous cropping from year ta.year, or is capable under periodic grazing of carrying a remarkable number of stock to the acre, must make exceptional demands on plant food. Lucerne is a nitrogen-fixing plant, and granting that it obtains all of this element it requires from the air it assuredly makes aa exceptional demand on other elements of fertility, notably phosphoric .acid and potash. And the lucerne plant, like any other, draws its supplies of these from .the fertile top layer of soil, the only place where these plant foods .are in an available form. LTTCEBNE A SOIJ_-:_________B. Lucerne is a great soil maker, not be_au_e of any plant food it draws from the dead sub-strata of soil, but because of the humus making power of its great root system, which when the plants are destroyed decay in the soil and thus become vegetable humus, a material of the utmost value in building up soil fertility. Joe Wing, the American apostle of lucerne, did not grow lucerne as a fodder crop, but as a means of restoring the exhausted fertility of an abandoned farm, and succeeded in this so weH thai the *a__n ultimately produced the reord corn (maize) crops of tie State. But the lucerne did not bring plant food from the inert soil below the cultivated crust. As the lucerne crops were ploughed up the root remains steadily building up the humus content, the lime necessarily employed with the lucerne assisting to ameliorate the soil and make tlje fullest use of the plant food remaining after the lucerne was done with. MANURE IMPERATIVE. If there are pockets of southern soil so extraordinarily fertile that lucerne can be continuously grown on them successfully without the use of manure it is very certain that there are few, if indeed any, places in this island where this most valuable plant can be grown to advantage without manure. In the South Island lucerne is dormant for many months in the year, but in very many parts of the Auckland Province its growth never ceases, though naturally its growth is very much more vigorous in the summer than in the winter. It is satisfactory to know that the pepartment realises the need of employing experts in agricultural knowledge, but it is to be regretted that while it i* waiting to secure the much needed human material it should allow the publication of misleading and even danger* ous information. LUCERNE AND POUXTRT. MANURE. When the Department of Agriculture had a poultry plant at Burnham, Canterbury (adjoining the Industrial School), a good plot of lucerne was , grown for green food for the birds. Now : the soil on that particular part of the Canterbury Plains can hardly be regarded as a favourable one for lucerne. True, there is a gravelly sub-sail, but the rather poor stony ground dries bard m summer. Under ordinary condition:- , the lucerne would have mvde but poor development, but the overseer, knowing the value of poultry manure, adopted the juea of applying liquid poultry manure. «ne result was astonishing. The poor sickly growth was rapidly transformed into vigorous luxuriant plants, which gave continuous cutting throughout the growing season. On pumice soil the of poultry manure as a top dressing has been equally successful. At ftotorua Mr. J. _~ McLean dressed half of a good-sized plot of lucerne (about an acre in extent) with poultry manure and tne contrast between the two portions wa s most striking, the dressed half having a rich vigorous growth, and the undressed a pale stunted appearance showing a yellow tinge in the leaves. IN O CUI_. TI ON. It is generally necessary to add inoculated soil to the field where lucerne ia to be grown. That is soil from an established field is obtained and worked in under cool atmospheric conditions. Cases »•"_ reported in the Auckland province '•• Vn- the lucerne has succeeded without t_c use of inoculated soil, and in one

LUCERNE HERESAY. I

case the fact has been quoted to prove that the advice as to the use of inoculated soil is unsound. As a matter of fact it is a case of a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. The lucerne succeeded in these eases because the soil was already inoculated with the desired bacteria. The critics are apparently unaware that the bacteria in the nodules of bur clover (Medicago denticulata) and Black Medick or yellow trefoil (Medicago lupulina) are of the same family as those of lucerne, and hence where these plants are to be found, and they are common in the north, particularly on volcanic soils of the scoria type, there is probably no need to trouble with : the inoculation process, j GUM LAND DEMONSTRATION.' An idea to make land suitable for lucerne, should it be desired to grow it at any time or extend its cultivation, is being tried by the manager of the Te Kauwhata Experimental Farm, Mr. J. j Shepherd. This is to put some lucerne j seed, in ordinary grass seed mixtures. | The occasional plants which come will, it is expected, establish the needed amount ; Of bacterial development. By the way, ! an excellent field of lucerne has been established at this property, but by means of manure, and if lucerne will do on the rather intractable gum soil of this farm, then there is hope for lucerne j in almost every part of the province. The field is of typical gum-land clay, but it has a good slope. nJCEESE AND CLOSER SET___MENT. If closer settlement is to make any great headway in the Auckland province, lucerne will probably have to be generally adopted. Like all good things, it requires to have specially good treatment, particularly in the initial stages. There must be natural or artificial drainage, the soil must be made sweet (by the use of lime), inoculated soil must be used, if the desirable bacteria are not present, and to grow it without manure, except in the most favoured environment, is to court failure, while a little manure to stimulate the plants at the outset is always desirable. A great primary need in establishing lucerne is the thoroughly clean seed bed.

SELECTING A HERD SIRE.

The ability to produce milk is inherited through both sire and dam, but since the sire is responsible for_ half the inheritance of each young animal born in the herd, be is clearly the important factor in improving the herd. Usually the selection of the dairy sire is based on one or more of the following points:—(l) Breed; (2) type or appearance; (3) pedigree; (4) character of offspring. BREED. Tbe bull should be a purebred of the breed to which the cows belong. Cross-1 breeding is justified only when making the first steps toward grading up a herd, and when cows of mixed breeding are on hand. Crossing breeds with the expectation of getting better results by that method is a great mistake, as its results are usually very disastrous. Breeds have been developed and kept pure in order that certain characters may become fixed «o.strongly that they will be transmitted ■regularly. TYPE OR APPEARANCE. The bast breeders admit fhat the appearance of the hull offers little aa a means of judging how he will transmit dairy qualities. The looks of a bull are more of a guide to the type and appearance of his daughters than they are to the .transmitting of the milking functions. The tendency is to attach too much importance to type or appearance of the bull. He should, however, be medium to large for the breed to which he belongs, and full of vigour and nervous energy. SEUBCTING THE PEDIGREE. The great majority of bulls are selected, and properly so, upon the pedigree and records of their ancestors. Pedigree with some attention to individuality is the beet means of selecting a bull except where it is possible to judge by daughters in milk. The prospective purchaser is always justified in asking for a tabulated pedigree of the bull he is considering. In studying the pedigree, the mother of the animal in question should be given first attention. Next in importance to the dam is the sire's daughters, his sisters, and especially his dam. Too much attention should not be given to ancestors back further than four or five generations. It is also important to make sure that the mother of the bull, even though a good producer, is not a freak in her own family. Thus, if all the rest of the family except the dam were inferior cows, 6be would probably transmit not her own excellence, but "the average of her family. The dam of the sire should also 'be on_ of a whole family of high producers. If the sire has daughters in milk they should be of uniform high excellence. THE TESTED SIRE. The safest way to select a bull is to choose a mature one that already has daughters in milk, so that it will be possible to judge how he transmits dairy qualities. Difficulties are often experienced in obtaining such a bull, and as a rule only the owner of a purebred herd can afford the time and expense involved in finding such an animal. This plan is especially valuable for the man who has a herd already well developed.