Alfalfa Grass.

Bruce Herald, Volume VII, Issue 650, 17 November 1874, Page 5

Alfalfa Grass.

For years the cry of the squatters has been — find us plant which has roots, which has roots, meaning, thereby, that their belief in the permanency of the yield of such a style of fodder, depended on the strength and vigor of its roots ; and this was the class of plant which they required. When Mr Duncan came back from California, he brought with him the description of such a plant, called | Alfalfa, which had been adopted by tfee

aliforpians in .the., followiug manner:- An nterprising individual from tbe Southern Continent of America (in all probability from Caili), where it grows luxuriantly, bought a en-acre paddock, and after preparing the ! .and, he sowed it with the Alfalfa. Having he advantage of irrigation, he watered hi 3 ield, and the warm soil very soon brought che plant to the surface (incredible as it may Teem, this vigorous plant will spring a foot in i month). He began to cut it for green fodler when six weeks old, and continued to thicken the stem and root for nine months by the process of cutting and irrigating, at the end of which period he bought, it is said thirteen hundred sheep, six hundred hogs, and a number of other animals, and depastured them on the paddock. At the lapse of three months he invited the public to place their horses on it also, when it was found that the hogs were almost too fat to walk, and the the sheep also, while the rest of the stock at the end of another month were fit for the market. This so astonished the Californians that they determined every one to grow "Alfalfa," and accordingly they grew it. There remains to add that this same paddock, after the stock was removed, and time for its recovery had been allowed, produced sixteen hundred pounds of seed. It is a well known fact that the root of this plant penetrates to the depth of thirty feet in loose shingly soils, and even further, to seek ustenauce and moisture ; it is thus capable of supplying the enormous quantity of nitrogenous and other substances which are required to keep up its almost spontaneous growth. However fabuloss the above story may appear, it is no less true that its fodder yielding and stock bearing capabilities are prodigious. In Chili it is customary to fatten stock for the market in great numbers on the rotatory system, which consists of passing them from paddock to paddock until fit for the knife. But to insure the complete success of their Alfalfa fields, they enclose them with high walls of " adobe," or sun-dried brick ; they also irrigate them regularly after stock has been over them. It is when this Bystera has been adopted that Alfalfa yields so wonderfully, and it would be well for our stockgrowers to carefully consider the locality chosen, together with the shelter requisite for its successful production. The force of the north-west wind in Chili, which withers everything it touches, is broken by these walls, while irrigation strengthens 4or heals the breaches produced by feeding. In Otago, also, unless the Alfalfa is protected from the north-west wind by walls or high hedges, and irrigated, as necessity demands, it will not be a success as great as will be expected. Another thing must be attended to — to wit, the soil. As Alfafsa is a lime plant, it requires a calcareous soil. In such favored localities as the neighborhood of Invercargill and the Western District ; also that of Oamaru, the Tables, and the Waiareka, together with the calcareous sandy flats of the Upper Molyneux, and the splendid alluvial deposits of the Taieris, Waihola, and the Clutha, Alfalfa would find a congenial home, and stockfeeders the plant they want.