THE VALUE OF LUCERNE.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 14237, 28 December 1911, Page 8

THE VALUE OF LUCERNE.

A CROP THAT IS OFTEN NEGLECTED.

(From the "Sydney Mail."). Although lucerne as a fodder crop is well-known in Australia, and especially in New South. Wales, there are parts of the Commonwealth and New Zealand . where it has been Badly neglected. Yet it has many claims on our attention. Ono reason why it is not so popular, perhaps, is that it has to be used with eomo care whejti fed off, although cot and dried as hay it stands unnvalkd as a fodder. A judicious blending of hi-, cerne liay and green feed..»_ an ideal ration for most animals. When the proper 9oil is selected it is most prolific —perhaps more so than almost any other fodder crop. With good rams tho number of cuttings which may bo made is extraordinary, while tho life of tho plant can scarcely bo estimated—twenty years is not uncommon. Tho root grows to a great depth in alluvial soil, and -where lucerne has been grown on a river bank which has-been afterwards cut away by flood- waters it has been found down to a depth of thirty feet. A plant which gets to such a depth in looking for nourishment must naturally be a great drought resistor. Scarcely a crop can be named which, for any length of time, /will sustain co much animal life on small .areas. For sheep, wheat, oats, rape and certain other crops are good feed and most ,prontable; but it will always pay to have.an area of lucerne available on the farm, whether it be by way of changeof diet for tho sheep, or to maintain the horses, in a good season, when grass is plentiful, and'there is no need to call on the lucerne patch, the lucerne can be cut and stacked, for no fodder which is grown can be saved to such an advantage or for eucli a Jong , time. Cut in the leafy stage, just when the flower is bursting into bud, tho crop makes a most succulent feed, and will savo splondidly for hay. Although kept in or stack for years it suffers little from weather, and will open out as clean and iresh as if only in the stack a few days. . Lucerne has. been known to keep for thirty years and to give nearly the whole of the original stack as edible- - food, tho amount of loss being remarkably small. In the cutting, also' it offers great facility in for ib will etand up well against the blade cither of the ecytho, om small areas, or ■ tho inowine machine on largo areas. Attention has just been called to the lack of appreciation on the part of New Zealand stockownera to tho virtues ot lucerno as a fodder. Perhaps, the rocont dry spell there "made this aspectmoro apparent' than it would otherwise, have been, as many a stockowner would, - have had* reason to bless his lucerne paddock if he had a tew acres available, especially if ho had water for irrigation. Lucerne' would havo been equally valuablo to the sheep ownwu; and tho dairymen. It is contended thut, lucerne would grow, well iirparte.of the< Dominion, while there are comparatively; ,fow places in Australia with anything,- ■ ' like good soil where it will not lish itself. It has so many sides .to its'V. utility." Of ooifrso, some care must-Wj.'•"-exercised if stock are turned into green lucerno • patch. Cows arc liable.?.'.-; { to blow themselves, and sheep cannotpv;."' * With safety.be fed on lucerno when-the* $..* dew is on it. The greatest advantage' 1 V in the lncernb patch is in cutting it aad7 • feeding it to stock, , which are on dry ; grass, or if a lot of tho straw, which Jβ.usually burnt on the farm, were cut .up and chaffed with a judicious' mixture of lucerne, it would be readily oaten by horses, cows, or sheep. ' -' In most fiistricts in New South' Wales . lucorno is grown by itself; but there ar©, . parts where planting other'crops with . -,- it js tried. Cape barley being one , crop . tried in New Zealand. Tho result,was • not altogether satisfactory. It is a;' very hardy plant, standing drought as well as flood. It is tho experience. in. the Hunter River .that if tho water does not inundate tho land too long, •the crop will rapidly recover when the flood subsides. The deposit on the land •as a result of the inundation, will • greatly improve the crop, acting as a . natural fertiliser. No crop will give a greater value to land. For instance, for what class of land could £100 per acre, or more be obtained for cultivation purposes? yet, these ' prices are comparatively common. Even .in the Laidley district in Queensland £25 and £30 per aero is quito common, while the position in no way compares with tbo great cost of land in the Hunter Val- . Jey'and other parts, of New ', South Wales In districts not so well favoured. as these, irrigation will be found, of great advantage, and in this conaedtlon* the experience recently brought before tho notice of the Department of Agriculture in the Northern State, should orove interesting. A farmer living in the Murgon district, had bifl' farm swept by a bush fire, and he '.was in Boro distress, when he decided to get a pump (ho had an oil engine) and water a patch of lucerne between 4',and;. 5 acres. Tho result was extraordinary. Ho distributed the. water over the .land by means of 3in canvas hose, giving it a thorough soaking the first time.'Tho pump was kept going. about 11 "henirs, during which a third of an acre was - 1 watered each day. Later , soakinga were done in less time. The .pump raised about 4000 gallons an hour. The lucerno at once started to crow at an exceptional rate, and he was not only able to keep twenty cows going on'-it, but he soon had some lucerne chaff 'to cell. Of course, the dairyman was well placed, being on the banks of a good .creek. Where the conditions are so favourable, it will pay handsomely, ar it has done in this case, to' irrigate the lucerne patch. Tho incident fiinrply illustrates afresh what most stock" owners in New South Wales know. but. what is not always appreciated by those owning stock in other parts. Those with silos to fill should take a special noto. , In tho Argentine, lucerne, or alfalfa, a coarser variety or tho same plant, is very popular, not only witJj tho small men, but with tho stockowners generally. It is relied upon very-largely for topping up of cattle, a 1 provision which, Australian owners of horned stock have ' not resorted to. There are now millions of, acres under lucerne in South America, and to the merits of this class of fodder is largely due the high-class beef, which the estancias are abie"to ' put xipon the world's markets, v We are i not going to make proper headway in I the export of beef from Australia until, we adopt some means of this kind* in addition to taking t6teps to raise th*» ' breed of the stock. l