LUCERNE GROWING.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17277, 15 October 1921, Page 10

LUCERNE GROWING.

TO THE EDITOR OF "THE FRES9." Sir -Just a little more information about' lucerne growing; but first of all kindlv allow me to reply to some of Mr Macpherson's statements. It is a pity he lias got angry with me, as I really | mean him no harm, but as he has wandered far from the paths of practicability, I will try and lead him m tho direction. It is an old saying that when a lawyer has a poor ' L he abuses the witnesses on tho other side. Now, for what Mr• Macpherson terms the Hororata bogey. TKe facts are as I stated, despite his j side-stepping. However, if lie will i not come into my backyard arid discuss these matters I will take the liberty of going into his. N°w *or those Bankside areas Mr Macplierson savs that Bankside is admittedly about the poorest land m Canterbury , and ; n its normal condition requires o acres to carry a sheep. How is it that Bankside is described as good sheep country, and can be sold at £7 10s per acre, so I was informed on Wednesday by a farmer who owns a farm fairly close and similar land to the lucerne areas. He invited me up to the district, and offered to take me round and hear what the farmers had to say about the plots. Now, he lias carried one dry sheep to the acre on the native grasses, and a ewe and lamb with cultivation. He also says the lucerne plot 9 are the laughing stock of the district. And lie wa s told by a man working on the job that it must have cost quite £2OO per acre to prepare some of the irrigation areas. Mr Macpherson tells us, in some of his former letters, that lucerne requires no waste —it digs its own wells. Why then in the name of patience does he want to waste public money in irrigatiflcr it? Now, the Burwood plot. Mr Macpherson has not told me how he got 1601b of lucerne cihaff into each sack ot 80 sacks, or 5.71 tons of hay chaffed into 80 - bags from three-quarters of an acre; but he persists in this statement in his propaganda lectures. 1 called at the Farmers' Co-op., and several other leading chaff merchants, who assured me that no lucerne chaff went through their stores that weigh-' ed more on an average than from 50 to 561b per bag, or about 40 bags to the ton. It seems, on the face of it, that there is a mistake of 3.71 tons in this little account, and' when this is squared up this plot will look as loan as the Ashburton plots referred to in my last letter. Now for the much boosted 1-2 acres at the Institute for the Deaf, Sumner. Mr Macpherson did say in his letter of September 19th that, in 1916, six fully matured cuts' were secured from the original plot, and sheaves from each cut, when placed one above the gave a total length of lucerne of 17ft for the season. Surely he owes me an apology for this. Mr Lance hastened to put me right, t)ut that miserable being, the printer's devil, intervenes. Now this is what the leading dairy paper of New Zealand, "The Dairyman," says about it, July cumber, page 61 —"In our. opinion the greatest lesson to. be learned, at the ,National Show was that taught, by the Deaf Institute, Sumner, who showed dairy farmers the way to dairy farm. Their exhibit was unique, instructive, and striking to a degree. It consisted of sis cuts from a fipld of lucerne all taken in one season, and the stack was 12ft high, each was stacked in order of cutting one above the Other, and the result was as stated." Now,, sir, if I am wrong over this, I have erred in good company, and humbly express regret. Just another aspect of this particular plot again. Mr Macpherson says in his letter of September 19th, that ;for ; some years past 1J acres of. lucerne fias carried 6 cows and a horse throughout the year, and kept them in good condition. I take it they were milk cows, and the horse, would be kept for working amongst the lucerne and general. Now, just one minute, please, I am not very sharp at figures, but will get. one of the boys to tot this up for me, as they are better at figures than they are at agrioulture, although perhaps that is not their fault, but the system by which they are taught. For convenience sake, we will say the horse €»ts as much as a cow. A cow requires about 1 owt per 24 hours of green lucerne. This would mean 127 tons 1 cwt from the If acres, which equab, "using Mr Macpherson's own figures," 31$ tons of hay, and that grown on 1J acres of land, consisting of from 2 to 3 inches of loam and a subsoil of clay and sand, without manure. It sounds like a fish yarn—lß tons of hay to the acre! Farmers, what have you .missed? <&et busy, and, ,on the good land, where any fool can grow lucerne, the returns would bo like a sum in astronomy. I am prepared to back my opinion against Mr Macpherson's experience. He says in another part of a> letter: "This plot in 1917 gave seven matured cuts of lucerne in one season." I say it can't be done, and I am prepared to give £lO to the Lucerne Campaign Committee if this plot will give seven cuts this season, 1921-1922, each coming into bloom, and I will allow this committee to appoint three independent men as judges. At the risk of making this letter rather long, I must add a little information to intending lucerne growers. Mr Primrose 'McConnell, director of the Dilworth School for Agriculture, and late manager at the Ruakura Stas,e Farm, writing on October Ist, says: "For the information of the novice it had better be explained,, that effective inoculation is accomplished by applying two or more cwts of soil per acre taken from the surface 6 inches of a well-established lucerne plot, just before the seed is sown, and should be immediately harrowed in and rolled with a Cambridge roller. Fifteen !b of seed per acre should be sown broadcast, and covered with a light chain or brush harrow." Mr A. Montgomerie, one of the most successful growers in the Wellington province, says: "Before sowing the seed, the land irr ould be rolled with a heavy Cambridge roller, broadcasting the seed "has been practised from the 'start, and has given splendid results, top-dressing has been very effective,' and it is intended to top-dress annually in the future." Now a word to that esteemed scribe Peter Trolove: -Lucerne is a very poor fattener for pigs, as it does not contain the constituents, being short of carbo-hydrates. You cannot make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. —Yours, etc., JOHN PARLANE. October 14th.