LUCERNE MEAL.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume VLI, Issue 3323, 26 April 1935, Page 7

LUCERNE MEAL.

There are undoubtedly possibilities in lucerne meal. Inquiries have been made in the South Island, but it has been found that the price asked for the lucerne by Marlborough ‘growers was too much to make its introduction to the North Island feasible, especially as freight charges and the cost of grinding would have to be added. There are localities in the North Island where lucerne flourishes and in these places the growing of lucerne to be made into meal offers excellen t prospects. Such a district m Kati Kati, where the soil is light and very open. Lucerne flourishes in the district. Producing big crops of high quality hay, it is grazed every year from June to October. Even where pigs are grazed on lucerne in the winter benefit rather than harm is done to the stand. At Kati Kati the lucerne fields are -never harrowed or cultivated in any way, but are annually dressed with lime and phosphate. The crushing of lucerne into meal is now a. big business in England, the meal being used principally for poultry. The machine for grindingcosts about £BO. It is said that a New Zealand pig producer has ordered a machine.