LUCERNE GROWING.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLVIII, Issue 100, 30 April 1914, Page 6

LUCERNE GROWING.

EXPERIMENTS IN NEW

ZEALAND

. All over New Zealand the Fields Division of tire Department of Agriculture is carrying out a system of "experimental plots," with the object of discovering what are tlie best crops for a particular locality and how "best to grow them. The Department supplies the seed, its officers supervise the experiments, and the A. and P. Associations, at the invitation of the Department, render! willing help. A South Wairarapa farmer, who is greatly interested in the subject, gave some interesting comments on the subject. In that district, it would appear, the chief desire of the small farmer especially has been the growing of lucerne— "the King of Fodders," as he described it. In that district there are about 40 plots, each of, an acre in area, and though lucerne growing is not the. only ambition, it is recognised generally that th& successful growing of that fodder would mean; more to the small farmer than'almost anything else. It ihas been tried on several occasions during the past few years, generally with, at the most, partial success, but under the experimental plots system as supervised by the Fields Division, the problem has, apparently, been almost solved. The Government finds the seed and the manures, and the inspector induces a farmer to devote an acre of his land for experimental purposes, . ; Here is a concrete case.. Some • eighteen months ago lucerne was sown on a certain plot, but the crop was poor. Later, however, the roots I had got down to the shingle, and at the end of a year nine >tons of lucerne were taken off that one acre. That was merely the result of the procedure adopted—the growing in procession of barley, vetches, and peas, and ploughing them in (thus putting the nitrogen into itlie soil) until the land had been properly prepared for the king crop. That one experiment, not to speak or many others that could be quoted, ihad proved most valuable; it not only proved the capacity of the land to grow lucerne, butt was an objectlesson in farming^ and was greatly appreciated by the farming community, many of whom had taken it to heart, and were doing likewise. Another point, he remarked, was this: the State experimental farms' were doubtless of very great' value, buit under the system of experimental plots neighboring farmers had an object-lesson much nearer home, and j were saved the expense and trouble! of iong journeys, besides which the I experiments were under the direct I supervision of the inspector and the \ periodical supervision of a committee 1 of the A. and P. Association. In | another ten years, he predicted, jbhere j will be many hundreds of acres of; lucerne being grown in the Waira- \ rapa, and in many other parts of i .New Zealand, and the result will be ) or immense value to the farmer, 1 especially the small dairy farmer j The quality of the milk, especially in ■ the early part of the season, will be \ improved, the area taken up with growing, fodder will be very consider- ! ably decreased, and the value of the ; land will be increased enormously. I