A NEW LUCERNE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21579, 25 August 1933, Page 17

A NEW LUCERNE

UNUSUAL MERITS A new variety of lucerne, which appears to possess exceptional qualities, has been produced after 10 years of experimentation and careful culling by Mr. A. H. Wheeler, of Styx, Christchurch. The new variety, Tivacata, is a first cross between the fine-stemmed Siberian falcata and one of the ordinary medioago sativa varieties. The striking features aro an extraordinarily heavy growth of fine-stemmed, heavy-leafed plants, a decumbent spreading habit instead of an upright one, and the valuable quality of perpetuating itself by underground shootß which come through the surface outside the crown, which is therefore being continually enlarged. The crown, moreover, is well below the surface of the ground, which renders tho crop immuno from damage when heavily grazed. Tivacata has yielded very heavily on light sandy soil in Canterbury. Its virility is instanced by tho fact that tho plants have forced their way through drifting sand until the surfaco level is 3ft. higher than originally. It produces very heavily; in one test it yielded, from four-year-old plants three foot apart, five cuts in one season, aggregating just on 70 tons of green matter to tho aero. This represents something like 20 tons of hay to the acre,