CLOVER

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1681, 18 May 1904, Page 65

CLOVER

The Department of Agriculture has received a number of communications of late from farmers inquiring as to the qualities of Berseem clover, and whether the Department is in a position to supply trial samples of seed. Questioned on the point last week, the Government Biologist sate the plant would not be suitable to many parts of this country. “In Egypt,'” said Mr Kirk, “ it forms the main source of fodder during the summer months. On the fluviatile deposits along the banks of the Nile it gives an average of three green crops during the season, each about 2ft high. Of late years, owing to the exaggeratej reports of its nitrogen-fixing dualities, it has been extensively cultivated in America and it has been a great success on poor dry lands; although it is not 80 popular for these situations as' alfalfa, known here as lucerne, for, being an annual, it requires sowing afresh each year. The reason why lucerne is better where water is scarce is that it has a much greater root system, and will search deeply for water, which Berseem will not do. “In Egypt this clover is especially grown after Indian corn, for, like all leguminous plants, it possesses the power, by means of the bacteria living in the nodules on its roots, of using the free nitrogen of the air for the elaboration of its food supply. Thus it can be grown in soils which have been deprived of their nitrates. This clover is very subject to the attacks of dodder,and all seed 3 should be carefully examined before sowing. In Egypt 201 b of seed is recommended to be sown per acre. Fairchild, the agricultural explorer for seed and plant introduction, attached to the Department of Agriculture at Washington the best authority of to-day. says: —‘ r Berseem is not only an annual clover, hut it is a winter clover for warm countries where irrigation is practised. Where the conditions of mild winter and abundant water supply exist it can scarcely fail prove a, most profitable introduction/”