^ May, 1908.] Irrigated Agriculture in the Goidburn Valley. 



26r 



agriculture of the Goulburn Valley is a problem not yet solved. Two 

 -causes have been given. Absence of a market for hay, and. that it cannot 

 'be grown at a profit on this soil. The first is not important, if there is not 



now a market for this ha\- there soon will be, and there is noiv a market 



for fat cattle, fat lambs, fat pigs, and poultry. For producing all these 

 ..there is no food equal to lucerne hay. It is the richest and the most palat- 

 -able forage crop grown. There is no feed equal to it for work horses 

 -or horses thin in flesh. Some of the best thoroughbred horses in the 



United States come from lucerne growing districts ; and it is the only hay 

 "fed to many noted running and trotting horses. Lucerne hay is one of 

 ■^the best foods for the milking herd, because it contains all the elements 

 ->of which milk is composed. In combination with silage made from maize, 



it is as good a ration for tlie dairv herd as can be provided. 



THE LOADER PUSHING THE ll.W 1ok\\ARD ON THE LOAD. 



In all this Commonwealth there is no question more important than what 

 <is the best food for sheep. The answer is lucerne. There is no food 

 they like better, or one better suited to their needs. I wish the flock 

 crai-sers of Victoria could visit some of the irrigated districts of America, 

 and see the magnificent proportions which lamb fattening on lucerne hay 

 lias assumed. During the whole of the long summer there are hundreds 

 ■of farms where the click of the mower never stops in the daylight hours 

 ■•except when interrupted by rain. Long ricks containing hundreds of 

 tons are built up for use in the feeding season. To this come lamVjs from 

 -distant pastoral districts ; they are placed in near by feeding lots and fat- 

 tened by the hundred of thousand on lucerne hay with a little maize, 

 barley or wheat added. Before lucerne was grown, in what is now one 

 •of the largest lamb fattening districts, land would not sell for jQ^ P^^ 

 .acre; to-day it will average ^25. Then the average yield of wheat was 

 12 bushels, now it is over 30. 



The second reason given for the small area of lucerne hay is that the 

 soil is not adapted to it. If this is true, it is a serious matter, for there 

 is no crop that will take its place. Some of the meadows I have ex- 

 amined were certainly failures. The question is, were those failures due 

 to some quality of the soil which cannot be remedied, or to methods of cul- 

 :tivation which cannot be changed. In all the poor meadows examined 

 the ground needed manuring, more small channels with shorter distances 

 Q^etween would ha^•e given more even watering, and some fields showed the 



