lo March, 1910.] 



Irrigation of Liiceriu. 



183 



State in protecting the pastoral districts against the \icissitudes of dry 

 seasons. No fodder crop equals lucerne for this purpose. 



The irrigation districts of Victoria must, in the near future, become 

 the principal dairying districts of the State. Lucerne is one of the best 

 fodder crops for this industry because it contains all the ingredients of 

 which milk is made. The greatest value of lucerne, however, arises out 

 of its influence in improving the character of the soil. Much of the 

 irrigable land of Victoria, which has a clay soil, needs more nitrogen 

 and humus. Lucerne, because it draws its nitrogen from the air, be- 

 cause its roots strike deeply into the subsoil and bring to the surface the 

 stores of fertiiitx from below, cannot fail to improve the mechanical con- 

 dition of the soil, and hence pro-mote the success of irrigation in growing 

 all kinds of cro])S. 



Thus far, the growth of lucerne has been neglected, in part because 

 qf the belief that it would not grow on clay soils. The failures which 

 have occurred have not, however, been due to the soil, but to the bad 

 treatment which the crop has received. Scarcely any of the land is 

 graded. When irrigated, the water fails to reach the high spots and 

 drowns out the low ones. Very little lucerne is grown for hav. This 

 has been due in the past to the lack of labour-saving implements used 

 in harvesting, and to the present practice of pasturing the crop. While 



De/v\oiJ STRATI orJ Plots 



MANNER OF GRADING AND APPLYING WATER. 

 (Second Field Prepared — Tatura Demonstration Farm.) 



pasturing at certain seasons of the )ear may not be injurious, all authori- 

 ties agree that to pasture lucerne grown on clay soil, in wet weather, is 

 ruinous. 



The belief that profitable crops of lucerne cannot be grown on clay 

 soils has been the greatest obstacle to its extension in the irrigated dis- 

 tricts of the Goulburn Vallev. Yet these soils are not nearly so difficult 

 to cultivate as the gumbo soils of many of the lucerne districts of the 

 United States. The following statement of Joseph E. Wing, an expert 



