146 Additional Crops for Cows and Sheep. 



land being generally largely in grass, the small proportion of 

 arable carrying few roots, the danger of relying solely on the 

 former is very great, exposing one to bad losses whenever there 

 is a severe summer drought. Land may become so foul, or 

 after a series of wet years may so need a roa.-<ting in the clod, 

 that a prolonged fallow is desirable. But there is no need for 

 this to be done in accordance with any definite rotation. Some 

 have proved by experience that there is no valid reason why 

 much of the land that is now dead fallowed should not carry 

 one early summer crop, and yet get nearly all the advantage of 

 the hottest months under bastard fallowing. Just as a country 

 which depends upon root crops which are sown at the most 

 difficult time to establish them, and which does not make 

 use of crops which can be established at other seasons, must 

 from time to time meet with disasters to its live stock through 

 insufficient food, so a country given up to dead fallows must 

 always be at a disadvantage in stock-keeping. 



The cultivation of the crops already mentioned is well 

 known to all, therefore it is not necessary to enter into details 

 in respect to it. What is of more importance is for each one to 

 meet the difficulties of his own situation. We must here con- 

 tent ourselves with the broad advocacy of systems or rotations 

 which include these crops. There are, however, among some 

 of the less frequently sown crops some which may be advan- 

 tageously grown. Lucerne has altogether a not insignificant 

 area devoted to it (there being 53,000 acres), but in view of the 

 fact that there are 4,100,000 acres under clovers and rotation 

 grasses it is very remarkable that so small an area is devoted 

 to lucerne or alfalfa. This is more especially so as it grows 

 well in districts where the weather enforces short leys and 

 makes it difficult to get a plant of seeds to establish itself each 

 year. It is a striking fact that more than half the area is 

 grown in the three English counties, Essex, Kent, and Suffolk, 

 whilst Scotland accounts for less than a Inmdred acres, and 

 Wales for less than four hundred. Liicerne has been grown in 

 England for centuries, and it has been known and grown in 

 Southern Europe for thousands of years. It gives the Argentine 

 a position unequalled for stock raising, several millions of acres 

 in that country being devoted to it. France grows over 2\ 

 million acres ; and when it is suggested that our climate is 

 colder than those mentioned, one can point to the fact that it 

 is grown successfully in the cold Canadian climate. Writers 

 from the time it was first grown in England have urged its 

 value, and no one has been able to point out anything which 

 detracts from its usefulness, whilst those who grow it regard 

 it with pride and express their satisfaction wdth it, and it is 

 emphatically an insurance crop against summer droughts. It 



