.14 LUCERNE CULTURE. 



'This gentleman was making ,70 per month from butter in a 



drought when without lucerne he would have been quite unable to 

 make butter at all. Lucerne makes the finest deep yellow 

 '"gilt edge 1 ' butter that fetches highest market price, and yet 

 so little is known of "the King of fodder plants, 1 ' that many 

 .farmers have a hazy idea that it gives butter a peculiar and bitter 

 . flavour ! 



Grazing ostriches upon lucerne paddocks is equally as profit- 

 able as making butter or fattening sheep upon this crop. In Oudts- 

 hoorn, where there are some 25,000 acres of ground under lucerne, 

 the standard or average capacity of . lucerne fields for ostriches is 

 . considered to be about ten birds to the morgen, or five birds to the 

 .acre all the year round. Double this number during the summer 



could be run on lucerne, but to be on the safe side the number is 

 limited to the above. The Oudtshoorn grazing is worthless, and. 

 they have to depend entirely upon their lucerne fields for keeping 

 their birds. The statistics for 1898 ..show that in that year there 

 were 48,888 ostriches in Oudtsh^prn, and these aye all entirely dependent 



.on the lucerne. This represents about one-fifth of the total number 

 -of birds in all ths other districts of the Colony put together. Now 

 selected birds (having feathers above the average of the ordinary 

 stock' of the country) will yield, on lucerne at least '3 per -pluck- 

 ing psr bird, clear of marketing fees. As birds, running on lucerne 

 can be plucked regularly every -eight months/ Htfthotit any Damage 

 to the wing, three pluckings can-be g'ot in t^q.yea^s, yielding a 

 total of 9 psr bird per two 'years. This is a't/ the : ratp qf ^4 10s. 

 per bird p?r annum. We may sttite'fhat our bfrds 'have $$& con- 

 siderably better than this, but their 'quality is : cons s iderat)ly>bijv( 4 

 the average. Since one acre of 1 lucerne will carry five -birds all the 

 year round, and each bird will "yield at least 4 10s. per annum, 

 we have a return of 22 10s. per acre, per annum, less 5s. per acre 

 expenses water hading, leaving a clear profit of 22 5s. per acre, 

 p?r annu.n, from ostriches grazed on lucerne. This is between five 

 arid six times as much as from -wheat growing. Again, let us 

 tike the making of lucerne hay as compared ' With wheat grow- 

 ing. One acre will yield from each cutting 'about 1^ to If 

 tons of cured hay, which means about eight tons of hay per acre, 

 per annum. But to be quite within the itiark, 'we take only five 

 ions of 2,030 Ibs. each per acre, per annum. Lucerne hay sells in 

 Port Elizabeth at from 4s. to 5s. per 100 Ibs. Take it at even 4s. 

 psr 100 Ibs. average. At this price the five tons would realise 20. 

 Deduct from this the expense of water leading at 5s. per acre, and 

 -expanse of cutting and curing the five tons at 5s. per ton in stack. 

 This would amount to 1 10s. expense, which, deducted from 20 

 (amount realissd from sale of hay), would leave a clear profit of 

 18 10s. psr acre, psr annum, from making lucerne hay. This is 

 from four to five times as much profit as is derived from wheat 

 growing, and in weight it is about two or three times as much hay 

 .as is obtained from one acre of oats. 



