16 LUCERNE CULTURE. 



disaster. He set to work and built a weir across the Sundays- 

 River, at a cost of about 500, by means of which he can now flood 

 from 150 to 200 acres of lucerne ground. Although before he built 

 the weir and laid down the lucerne fields 'a tenant could not pay 

 a rental of 90 per annum, without the assistance of the small 

 country "shop/ 1 the present owner has been offered 800 a year 

 rent for the same farm, and could let it at a rental of 1,000 a year 

 if he wished. Capitalising the rental of 800 per annum at 5 per- 

 cent., the value of this farm to-day would be about 16,000, as 

 against 3,500 before the weir and lucerne fields were in existence 

 upon it. An Oudtshoorh lucerne farm (Zee' Koegat), including a 

 stock of about 1,50) ostriches, was recently sold for the sum of" 

 40,000. The property is only 3,268 morgen in extent, of which 

 about 800 morgen are arable. 



There are immense fields of lucerne in Argentina, where it has 

 taken the place of the innutritions and scanty native grasses. In 

 the Corowa district alone (New South Wales) there are about 21,000 

 acres. There are individual farmers in Australia having as much 

 as 3,000, 4,000 and 7,000 acres of lucerne. A recent Australian 

 writer remarks : " There will be -a much larger average of lucerne- 

 laid down every year, as not only the value is so much appreciated, 

 but many owners who have let their lands on the half system for 

 wheat have made a condition that the last year the land should be 

 laid down in lucerne. I consider there is a great future before us 

 in this plant/' Having given a few instances of the value of 

 lucerne ground here and in Australia, and having shown what the 

 Australians think of " the King of fodder plants/' we now proceed 

 to discuss the 



ADVANTAGES OF LUCERNE GROWING. 



Lucerne fields, unlike cereal crops, are not destroyed by 

 locusts, rust, hail and drought. Locusts seldom touch lucerne, rust 

 does not trouble it, hail. may batter but cannot destroy it like cereals. 

 If battered level with the ground by hail, in two weeks after there 

 will be waving a field of magnificent fodder, five or ten tons to the 

 acre. A hail battered wheat crop, two weeks after, would be but 

 a memory and a sorrowful one at that. Drought that will kill 

 lucerne, when once it is properly established, will kill the hardy 

 Karroo itself ! A field of lucerne, when once established, will last,, 

 like a fruit orchard, for years ; and will require comparatively 

 little yearly expense and attention to maintain in a state of profit- 

 able production. In Oudtshoorn there are fields 15 to 20 years old 

 as good and better than they were ten years ago. In Graaff-Reinet 

 there is a plot of lucerne said to be about 70 years old probably 

 self-sown from time to time. In New Mexico there are said to be 

 fields which have been under this crop for more than 100 years. 

 The revenue or profit from lucerne fields is both far greater and 

 far more certain than that from cereal crops in the Karroo. To the 



