FIRST PRIZE ESSAY. 17 



Karroo stock farmer especially, lucerne is of inestimable value. It 

 is one of the hardiest, yet heaviest yielding of fodder crops. If 

 water cannot be given to lucerne fields for six or eight months no 

 harm results. In the case of cereal crops they would be destroyed. 

 When after six or eight months drought, water is again available 

 for lucerne, this accommodating crop is ready to commence vield- 

 ing enormous quantities of valuable fodder at once. With lucerne 

 there are no yearly or half-yearly ploughings and sowings, as in the 

 case of cereal crops. With the small area of 50 acres of lucerne at 

 his command, no Karroo farmer need kse a single head of stock in 

 the severest drought. With a mower and a horse rake he can cut 

 from this 50 acres, during one year, fully 250 tons of the most nutri- 

 tious fodder for feeding his stock during droughts. One ton of 

 lucerne hay would often be the means of saving 100 worth of 

 stock in a drought, and this one ton would only cost 5s. to cut, cure 

 and stack ! 100 return for a 5s. investment ought to be, in mining 

 phrase, a payable proposition. 



Lucerne hay does not deteriorate if not used at once. Profes- 

 sor Wallace gives an instance in Australia where a stack of lucerne 

 hay was perfectly good, more than seven years after if 'was put up. 

 Lucerne hay is not eaten and destroyed by mice and rats as is the 

 case with cr.1 hay. The nutritive value of lucerne hay is, besides, 

 much higher than that cf oat hay. There is a curious notion 

 arncng most Karroo farmers th&t lucerne hay is " no good cMve " 

 for feeding to horses in herd wcrk. They fancy thc.t there must be 

 oat hay, barley, or mealies added to the lucerne hay to give " sub- 

 stance. 1 . 1 



On this point we quote the following remarks recently- appear- 

 ing in an American agricultural paper, the Louisiana Plainer . 

 "Alfalfa hay is one of the richest foods for stock ; it takes the place, 

 in the farm dietary, of wheat, bran, cotton seed meal, &c. It is 

 suitable alone for young growing animals and horses at heavy work" 

 The italics are ours, and we trust that this quotation cf American 

 opinion and experience will dispel from their minds the erroneous 

 idea prevailing amongst most Karroo farmers as to the want of 

 " substance n in lucerne hay. We may here remark that the high 

 nutritive value of lucerne itself has been clearly demonstrated at 

 the well-known scientific experimental fields at Rothamstead, in 

 England, where over a period of six years lucerne yielded an 

 average of about 153 Ibs. of nitrogen per acre, per annum ; whereas 

 over a period of eight years vetches gave an average cf only 84 Ibs., 

 Bokhara clover only 70 Its., and red clover only 14 Its. cf nitrogen 

 per acre, per annum, as against 153 Its. per acre frcm lucerne. 



Lucerne growing may be carried on very profitatly on many 

 farms which to-day are considered " dry farms." There are thou- 

 sands of such farms, even in the driest portions of the Korroo, 

 which have fairly large watercourses or shuts, looked upon as dry 

 rivers because they have no springs rising in their bed, and conse- 

 quently are not perennial streams, but yet have catchment areas of 



