FIRST PRIZE ESSAY. 19 



In view of the danger of fire, it is as well not to put too much 

 stuff in one large stack. If there are thirty loads of hay, rather 

 build three stacks than one. In building your stacks, place them 

 so far from one another, that in the event of one catching fire it can 

 burn out without setting the next one alight. Thus, in the event 

 of a fire, you would save two-thirds of your hay by having three 

 stacks, whereas if all was in one stack the whole lot would be 

 swept off. 



RESTING THE VELDT. 



And, lastly, we would draw special attention to this very 

 important advantage of lucerne growing to the Karroo farmer. It 

 enables him to relieve and rest portions of his stock-tramped veld 

 by grazing most or all of his stock upon his lucerne fields during 

 the growing and rainy seasons, and thus allow the useful grasses 

 . and bushes to grow out and to seed for the much-needed improve- 

 ment and renewal of his pasturage. 



He is thus enabled to put into practice the highly beneficial 

 " paddocking system" of grazing pastures, as practiced in Austra- 

 lia and elsewhere. This system of alternate rest and use has been 

 found to quadruple the carrying capacity of pastures. Thus does 

 ! lucerne growing not alone yield in itself a far better yearly return 

 per acre than cereal growing, but it is also the means of bringing 

 .about a steadily increased stock-carrying capacity of the whole 

 farm. 



There is no denying the statement that drought is the one 

 .great drawback to the Karroo, the main leakage through which the 

 Karroo farmer's profits filter away from time to time. Drought 

 may, in fact, be said to be the great consuming dragon of the 

 Karroo farmer's profits; there are few Karroo farmers, indeed, who 

 have not felt his terrible fangs. Surely the drawing of this dra- 

 gon's fangs should be worth the doing ! The providing of artificial 

 fodder for stock against drought is the only forceps that will draw 

 them. The man who allows his stock to perish for want of pro- 

 viding water would be looked upon as mad by the very man who 

 allows his stock to die by thousands for want of providing food. 

 It is, however, difficult here to distinguish between the sane and 

 the insane. It w^uld seem that a man is mad only when he 

 behaves differently from his neighbours. 



Finally, then, we co.ne to the 



DISADVANTAGES OF LUCERNE GROWING. 



There is no doubt that the initial oui.iay required for properly 

 laying down permanent lucerne fields, of any extent is considerably 

 heavier than thit reiui;v:l for ordinary cereal growing. This 

 feature about lueerne gi*o;ving is perhaps, in the strict sense of the 

 term, not a disadvantage, yet it would h;vo Iho effect of deterring 

 .the farmer of limited inearn from taking up lucerne growing. As 



