Ostrich Farming on Lucerne. 



PAPER BY MR. 0. E. G. EVANS, AND INSTRUCTIVE 

 DISCUSSION THEREON. 



A T the meeting of the Cradcck Farmers' Association held in 

 -T^ October, 1907, Mr. 0. E. G. Evans 1 paper on "Ostrich 

 Farming on Lucerne. 1 ' was read, as follows, the writer himself 

 being unable to be present : 



Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen, 



I have to thank you for the honour you have conferred on me 

 by asking me to get up a paper on how to make money out of 

 lucerne. 



By your syllabus I see you have relegated to me the handling 

 of this subject from the ostrich farming point of view. Gentlemen, 

 this is a very wide and a very elastic subject, and I can only very 

 diffidently put forward my views, which 1 hope will be of some 

 use to your Association as well as to my brother farmers. 



PREPARATION OF LUCERNE LAND. 



To begin with. I have to touch on the laying down of lucerne. 

 It is of paramount importance that ground where lucerne is to be 

 sown should be levelled off very carefully and given a very gentle* 

 slope, just enough for the water to flow (say about 3 or 4 inches in 

 the 100 yards). This is very necessary to obtain a good yield from 

 your lucerne. If your ground slopes tjo much, my advice to you 

 is to put down any other crop sooner than lucerne. For the reason 

 that lucerne once down is down for a number of years, and with 

 water leading continually, the ground becomes hard and no pene- 

 tration of moisture whatever takes place on these slopes. Not so 

 with cereal crops, as these are ploughed afresh every year when 

 down, and consequently, in leading water, the ground, though ever 



