24 LUCERNE CULTURE. 



scale. Yet I wish to point out that where a well-established lucerne 

 farm exists with about t'OO acres of lucerne and hh'h-class ostriches, 

 you can safely add 10 per acre of lucerns, over and ab^va th3 sale 

 of feathers, to your income, from this direction, thus bringing 

 the total return to 40 nett per acre of lucerne. 



PEOBLEMS OF PRACTICAL MEN. 



At the November meeting Mr. Evans was present, and answered 

 the questions of a large and deeply interested audience. 



Mr. E. T. Gilfillan asked the relative value of the product of 

 birds fed on lucerne and of others fed on good veld. 



Mr. Evans thought the difference would be quite 35 or 40 per 

 cent- in favour of the bird fed on lucerne. Of cours-3 there was such 

 a vast difference between veld and veld, and between veld in one 

 season and another. The advantage of lucerne fed birds was that 

 their product was uniform ; the birds were always in good condition. 



Mr. E. T. Gilfillan remarked that he specially said good veld. 

 What Mr. Evans said was borne out in the practical experience of 

 men in the Uniondale district, some of whom put the difference at 

 75 per cent. 



The Chairman (Mr. Herbert Collett) said his experience was 

 that if the veld was very good, the product of the veld fed birds was 

 as good as that of lucerne fed birds. 



Mr. Evans emphasised that birds on lucerne were in uniformly 

 good condition season in and season out ; that was where lucerne 

 scored. For instance, if birds were drafted from the veld to lucerne 

 when the former was going off, they got fat quickly, and the effect 

 was seen in the feather, which was not so good as that of the bird 

 constantly fed on lucerne. 



The Chairman : There is always the danger of leaving birds too 

 long on the veld, with a consequent falling off in the quality of the 

 product. 



Mr. Davidson : But it the veld is good, do you think the differ- 

 ence in quality between veld fed and lucerne fed birds is sufficient to 

 compensate one for not selling his lucerne hay ? Would it not pay 

 better to sell the hay in such case? 



Mr. Evans : There may be circumstancesin which it is better 

 t > sell your hay, but if you have valuable ostriches which are the 

 only ostriches we should strive after then it pays you to keep them 

 in uniform condition, to use all your hay and lucerne rather than run 

 risks of having birds lower in condition at one time of the year than 

 another, and so jeopardising the return from your feathers. If you 

 have a low class of birds, then it does not pay to feed them on lucerne, 

 and in such a case it is better to sell your hay and not to farm 

 ostriches at all. As far as returns from good and inferior birds are 

 concerned, there is as much difference as between those of Persian 

 s'rjep and Merinos. 



Mr. H. Abrahamson : Is there not a danger of transferring 

 chicks bred on lucerne lands on to the veld? 



