OSTRICH FARMING ON LUCERNE. 25 



Mr. Evans : No ; if the veld is good they will rather benefit by 

 tlie change. I have had long experience of this, and the result of ft 

 is that it has no prejudicial effect whatever. Of course I draw 

 the line at birds being taken from lucerne and placed on the dead 

 Karroo. 



The Chairman concurred. 



Mr. Abrahamson : Is the stamina of chicks reared on lucerne 

 the same as that of birds reared on the veld : would they stand a 

 drought as well ? 



Mr. Evans said he had had his lucerne lands so dry that the dust 

 rose from them as from the veld, and he had had to feed on mealies 

 and prickly pear, but his losses had never been as many as those of 

 his neighbour. He had had hundreds of birds running on the veld, 

 and could not say they had suffered before anyone else's, and they 

 were all reared on lucerne. 



Mr. Christian : How many birds may be run per acre of lucerne 

 watered in, say, the months of December, January and February? 

 The advantage of knowing this is obvious, because then we can esti- 

 mate the quantity of hay we shall require for the rest of the year, 

 and can stack accordingly. 



Mr. Evans : I think you can run from 8 to 10 birds per acre of 

 lucerne, well watered and in good condition, and chey will keep fat 

 on it. During these months birds can hardly eat the lucerne as fast 

 as it grows. 



Mr. P. Coetzee : What size paddocks do you recommend ? 



Mr. Evans : From 10 to 15 acres. If you have 400 or 500 acres 

 of lucerne, I should say make your paddocks from 20 to 30 acres 

 each. I have only 100 acres, and my paddocks average 10 and 12 

 acres, with a few smaller ones for chicks or special purposes. My 

 breeding camps are 70 by 70 yards for a pair of breeding birds. 



Mr. Coetzee : And when you iriigate your camps do you keep 

 the birds in ? 



Mr. Evans : Only the breeding birds, not the others. Birds 

 tramp down the crown of the plants and harden the wet paddock so, 

 vwnich is the worst thing that could happen in a lucerne paddock. 



In reply to Mr. Abrahamson, Mr. Evans said he put birds into 



the lucerne when it was from 9 inches to 12 inches high. The birds 

 stripped off the leaves and left the stems ; it was then his practice 



either to put in cattle to eat off the stubble or else to mow it and 

 stack it for cattle in the winter ; they eat it readily. He had tried 

 leaving it on the ground for manurial purposes, but it was a mis- 

 take, because the mower, raking it up, clogged the machine and 

 -spoiled the hay. 



A PEOFIT AND LOSS ACCOUNT. 



At this stage Mr. Evans said that he noted that Mr. Christian 

 at the former meeting seemed to think the figures he gave in his 

 paper were extravagant ; he (Mr. Evans) had gone farther into the 

 subject, and now gave the following detailed statement. 



