34 LUC3RXE CULTURE. 



HAYMAKING. 



With regard to this important operation, we have very littb 

 to guide us, nor can any experience gained in one or two district* 

 enable us to lay down a hard an: 1 fast; rule for the whole Colony. 

 The clLmte varies so much within a few miles, or rather the rain- 

 fall so varies, that one mm may be able to harvest successfully in a 

 certain way, while his near neighbour would suffer heavy loss if he 

 harvested in the same way. One thing is very certain, and that is 

 that, even in the driest districts of the Colony, a considerable 

 amount of shedding will be necessary tj protect the crop and 

 ensure its being properly cured in all weathers, and in this res- 

 pect we must look forward to our hay-curing costing us imre than 

 it does in the Cape Colony, with a rainfall of only a fe.v inches a 

 year against our average of some 40 inches. The wet weither at 

 times will seriously hamper harvesting operations, in spite of any 

 amount of shed room, and probably in wet seasons losses by wet 

 will be by no means infrequent. 



MARKETS. 



Of course our lucerne growers, looking forward, do not figure 

 on the prices now obtainable being maintained, and they do n >t 

 view with any alarm the almost certainty of a considerable drop in 

 price. It is considered thit if a farmer cm g3t 4 a ton for cured 

 hay on rail, it will give a better return per a:re, and f >r the capital 

 employed, than feeding it to stoek, but as we gei more experience 

 this view may not prove to be corre:t. But let the price drop, as 

 it is bound to do, and it will pay farmers to go in for ostriches, 

 which are doing fairly well in some districts of the country. 



I do not think we can look tj Johannesburg as a market which 

 will absorb a large quantity of lu:erne, as I believe the Transvaal 

 will be able to grow all the produce of this deszripti >n which may 

 be required, but an almost unlimited amount of this fodder can be 

 used in Natal so soon as the pri:e drops sufficiently to stop importa- 

 tion. We have a large stock-raising country within 20 or 30 miles 

 of the lucerne country, and towards winter stock is to be bought 

 which would probably not go through the cold weather, but which 

 would fatten in the warmer clim 1 - te of the thorn country with good 

 feeding on lucerne. 



Again, it is not unlikely that! stock farmers would find it to 

 their interest to supplement their own grown supply of winter 

 fodder with lucerne, as being, if not actually weight for weight 

 cheaper, calculated with their own stuff to make a better balanced 

 ration. 



The above are a few of the outlets for our lucerne which occur 

 to me, but it is such a universal food that ther> are doubtless 

 countless other ways in which it can be used, aid I do not f.-ar 

 that lucerne will drop in price below the figure which farmers are 

 at present quite expecting to face. 



