4 FIRST PRIZE ESSAY. 



of surface moisture. In fact, a large percentage of seed sown ini 

 this way is very apt to make a false start at germination and then, 

 die, having only just burst the outer shell of the seed, when the- 

 surface moisture has given up. Hence we strongly recommend 

 sowing in the rainy season. It is far better to sow lucerne seed in 

 quite dry ploughed ground, just before the rainy season, and leave- 

 it thus for the rains to bring up when they come, than to sow it in 

 the ordinary way in damp ploughed ground, and trusting to irri- 

 gation to bring it up and help it through the critical first two- 

 months. Lucerne may be sown all the year round Q|, course, but 

 for the reasons above stated, we recommend only the rainy season 

 for sowing it, even where there is an unlimited supply of water 

 handy for irrigating it. 



Seed of one or two years old is, as a rule, better than quite 

 fresh seed. Fresh seed has more hard grains in it than old seed,, 

 and consequently a higher percentage of the old seed will germi- 

 nate. The bulk of the seed grown in this Colony is grown at 

 Oudtshoorn, and is of excellent quality when got from reliable 

 growers or seedsmen. Oudtshoorn seed of excellent quality, and 

 at a price considerably cheaper than English or imported seed, can 

 be got in large quantities from Mr. W. Thomas, of Welbedacht, 

 Oudtshoorn. Mr. Thomas is the only seller of lucerne seed, that 

 we know of, who guarantees what he sells to be free from " dodder" 

 seed. We have already sown some two thousand pounds weight 

 of Mr. Thomas's Oudtshoorn seed and have found it to germinate 

 well, and perfectly free from the dangerous seed of "dodder." 

 Good, reliable English seed can be got*for Is. per lb., in quantities 

 of 50 to 100 Ibs., from Messrs. Gingell, Ayliff & Co., Port Elizabeth. 

 The ordinary seedsmen charge exhorbitant prices for lucerne seed 

 in small quantities. Our advice to intending growers of lucerne- 

 is to buy reliable seed in quantity from reliable sellers. This is 

 far the cheapest in the end. 



DODDER. 



Cascuta epithymum, or lucerne " dodder," is out and away the 

 worst enemy the lucerne grower has to contend with. There are 

 several kinds of dodder known by the tribal name* of cuscutaceae. 

 The particular variety that attacks lucerne is called cascuta epithy- 

 mwn. Dodder, in appearance, is a stringy sea-weed looking mass 

 of leafless threads and small pods twisting round the stems and 

 covering the lucerne infested. Dodder is a parasitic plant which 

 attaches itself to, and lives upon, its host plant, the lucerne, to 

 which it clings, sucking the life completely out of it and spreading 

 from plant to plant, like a yellow sheet of fire, until the entire field 

 is utterly and hopelessly destroyed. The germination of dodder is 

 effected, like that of other plants in general, in the earth. The 

 slender and simple radicle descends into the earth ; if it finds no 

 lucerne plant near it, it dies. If it finds one, it surrounds the stem 



