LUCERNE MEMS. 79 



require a large amount of plant food. There are but few crops 

 which will equal lucerne in its draft upon the resources of the soil 

 in which it grows, but while other crops gather their food from a 

 depth of 2, 4 or 5 feet, lucerne gathers its food from depths rang- 

 ing from 6 to 12 feet so on the assumption that the lucerne plant 

 has no greater power to gather its food than the wheat plant, for 

 example, it has, owing to the greater depth to which its roots pene- 

 trate, from three to four times the depth of soil to feed on. This is 

 an essential advantage, especially if the upper portions of the soil 

 from which the wheat plant is t:> draw its food has already been 

 partially exhausted by repeated cropping, as has been the case in 

 many instances in this State. That the plant requires a large sup- 

 ply of plant food is very evident, for we find it contained in the 

 plant, but its little feeding roots which gather this food are almost 

 wholly below the depth at which ordinary crops feed, so this 

 portiou of the soil is resting while in lucerne. 



Compulsory Eradication of Dodder (Cuscuta). 



This has been declared a noxious weed, in the following divi- 

 sions of the Cape Colony : 



Aberdeen Jansenville Robertson 



Albany Ladismith Somerset East 



Bedford Middelburg Steynsburg 



Clanwilliam Murraysburg Tarka 



Coles berg Oudtshoorn Uitenhage 



Cradock Prince Albert Uniondale 



Graaff-Reinet Queenstown Worcester 



Act 17 of 1907. 



The old Noxious Weed legislation was found to be insuffi- 

 ciently drastic to deal with Dodder, and last year a Bill was intro- 

 duced to give greater powers to Divisional Councils to promptly 

 and effectively take measures to exterminate it. The Act was 

 promulgated on the 17th September, 1907. 



The following are the principal provisions of the Act : 

 Clause 1 empowers Divisional Councils to petition the Gover- 

 nor to bo vested with the additional powers conferred by the Act. 

 Upon receipt of such petition the Governor shall declare the Act 

 in operation in the divisions, and the following provisions shall be in 

 form and effect and read as one with sub-division 6, part 1, of the 

 Divisional Council Act of 1889, viz. : 



(a) The Secretary . . . shall in ... respect of the weed 

 called '' Xanthium Spinosum 11 (bur- weed) or any other weed or 



