318 



Cultivation by Deep -rooting Plants. 



last year along with a crop of barley. From October i. 

 1900, to October 1, 1901, the value of the hay and grazing 

 attained was estimated at £7 3s. per acre. Our estimate has 

 been referred to a tenant farmer, who is employed as a 

 valuator, and his estimate comes to rather more — £7 7s. 6d. 

 per acre. Since October 1 the field has been stocked, and at 

 the present time there are some six lambs per acre, and five 

 calves in the field ; but since October 15 the stock has been 

 assisted with two cart-loads of cabbages a day. Should the 

 weather remain open, the field may be stocked for some weeks 

 later. The results prove (1) that a forage mixture can be 

 used which has given satisfactory results in one of the worst 

 seasons of drought ever known ; that (2) it will pay to use it 

 even for a single year ; and (3) that the clover may be relied 

 upon for a fine yield, even though clover generally may be 

 either a complete or partial failure. 



" Clover is a moisture-loving plant. Land well stored with 

 decaying vegetable matter (as mine is) will hold 20 per cent> 

 more moisture than land where the humus is, as is now 

 commonly the case, at a low ebb. The supply ol moisture in 

 my land is further aided by the tap-rooted plants like chicory 

 and burnet, which keep up the connection between the dry 

 upper and the moist lower soil, and so encourage the ascent 

 of water from the latter. Plants more often suffer from lack 

 of moisture at critical periods of their growth than from the 

 want of plant food. If my clover — sown at five pounds an 

 acre — was really in excess for the hay crop, while the clover 

 in this district was a failure generally, I can only conjecture 

 that it was because my plants had moisture while the plant 

 generally was starved for want of it. 



"The losses, both direct and consequential, that have 

 occurred from the failure of clover are really very serious. 

 The value of the nitrogen alone, which the root nodules 

 absorb from the atmosphere, can hardly be estimated at less 

 than 1 os. an acre. Then there is the loss of the clover roots, 

 hay, and aftermath. The scanty yield of the latter was 

 such that it lowered the price of lambs. Considering the 

 reduced number of our sheep in Great Britain it is hardly too 

 much to say that had fields like the Bank field been universal 



