212 
Supplement to the " Trojdcal Agriculturist.''^ [Sept. 1, 1893, 
inverted heavier harrows. The practice of drag- 
ging a stout sapling to which are attached 
a number of small branches over the land 
will also serve the purpose. Sometimes the seed 
is merely pressed into the soil by rollers, and 
when a large area has been sown grass-seed 
harrows will render good service in covering the 
seed. At Oudtshoorn lucerne is sometimes sown 
along with barley. This practice has the advant- 
age of requiring only one preparation of the land 
for two crops, and the lucerne further enjoys 
some protection. In spring sowing, particularly 
in localities where the spring is dry, this method 
of sowing lucerne mixed with a cereal crop is 
not advisable. 
The principal attention required by young 
lucerne is the removal of weed with a cultivator 
if sown in rows or by hand if sown broadcast. 
It is a work which may be inconvenient to many 
growers, but it must be done to insure success, 
for lucerne is very easily suppressed by weeds in 
the early stages of its growth. As there is nothing 
so fatal to lucerne as a sward of grass, which is 
almost as pernicious as dodder, old lucerne fields 
should be subjected to a thorough harrowing 
after the last autumn cut and before the growth 
sets in again in spring. Such a system of culti- 
vation keeps down weeds and loosens the ground, 
thus allowing the air to penerate into the soil. 
AVell-rotted manure, and in particular compost 
to which lime has been added, may at the same 
time be applied as a top dressing where manuring 
is necessary. Sometimes a fungus shows itself 
early in spring, causing brownish and blackish 
spots to appear on the leaves, which Anally drop 
off. The only thing to be done in this case is to 
cut and feed the lucerne when the disease first 
becomes manifest. As the season advances the 
disease disappears altogether. Plots showing the 
symptoms of the presence of dodder should be cut 
off and the infected spots treated with a strong 
solution of sulphate of iron. The slugs sometimes 
found on lucerne may be killed and driven off by 
dusting quicklime over the crop. 
" One of the important questions to be consider- 
ed in laying out a field for lucerne is its duration 
and the number of cuts which may be expected 
per annum in the locality selected. Lucerne will 
not last longer than five years where the soil is 
shallow, deficient in lime, and sometimes water- 
logged. On suitable soils it may last from fifteen 
to twenty-five years and even longer. I have 
seen a lucerne field at Graaff-Reiuet which is 
supposed to have been in existence for about 
seventy years ; the soil there is, however, of the 
best quality to an almost unlimited depth. It 
appears that this bed of lucerne has resown itself, 
it being sometimes cut after some seeds had ripen- 
ed and fallen to the ground. Lucerne may be 
cut in this country from five to nine times per 
year, each time before being in full flower. 
During midsummer it may be cut at intervals 
of about a month. The jdeld, which is at its 
best during the third year of its growth or during 
the second in poorer soils, is simply astonishing 
to a European farmer. Out of a plot of two and 
a half years' standing above 8| tons of green 
lucerne were cropped per acre at one cut, yielding 
above 2 tons of hay. This is of course excep- 
tional, but 4 to 6 tons of hay per acrejmay annually 
])% expected ia most localities and oa soils of 
average quality, in many places much more. 
That means two or three times as much hay as is 
obtained from one acre of oats, the nutritive value 
of lucerne hay Ijeing besides much higher than 
that of oat hay. When cut at the proper time, 
some time before flowering, green lucerne is an 
excellent food stuff, rich in albumen, and most 
suitable for dairj- cattle. When cut wliiUt 
flowering, during which time the stems become 
harder and tougher, lucerne adds to the flesh 
rather than to the milk. Good lucerne being so 
very rich in composition it should always be fed 
along with some poorer fo»d, such as straw, green 
maize, grasses, and root crops. The hay, properly 
cured, is almost as valuable as the green stuff, 
and forms a forage which is much relished by 
horses, sheep, and cattle. To give some idea of 
the richness of lucerne I may mention that the 
ratio of nitrogenous to non-nitrogenous nutriment 
in lucerne, hay or green fodder, is about as 1 : •i'2, 
whilst that of maize is about as 1 : 9 6, that of 
good oat hay as 1 : 6 <5 — 1 : 7, that of millet 
1 : 71 — that is, there is more of the valuable 
albuminous matter in lucerne than in any other 
fodder plant. 
" It is often fancied that lucerne cturnot stand 
depasturing. In a moist climate there is some 
truth in this assertion, but extensive experi- 
ments conducted in Australia, where several 
thousands of acres of land have been sown with 
lucerne, and where the area under lucerne for the 
purpose of pasturing is extending largely, have 
shown that the plant is suitable for grazing sheep. 
In other countries, too, where stable feeding ha* 
become a necessity, it is the usual practice to 
depasture lucerne in autumn instead of cutting it 
once more before winter sets in. 
" It is a recognised fact that the prosperity 
of several districts of countries such aa the south 
of France, the north of Italj', some parts of Cali- 
fornia, Hungarj', &c., depend upon their lucerne 
fields to a great extent. It suits the natural 
conditions of these countries better than any 
other fodder plant, being a crop which is exceed- 
ingly productive and rich in composition ; it at 
the same time restores fertility to soils, and is a 
great factor in the production of manure on farms, 
besides being a never-failing source of food for 
dairy stock and other farm animals." 
A FEW NOTES ON FODDER. II. 
1. As is well-known it is in drj' districts that 
cattle suffer most for want of sufficient fodder. 
But in many of those parts where even very 
severe droughts occur, there are periodical rains 
which fall more or less regularly when the 
monsoon sets in. At this season a surplus quan- 
tity of grass may be grown on the waste lands 
with a little extra trouble, and can be stored up 
as hay or ensilage, if cattle-owners will only care 
to do it. This no doubt will be looked upon as 
a novel practice, and there are many among our 
village farmers who will consider it hardly worth 
their while to take so much trouble on account of 
their cattle. But those who do will be amply 
rewarded in the better condition and yield of their 
animals, not to mention the amount of suffering 
they will save them from. 
2, Again in the neighbourhood of some parched 
aud sterile places there are to be found weli" 
