1 Aprin, 1902.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 245 
the bad) of five bags of 225 lb. each per acre, per annum, must be admitted, 
we think, to be a very liberal estimate for a comparison between the profits of 
wheat and lucerne growing in the Karroo. Of course individual yields of ten 
and twelve bags, and more, per acre, have been obtained in the Karoo, but we 
are dealing with practical averages here. We have before us some figures 
on the “ cost of wheat-growing” in the Karroo, which appeared some time ago 
in the columns of the Midland News. The writer, who claimed to be a 
practical farmer, showed from actual account kept that wheat cost him just 
about 6s. per bag of 225 Ib. to produce. To arrive at the average clear’ profit 
per acre, per annum, we shall assume that the five bags of wheat, weighing 
225 lb. each (average yield of 1 acre), fetch an average price of, say, 22s. 6d. 
per bag on the market, realising the sum of £5 12s. 6d. Deduct from this the 
cost of these five bags at 6s. per bag as shown, making a total of £1 10s., 
leaving a net or clear profit of £4 2s. 6d.—say (for easy calculation) £4 per 
acre per annum. 
Now, personally we have never, even in fair years, been able to make £4: 
an acre clear profit at wheat-growing here, still less to average it. Neverthe- 
less we take £4, as shown, to be a fair and liberal estimate of the average net 
profit per acre per annum derived from wheat-growing. We now come to the 
profit per acre derived from lucerne-growing for stock. By way of preliminary 
we may state that when once lucerne fields have been properly laid down and 
established, the yearly expense is almost solely confined to the mere cost of 
applying the water to them. On fields properly laid down, this should not 
exceed 5s. per acre per annum. 
Cost or Growine LUCERNE. 
We begin by quoting actual figures of results obtained recently by a lead- 
ing Graaff-Reinet grower of lucerne, whose lucerne fields depend entirely upon 
periodical flood water diverted from the Sunday’s River by means of a weir 
across the river. This gentleman informs us that during last year (189s) 
of terrible drought throughout the Midlands, he made in six months 
(June to December) £1,300 from fattening hamels, and £700 from 
making butter—a total of £2,000 in six months from about 150 acres of 
lucerne. Deduct from this, say, the six months’ expenses of milking and 
tending the cows, and tending the hamels in the paddocks—say £100 
for this—and 2s. 6d. per acre on 150 acres for water leading during the six 
months, amounting to £18 15s., making a total extreme for the six months of 
£118 15s. This will leave a profit balance of £1,881 15s. from 159 acres of 
lucerne in six months, being a clear profit of £12 10s. per acre in six months, 
or £25 per acre per annum, as against £4 per acre from wheat-growing. 
This is between six and seven times as much as from wheat-growing. This, 
too, during a very severe drought. The same farmer in the year 1895 made 
from one 10-acre field of lucerne under dairy cows at the rate of £5 per 
month per acre from butter, equal to £60 per acre per annum—this is, of course, 
exceptional. This gentleman was making £70 per month from butter in a 
drought when without lucerne he would have been quite unable to make 
butter at all. Lucerne makes the finest deep yellow “ gilt edge” butter that 
fetches highest market price, and yet so little is known of “the king of fodder 
lants” that many farmers have a hazy idea that it gives butter a peculiar and 
itter flavour ! 
Grazing ostriches upon lucerne paddocks is equally as profitable as making 
butter or fattening sheep upon this crop. In Oudtshoorn, where there are 
some 25,000 acres of ground under lucerne, the standard or average capacity 
of lucerne fields for ostriches is considered to be about ten birds to the 
morgen, or five birds to the acre all the year round. Double this 
number during the summer could be run on lucerne, but, to be on the 
safe side, the number is limited to the above, The Oudtshoorn grazing 
is worthless, and they have to depend entirely upon their lucerne fields for 
keeping their birds. The statistics for 1898 show that in that year there were 
