LUCERNE IN MARLBOROUGH.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1330, 6 January 1912, Page 8

LUCERNE IN MARLBOROUGH.

VALUE OF THE CROP. • ''It would pay any dairy farmer to make a trip to Blenheim just to see what they ,do there with lucerne." Such was the view expressed by-a: Government oxperf .who,'.visited .Rle;ijieiin 11 few weeks ago,; ~Dri-j th£ > Marltorojlgh River Hats, lucerno grows luxuriantly under intelligent treatment. Some of tho fields havo been-growing this great fodder for over twenty years, and these are now, says a correspondent of tho "Farmers' Union Advocate,"'carrying 1 a' great' 'wealth of lucerne. In Marlborough, five cuttings of liicerne for hay can be obtained in one season, and then there is some grazing in the • winter, although for three clear months there ,is 110 growth in the plant. While Marlborough experience goes to show that lucerne when once established provides annually ail unfailing crop of the best animal fodder known, it does not follow that it is left entirely to itself. In the winter tho field is worked over with the cultivation, and is then harrowed, tlio'implements being taken down the field and then across'it, so as to tear up any grass or weeds which, if left, probably take possession when the lucerne is dormant. Experience has proved that an excess of wator is fatal to lucerne, while eating it down too hard, and thereby giving other plants an opportunity to assert themselves and choke out tho lueerno is another danger to be guarded ' against. Tho Marlborough growers- are converting a good deal of their crops into hay, and at least ono grower lias been supplying the Wellington market' with lucerne hay properly Ijfiled up. In making tho liav; lucerne is allowed to lie on the field for a week or two, according to the weather, and is not stooked until it is about to bo carted iu. It ik also reported that quite a good income is being made by one or two glowers by tho sale of lucerne seed. Up to i£lo an acre is being mado in this way, and this in addition to a crop of hay and some grazing between, when the seed is carted off, in April and September. Last year one grower made .El7O from seed alono off , a seventeen-acro paddock.7