Farm Topics.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 22 March 1910, Page 4

Farm Topics.

» —■ Helianti is a. new fodder plant which is attracting considerable attention. According .to the Natal Agricultural Journal the plant hails from North America, and that, in its present form, it is the result of years of careful cultivation by a leading French horticultural ' expert. It belongs to the leguminous class of plants—one fact alone which gives it an interest in the eyes of the progressive farmer—and it is stated to make excellent green fodder, ensilage or hay (having an enormous growth above ground), and exceeds (so we learn from a leaflet that has been sent to us) both in green and dry weight and animal food the best known forage plants such as clover, sainfoin, etc. We further read that "the dry weight is alone exceeded by lucerne the proportion being 24 per cent in helianti to 2G per cent in lucerne hut helianti produces no less tbnn three times the weight of growth per acre, and according to analysis antains the extraordinary amount of over seven per cent of sugar in the dry forage." Such statements as these would themselves he sufficient to excite widespread interest in tin's new plant, , but this is not all, for helinnti also produces "a huge crop of tubers of extreme value, in weight exceeding that per acre of potatoes several times over, and indeed rivalling that of the mangold. . . . Horses, cattle, piss adid sheep all eat them greedily and do well upon them. Horses prefer them to mangold even when fresh raised. Cows do well and give more milk and butter when, fed upon helianti either as tubers, hay or ensilage, and the butter possesses tho very best flavour, even better than that produced by feeding lucerne. Pigs fed upon the tubers make tho best flavoured pork on the market. Poultry feed well n<nd fatten quickly upon a mixture of half-cooked tubers and bran." As might be expected, however, a heavy crop of forage and of tubers cannot be raised the same season; if a crop of tubers is desired then no forage must be cut, but all allowed to mature. The dense growth then dies back and the tubers resulting may be raised late in lite autumn. An idea of the food value of helianti may he gathered from the analyses which have been published of I the tubers, .stems, and leaves of the plant. The leaves are said to contain: Proteids 3.50 per cent, fats 0.06, total sugars 0.44, carbohydrates 13.88. cellulose 1.67, digestible fibre 1.25, insoluble minerals 1.90, and water 76.70. An analysis of the stem has given the following results: Proteids 3.10 per cent, fats 0.13, total sugars 7.18, carbohydrates 9.15, cellulose 3.61, digestible fibre 0.83, insoluble minerals 0.40, water 75.60. The tubers analyse as follows: ProteidS 5.31, fats 0.48, sugars and carbohydrates 18.65, cellulose 1.32, minerals 1.76, water 72.48. This new fodder plant is certainly worth a trial in this country, I providing our climate will suit it. About this there does not seem to be very much doubt however, in view of the statement which has been made to the effect that in 1906 it withstood a great drought in France, Algiers and elsewhere better than any other farm plant, and that it is equally hardy in standing frost and heavy rainfall. We may add that the tubers can be allowed to remain down three or four years without lifting, which is a further point in its favour.