SOIL SUITABLE AND TREATMENT FOR LUCERNE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 508, 12 October 1912, Page 6

SOIL SUITABLE AND TREATMENT FOR LUCERNE.

The experimental section of an eminent Agricultural College in the United States has issued an instructive bulletin on the cultivation of lucerne. It Would appear that lucerne will succeed on a variety of soils, grading from sandy to heavy clay, although with unfavourable soil conditions it becomes more difficult to establish a good stand. The crop, however, does not thrive alike on all soils; perhaps a deep fertile [loam of clayey loam, well supplied with the mineral elements of plant food, is the most favourable soil for the plant. The crop needs a deep, well drained soil; on wet land with water too near the surface lucerne will often produce poorly, and the plant soon die. The crop will not thrive on a soil deficient in lime, which shows an acid reaction. Some old lands, after years of cropping, have become deficient in humus and organic matter, and so deficient in lime that they will hardly produce lucerne successfully until the soil is fertilised by manuring and the acid- condition is corrected by appli cations of lime and land plaster. In order that lucerne may make a good stand and contniue to produce large crops the land must be supplied with the nitrogen gathering bacteria which live on the roots of the lucerne plants and supply a part of the plant's food. Lands which have never grown lucerne may not contain these bacteria and before the plant will grow well it is necessary to supply the bacteria by inoculating the new lands with soil from an'' old lucerne field. From 200 to 5001b of infected soil, carefully spread and mixed with the soil by cultivation before the lucerne is planted, is sufficient to inoculate the new land and infect most of the crop plants withing a year or so after seeding. The nitro-culture preparations for a treating the seed before sowing, now manufactured and sold, also give good results when used carefully according to directions. The average • farmer will secure better results by using the infected soil, when it can be secured at a reasonable cost, rather than to treat the seed with nitro culture preparations.

In discussing the question of seed it states that the first requisite in getting a stand of any crop is good seed. Not only should the seed be of good quality and strong in vitality and germination but it should be clean and free from foul weed seeds. It seems hardly necessary to enlarge on this point, yet many farmers are careless, much poor seed is sold and sown, and many costly failures result. Lucerne seed costs so much, and the expense of a failure to get a stand is so great, that many farmers are discouraged by an unsuccessful trial, while others hesitate to make the venture. Those who are familiar with lucerne seed can usually recognise seed of low vitality. New seed of good quality has a characteristic bright, clear colour, while old seed, or seed which has received injury from wetting or heating as a dull, dead colour, indicating its impaired vitality. Seed which is badly shrunken is also apt to contain a large percentage of seeds of low vitality which will not germinate and grow under ordinary soil conditions.