LUCERNE CULTIVATION.

Putaruru Press, Volume IV, Issue 120, 11 February 1926, Page 6

LUCERNE CULTIVATION.

SOME HINTS FROM OVERSEAS. A word or two about the way thei Jfe Danish farmer grows lucerne may be ■ of interest to his contemporary in New Zealand. Instead of carting in- _ oculated soil to the field to be .sown 4P the seed is treated with a solution containing the bacteria. The Government laboratory near Copenhagen has for more than a decade, and at a trifling cost, supplied the farmers witli the bacteria in pure culture. This culture is a dark brown fluid which keeps good for 30 days only and is sent out in small bottles. The contents of one or more Dottles is mixed with a certain quantity of new milft in which the bacteria multiply rapidly. After some 12 hours, the seed's dipped A in this solution and sown as soon as jp possible. In Denmark the growing of" lucerne for seed is out of the question 3 the summer being too short. The seed is drilled in with a thin cover crop of oats or barley, and the drills used being of a very light conI struction do not bury the seed too deeply. The old way of broadcasting is gradually dying out in Denmark. For the second year after sowing the paddock is given at least one thorough harrowing every summer, usually when the first crop of hay has; been cut and Stacked. Harrowing in early spring has lately been condemned, because of the great harm done to if the young and tender shoots or buds- 31 which are situated just below the W grubber tine. -V