practically destroyed by it. I have not found any particular mention of it, either in France or elsewhere, since Signoret wrote, as being especially common or injurious, although it has been reported several times in Europe and in America.

"It is difficult to look at the Nelson oak-twigs without fancying that the countless thousands of insects on them must greatly damage the trees; and yet all that Mr. Kingsley tells me is, that the upper branches of the trees look somewhat unhealthy.' This is after fourteen years' uninterrupted existence. Probably in Europe there is some parasitic enemy (not generally known) which has kept it in check, and some accidental disappearance of the parasite may account for the prevalence of the Planchonia in 1836.

"In New Zealand, apparently, either there is no parasite, in which case the Planchonia will be able to increase indefinitely, or whatever parasite there may be has for a while disappeared, with the consequent outbreak of the coccids.

"Coccids, like other insects, are subject to sudden and serious increase at irregular intervals; just in the same way as in England a few years ago there was an extraordinary swarm of the butterfly Colias edusa; so in New Zealand at one time Lecanium hesperidum was for a few years exceedingly numerous. In Mauritius and other tropical places Aspidiotus destructor broke out at one time with unusual vigour; and we can remember here how in the summer of 1894-95 occurred an alarming increase of Dactylopius adonidum in the Hutt Valley, an increase which may perhaps be observed again during the present season. If, therefore, Planchonia quercicola, after being fairly quiescent for several years, has of late suddenly started into abnormal activity, we may expect that after a while the checks (whatever they may be) to its increase will again act on it, and it will return to comparative harmlessness. There remains, of course, the chance that the insect is not particularly injurious, although, as remarked just now, it is difficult to think this in view of its immense numbers.

"In a later letter Mr. Kingsley says: 'It does not appear to be increasing. The owner has cut off and burnt from time to time the most infected branches. One tree at Bishopsdale is getting very bad In the city two trees are infected, but do not yet show signs of decay. Most of the oaks do not appear to be much the worse for it. I do not know of any spraying operations.' In a still later letter (February, 1896), Mr. Kingsley tells me that the trees are beginning to show signs of much damage by this insect, and that it is feared in Nelson that a large proportion of the fine oaks in that district will be very seriously injured."

IN previous numbers of the Agricultural Gazette, I have referred to such forage plants as sorghum, maize, millet, cow peas, &c., and, therefore, in this article will only take those which I have not previously dealt with. I do not propose to give any particulars beyond my own experience with these plants, and may state that the greater portion of the facts are taken from trials carried out at the Wagga Wagga Experiment Farm.

Lucerne (Medicago sativa, Linn.)

When first I came to the Riverina District, I was surprised to find that this grand forage crop was so little grown, and on asking some of the leading farmers and pastoralists for the reason, was informed that there was very little land suitable for lucerne growing in this district, the general opinion being that it would rarely, if ever, thrive well, except on the rich river flats. Feeling sure that this was a mistake, and believing that with proper cultivation this crop would be a very profitable one on almost any of the Riverina soils, I commenced a series of trials with the view of illustrating its value. The first plot tried was a great success, and I will, therefore, fully describe the system of cultivation adopted, so that others may benefit by my experience. Preparation of the land. There are certain soils, such as the light loams and deep rich river flats, in which lucerne can be grown with very little trouble, and the ordinary farmer requires but little instruction how to grow this crop in such soils. But the soil that I refer to is the stiff red loam, which is typical of millions of acres of the Riverina, and, therefore, is of interest to many. In order to grow lucerne to the best advantage on soil of this character, it is necessary to plough deep if the soil is deep, but if it is shallow it is better to plough, say, 6 inches, and subsoil another 6 or 8 inches. In my experiment the land was ploughed 10 inches deep. The land was then cross-harrowed, rolled, well worked with a spading-harrow, and finally carefully smoothed down with a light harrow. This brought the soil to a fine tilth, so that the seed was sown at even depth. Too much care cannot be given to this, for the finer the soil is the more even and heavy the crop will be. I would like to point out that it will pay a farmer far better to put in a small patch at a time, and put it in well, than it will to put a large crop in roughly, even if it takes him a year or so longer. The following

view is taken from a photograph; it shows a patch of red soil being prepared for lucerne.

Sowing. The seed was sown on the 6th June. I consider that May and June are by far the best months for sowing in this district. During the winter months the plants will make little headway above ground, but they are making root-growth, and on the approach of warm spring weather grow very rapidly, and thus become well established before the hot weather sets in. They are thus able to stand almost any drought that is likely to be experienced here. The seed was sown in drills 14 inches apart by means of a machine drill of which the following is a photograph.

This drill has eleven teeth, 7 inches apart; by shutting off every other feeder, six drills are sown 14 inches apart, and this is about as good a distance as it can be sown. By careful handling one man with a pair of horses can

sow from 10 to 12 acres a day with this machine, using from 4 to 6 lb. of seed per acre. The expense of sowing is therefore per acre:

As the machine covers the seed sufficiently, no further expense is required, and therefore £1 4s. 2d. is the cost of putting in the crop.

Cultivation. This is a very important item, as on it depends much of the success or otherwise of the crop. After the crop was well up, I stirred the soil between the drills with a machine hoe, which was set exactly the same as the drills, that is, 14 inches from centre of hoe to centre of next hoe. This was done once when the crop was about 2 inches high, and again when it was about 8 inches high. It had the effect of killing all the weeds, and leaving the soil loose between the drills, thus taking every advantage of the least shower, and keeping the moisture in the soil. The following is an illustration of the hoe.

Another advantage which this system of cultivating lucerne has, is that sheep can be turned on to the crop, and after they are removed the land can be well stirred between the drills with the machine hoe; thus repairing any injury caused by the sheep tramping down the soil. Many pastoralists have written to me asking me to recommend a cultivator to loosen up soil after sheep have been on the crop. But this is not an easy thing to do, as there are really no machines that will stir a broadcast crop of lucerne without damaging it more or less. It is true that there are soils which can be worked up sufficiently by the use of a light harrow after feeding off, without appearing to cause much harm to the crop; but these soils are few and far between. As a rule the ordinary harrow damages the plants more or less, and in many soils does not stir sufficiently. I would, therefore, strongly recommend farmers and pastoralists who intend laying down large areas with

lucerne to try sowing in drills and working between the drills as described in this article.

During the year five cuttings were taken off this plot of lucerne, the total yield being 10 tons 3 cwt. of green plant, or an average of a little over 2 tons per cutting. This means 3 tons of hay per acre the first year. The cost of taking the crop off and stacking would at most be 5s. per ton. The total cost of producing the crop would then be as follows:

Cost of putting in the crop, including ploughing, harrowing, cost of seed, and sowing...

Hoeing six times, at ls.
Taking off five crops 3 tons hay

...

£ s. d.

1 4 2 per acre 0 6 0

0 15

Profit for the first year

The actual profit on 1 acre of lucerne for the first year was thus £3 14s. 10d. As this year was the hottest and driest known for twenty years previously this result speaks for itself. Of course, during the second year the cost of production will be much lower, as the item, "cost of putting in crop," £1 48. 2d. per acre, is done away with; and surely any one will acknowledge that lucerne always produces a much heavier crop the second year than the first, and we may therefore reasonably infer that the profits for the second year will be at least double that of the first.

No artificial watering was given, nor were any manures used. Numbers of farmers who saw this plot could hardly believe that such a good crop could be obtained simply by thorough cultivation of the soil. So convinced am I by this experiment that lucerne will grow successfully under the conditions described, that I intend to carry out the next experiments on a much larger scale, say in 20-acre plots-full particulars regarding which will be published in the Agricultural Gazette later on.

Tagosaste or Tree Lucerne (Cytisus proliferous, Linn.).

Seeds of this plant were sown in drills in April, 1895, the drills being 4 feet apart, and the seed was sown very thinly in the drills. Before sowing I placed the seeds overnight in a dish; poured boiling water over them and let them stand in the water till required for sowing. The seeds germinated well, and the plants soon made headway. When they were about 6 to 8 inches high I thinned them out to 4 feet apart, thus bringing them 4 feet apart each way. I found this was quite close enough, as in about eight months the plants were touching, and at twelve months they were from 10 to 12 feet high. The plants left to seed are just coming into flower (August). This is about sixteen months from time of sowing. Although tagosaste is a very strong growing plant, the foliage is thin and light, and the yield per acre is not anything like what one would expect. It is a most valuable plant in times of drought, but I would not recommend it to be grown on a large scale as a forage plant.

This plot of tagosaste served to show what a mistake it is not to pay more attention to our own native fodder plants, as next to it was a plot of "Old Man" salt-bush (Atriplex nummularia, Linn), sown at the same time, which