The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning. Thursday, September 19, 1889, A WONDERFUL PLANT.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 353, 19 September 1889, Page 2

The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning.

Thursday, September 19, 1889, A WONDERFUL PLANT.

Be just and fear not; Let all the ends thou aim'st at be thy country’s. Thy God’s, and truth’s.

A which is deserving of the attention of the farming interest of this district is that of a new forage plant In regard to which there has been quite a sensation caused in the old world. The plant is said to be of a wonderful nature, growing enormous and most profitable crops on even the poorest soils, and seeming to flourish luxuriantly in any climate. To the Melbourne Leader we are indebted for the following information concerning the plant The plant in question is the Lathyrus Silvestris, and the credit of having brought it to its present state of development, through half a century of constant experimenting and improvement, belongs to Professor Wagner, of Germany. The Lathyrus Silvestris grows in a wild state on the pampas of South America, where it flourishes so luxuriantly that sheep are frequently entangled in it and smothered by its rankness and closeness of growth. In its wild state the seed of the plant is unable to germinate, but after 50 years of the most careful cultivation this difficulty has been completely overcome. The plant belongs to the order of the legumino'io, and as such it is able to forage for itself in regard to nitrogen, of which it obtains abundant supplies, either from the lower strata of coil or from ths boundless atmoepherlo stores, Even on the poorest soils it grows a crop which will yield at least 4 tons of hay per acre, and the nutritive value of the crop, as determined by chemical analysis, is ebout twice as great as that of clover hay. The Prussian Minister of Agriculture has been so deeply impressed with the great value of this plant that a Government order has just been issued, granting to every Prussian land owner who cultivates thia plant on his waste land a subsidy of 30a. per hectare—a hectare being equal to 2$ English standard acres. As a consequence of this imperial recognition of the value of the plant, all the available seed of ths cultivated plant has been bought up at famine prices, but n number of young plants have been reserved for sale by the Lathyrus Bilveatrie Agency, established [at Liverpool for the purpose of introducing the crop into England.