154 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XT 



freely ; the fallen seeds, and subsequent seedlings, being protected by the- 

 low-spreading mass of the plant. Some individual plants have, in Califor- 

 nia, attained a diameter of 18 feet in one year, much exceeding in growth 

 the parent plants in Australia. A very large amount of fodder is thus- 

 produced, and in one case a yield 13 reported of 30 tons per acre of green 

 forage. The green forage can be easily handled and made into hay, a special' 

 merit of this variety being that it is procumbent, and the stems are tender 

 and flexible ; whereas most of the other varieties of salt-bush beiDg shrubby 

 and erect, are only suitable for browsing. This hay has a high nutritive value, 

 its protein content being twice that noted for wheat hay. Next to the sal:~- 

 bushes the Chilean plant Jlodiola decumbens , of the mallow family, deserves 

 attention as a means of removing salt from alkali land. It grows very freely,, 

 and is relished by cattle. Then there is the Tussock grass (Sporobohc& 

 airoides), which stock will eat ; and the various alkali weeds, such as the 

 " Grease woods " (Samphires), and the Alkali grass (Dtstichlis spicata). 

 Smooth Brome grass {Bromus inermis) is also highly recommended in Circular- 

 No. 18. " Its drought-resisting qualities have proved it to be the most valu- 

 able grass for dry regions where ether grasses could hardly exist." I observe 

 also that the Argentine salt-bush (A triplex pamparurii) is favourably noticed'. 



PROPOSED INDIAN RESEARCH. 



9. Such being, in brief, the result of American investigations, there 

 remains the question : What practical steps should now be taken in order to> 

 utilise these conclusions, and obtain foi India the twc-fold benefit, of 

 abundant fodder for cattle, and ihe reclamation c-f " usar " land ? Before 

 applying American experience to Indian requirements, care must be taken 

 to ascertain how far the physical conditions of the two regions are identical ; 

 and for this purpose it is necessary that the tests of chemical analysis, and 

 botanical experiment, should be applied in India with the same scientific ac« 

 curacy that has been employed in America. It seems probable that the salts, 

 both noxious and nutritive, contained in the " usar " seilare similar to those in 

 the alkali lands of California. But in order to proceed with safety an exact 

 analysis should be made in the different Indian Provinces interested. If by 

 such analysis phosphates and nitrates are found to exist in abundance, it will 

 be evident that experiments with artificial manures and night-soil may be at 

 once abandoned ; while the presence of carbonate will show that treatment 

 with gypsum, or some analogous substance, is called for to neutralise the 

 mischief to plant life. Then there is in India a wide field for botanic ex- 

 periment, by reason of the varieties of soil and climate in the different 

 provinces ; and with the large choice of forage plants offered by the con- 

 tinents of Asia, America, and Australia, there should be no difficulty in 

 ultimately discovering the forms of vegetation best suited to Indian require- 

 ments. Atriplex semihaccata should have a promineut place in these botanical 

 experiments, care being taken to avoid past errors as regards its location 



