21 



other winter feed for his stock, he was gravely apprehensive that he 

 would lose a great uiuuy of them before the early spriug weeds and 

 grasses would appear; but his range, it seems, was well seeded with 

 the tallow weed, which continued to grow all the winter, and not only 

 ke])t his stock alive but fattened them. He declares that when the 

 -spring opened he had beef steers fat enough to be put on the market, 

 fattened entirely on this plant. A sheep raiser of Tom Green County, 

 in 1892, had his sheep on a ranch that was in both Tom Green and 

 Crockett counties. During the early winter of that year his ranch on 

 the Concho Eiver, in Tom Green County, where he was then holding 

 his sheep, was overflowed and he lost all the hay and grain he had laid 

 up as winter feed for his stock. The roads from his ranch to the rail- 

 road were impassable on account of the frequent and heavy rains. 

 Practically all the grass on his Concho River ranch was rotted by the 

 rains. By midwinter his sheep were so thin that it looked as though 

 most of them would die from starvation before spring. Early in Janu- 

 ary he started his sheep to this Tom Green and Crockett County ranch. 

 He found there, early in January, quite a large proportion of this range 

 covered with tallow weed just beginning to bloom. Up to that time he 

 had no knowledge of its habits and value, but as his sheep ate it with 

 evident relish; as there was nothing else for them he permitted them 

 to eat their fill of it. In a short time they showed signs of imi)rove-- 

 ment and by the first of March, when the weed was in full bloom, they 

 were in satisfactory condition. Naturally this rancher is a firm believer 

 in the tallow weed, which, according to him, "will put more tallow on 

 the kidneys of any kind of stock than the same bulk of any other forage 

 plant that ever grew in any country under the sun." So far as known 

 the tallow weed has never been cultivated in this section, and as it 

 rarely grows very tall on the range no effort has been made to cut it 

 for hay. In a cultivated field it will grow tall enough to be cut for hay 

 which will be equal to the best. No chemical analysis of tallow weed 

 has been made, but a forage plant that \^ill, while green, fatten sheep 

 and cattle, without other feed, in the winter and early spring must when 

 properly cured prove very nutritious. 



Fall Tallow Weed {Amhlyolepis ,setif/era). — Found in October grow- 

 ing luxuriantly, protected by a .brush fence, on a ranch about 5 miles 

 north of Abilene. When within 200 yards of the spot where it was 

 growing the familiar, rich, j)ungent, thoroughly agreeable perfume 

 characteristic of the true tallow weed [AcUnella linearifoUa) could be 

 recognized. That found as above stated was growing much after the 

 habit of the clovers. It promises to be a superior hay producer, and 

 may be recommended for cultivation by farmers and stockmen. 



Careless "Weed {Atri2)le.v ohovatnm) grows anywhere and everywhere 

 all over central Texas. It often grows in soils too strong with alkali for 

 grasses. While not stating authoritatively that it prefers alkali soils, 

 yet it does thrive under such conditions, and the suggestion is ventured 



