34 



here, but however that may be, it is now very common. It is not only 

 very abundant here, but each year api)ears to be increasing. It is 

 regarded as very much of a nuisance, notwithstanding the fact that 

 both its leaves and seed heads make a forage that is eaten and relished 

 by cattle, horses, and sheep. The seeds are especially rich in oil and 

 very. nutritious. It does not suffer, no matter how dry the seasons are, 

 ■which fact suggests that in this section the sunflower, now mucli 

 despised, may be made to cut a rather important tigure in the matter 

 of supplying forage for stock. An improved variety, having heads 

 measuring from 6 to 12 inches in diameter, is being cultivated, the seed 

 being fed to fowls and the fodder to cattle. 



Artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus) is well known in many parts of Texas 

 and grows wild on the banks of a small creek in Eastland County. 

 It bears underground edible tubers that make good hog feed, and both 

 cattle and horses will eat the foliage. It should be cultivated here. 



Blue Weed {Hofmanse[i(/ia stricta), the "Camote del Katon''of the 

 Mexicans. AVithin the past two or three yeais it has appeared iu this 

 part of Texas, and is already regarded by the farmers as a pest. Hav- 

 ing been informed that no cultivated crops would thrive where it grew, 

 an investigation demonstrated the incorrectness of this popular belief. 

 It grows iu soils strongly imi)regnated wirh alkali, where such crops 

 as wheat, oats, corn, and garden vegetables and vines will not thrive. 

 This fact explains why they and the blue weed are rarely found grow- 

 ing together. A speciuieu was sent to the Department of Agriculture 

 for examination by the Botanist, who says of it "I have received com- 

 plaints of this plant, as a weed, from Anson, Jones County, and Mur- 

 ray, Young County, Tex. In both instances it is stated that the 

 tubers are eaten by hogs and the foliage by cattle in dry weather. I 

 do not know of any method of exterminating it other than by cultiva- 

 tion and thick seeding with crops that will choke it out. It is proba- 

 ble that grazing with sheep during dry weather would check the 

 growth somewhat, but I do not think that it could be entirely exter- 

 minated by this means." It forms long creeping roots bearing fleshy 

 tubers. From these tubers the roots branch out indefinitely. In the 

 digging of a well near Escota, Fisher County, roots of blue weed with 

 the tubers were found growing thirteen feet below the surface. As the 

 blue weed will produce an abundance of forage and both the foliage and 

 tlie tubers are eaten by stock it may be wortli experimenting with in 

 alkali soils. The tubers, however, are produced at such depths that it 

 would be diflicult to harvest them. 



Wild Verbena (/y/2^j>*Vf nodifiora). — A farmer and stockman of Jones 

 County, who has about an acre of ground thickly covered with this 

 plant, regards it quite as valual)le for forage as an acre of alfalfa. He 

 insists that it is a clover, and that it is identical with the i)rairie clover 

 that is found growing a little farther west; but in this of course he 

 is mistaken. The seed heads of the two are somewhat similar in 



