78 Brigade- Surgeon J. E, T. Aitchison's Notes on Products 



pod ; tlie branches of the cultivated willows, and of the Jujube, 

 ZizYPHUS VULGARIS, in early sjjring whilst other green fodder is 

 scarce. 



III. The following plants are hurtful, if not actually 

 poisonous, as fodder. 



Nerium odorum. 

 Stellera Lbssertii. 



IV. Animals will not eat — 



sophora pachycarpa. 

 Ammothamnus Lehmanni. 



NiTRARIA SCHOBBRI. 



Zygophyllum, species. 



Cercis Siliquastrum. 



Tkigonella FcENUM-GRiECUM, Medicago sativa, and 

 Trifolium eesupinatum are cultivated as fodder, chiefly for 

 the use of horses and mules. These are usually grown in 

 orchards under the shade of trees ; they are given either in 

 the green state freshly cut or as hay. Owing to the rapidity 

 of drying in this climate this hay retains its green colour, 

 and is much relished by all cattle. It is sold in the bazaars 

 twisted in the form of ropes, and made up into small bundles 

 convenient for both buyer and seller. During early summer 

 barley in a young green state is much employed as fodder. 

 In winter the crushed straw of wheat and barley, and of 

 the various pulses are the usual fodder supply of the country, 

 to which occasionally the refuse from the various oil seeds, after 

 the oil has been extracted, is added. The most important 

 of the indigenous plants collected for fodder is a large thistle- 

 like herb, Gundelia Tournefortii ; this, as already stated, 

 covers vast tracts of country to the exclusion of all other 

 plants; from its general fierce spinous condition it appears 

 whilst growing as quite unfit for fodder ; this, however, is not 

 the case. In autumn the whole plant rapidly dries, and in this 

 condition easily breaks up, when it is collected and housed, 

 or stacked, and employed as winter fodder for sheep and 

 goats. It is so abundant that except the carriage there is 

 little difficulty in collecting any quantity of it. In Persian 

 territory I saw it being stacked in the localities where it 

 grew for future transport to the villages. The turnip-like 

 roots of Crambe cordifolia are largely collected in the Bad- 

 ghis, at the nomad encampments, and are stored as turnips 

 are in Scotland, for the use of camels during the most 



