1895 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



273 



SACALINE— THE NEW AND WONDERFUL FOR- 



AGE-PI.ANT. 



I find that much interest seems to be center- 

 ing in this new plant. I have already seen it 

 growing at the Florida Experiment Station, at 

 Lake City. While it does certainly promise a 

 good deal, the statements we find in the seed- 

 catalogs are, without question, greatly exag- 

 gerated. As an illustration, the following is 

 copied from a circular, with cut: 



Is perfectly hardy, even in Siberia— Flourishes in the Indies. 



Requires no plowing before plant inij. 



Needs no cultivation, no manuring, no replanting. 



Roots ))enetrate deep into the soil. 



Once planted, stands for ever. 



Endures severest drouth with impunity. 



Grows in poorest soils. Luxuriates in wet lands. 



Thrives where no other forage-plant will grow. 



Young shoots and leaves eaten as a vegetable. 



Stems and leaves, green or dry, greatly relished by cattle, 



sheep, and horses. 



More nutritious than clover or lucerne. 



Gives three and four cuttings per year. 



Produces 90 to 180 tons uf green forage per acre. 



,. Grows 14 feet high by June. 



Excellent soil-enricher. Planted at any time. 



Affords shade to cattle in summer. 



Protection against storms in winter. 



Floods will not destroy it. Fire will not kill it. 



Cattle can not trample it out. 



Seed has been sold at .$10tO per pound. 



Indorsed by the highest authorities. 



Stock is limited. Some who have tested it 

 claim that their stock will not eat it. This 

 may be because they have been too well fed. 

 It may be, also, that they have not learned 

 how, or have not acquired a taste for it. The 

 wild cattle in Florida will not even eat corn 

 meal or bran, without "learning the trade;" 

 and a cow that is dying with starvation would 

 die all the same if ears of corn were all around 

 her. Under very favorable circumstances, the 

 plant may grow from 12 to 14 feet high, and so 

 will a good variety of field corn down on the 

 rich corn-bottom land of Missouri — at least, it 

 comes pretty near that. The claims, however, 

 of ■'liO to 180 tons of green forage per acre," I 

 should say, are away ofi" — that is, if we are to 

 understand by the above that this enormous 

 product will be eaten by "cattle, sheep, and 

 horses." 



You will notice the plant is said to be hardy 

 from Siberia to the Indies. Well, when I saw 

 it in Florida, toward the first week in March, 

 the growth of last year was all killed down to 

 the ground— killed, I suppose, by the frost; 

 but new shoots had started up, some of them a 

 foot away from the original plant. These 

 shoots were from 3 to 6 inches in height. By 

 permission I picked some of them, and felt cer- 

 tain by the taste that all kinds of stock will eat 

 it— at least, in this stage — and I also think it 

 likely it might be cooked like asparagus. As 

 to whether one would want to eat it unless he 

 was very hungry, will have to be tested by ex- 

 periment. 



SACALINE {Polygonum, Snchaltnense) the new forage and honey plant. 



It will, without doubt, grow from 6 to 10 feet 

 high in a season, on any tolerable soil, when 

 well started; and I believe cows and horses will 

 eat it to some extent when it is young and ten- 

 der, especially after they learn how. In this 

 respect it is something like sweet clover. It 

 takes a year or two, if I am correct, for it to 

 get firmly rooted. After that it makes this 

 tremendous and extraordinary growth. We 

 can furnish the seed in five-cent packets, but 



Last, but not least, there are reports floating 

 around that sacaline is a great honey-plant. 

 I can not find out any thing very definite in 

 regard to it. There do not seem to be any 

 "posies" in the picture, but perhaps the plant 

 had not got quite tall enough to bear honey 

 when the photograph was taken. 



We will give further reports in regard to it as 

 soon as we get hold of any thing really au- 

 thentic. 



