THE NEW FODDER PLANT. 



THE VEGETABLE WONDER OF THE SEASON. 



SAC A Li N E Polygon urn Sachalinense. 



A LFALFA must talk less and show more of mod- 

 /\ esty. Fish stories pale beside the tales of the 

 new vegetable wonder. Even the glories of 

 irrigation are of little avail in comparison with what 

 this new forage plant, Sacaline, promises to do for 

 agriculture in the drouth-stricken region. Veritable 

 forests of fodder may replace the long time favorite 



remarkably well. We have had no rain to speak of 

 since the latter part of July, but this plant is as green 

 at the end of September as it was early in July. The 

 root stock of this plant is sent out in all directions. 

 The original plant has been in a dry place for many 

 years, but in all this time it has not once been killed 

 back. It is a remarkable grower. Early in June stalks 



A TYPICAL PLANT OF SACALINE. 



bunch-grass of the dry mesas. Such at least is the 

 inference that one draws from the descriptions of 

 the latest aspirant for high rank among the forage 

 plants. And it has high indorsements from men 

 whose word may not be gainsaid. Prof. L. H. Bailey, 

 the conservative botanist and horticulturist at the 

 Cornell University Experiment Station, "believes that 

 it will be a good thing for some parts of the country.'' 

 Prof. J. L. Budd, of the Iowa Agricultural College, 

 considers it as " very valuable in the dry West as a 

 forage plant." London Garden says that "cattle are 

 exceedingly fond of it," and that "as a forage plant 

 it has an assured future.'' Its analysis compares favor- 

 ably with clover and alfalfa. The various other Eng- 

 lish, French and German horticultural journals praise 

 it highly. Prof. L. H. Pammel of the Iowa Agricul- 

 tural College writes as follows in Garden and Forest : 

 " It is not only perfectly hardy in Central Iowa, as 

 far as cold is concerned, but it stands the dry weather 



were fourteen feet high. What is needed in the West 

 is a plant that can be used in August and September 

 when pastures are nearly always short. If the first 

 and second crops could be used for the silo (it is said 

 they can), the crop in August and September would 

 be excellent for immediate use. 1 ' 



Charles Baltet, a well-known French agriculturist, 

 says of it in the American Agriculturist : " The severe 

 drouth which Europe passed through this year, will, I 

 think, enable horticulture to come to the aid of agri- 

 culture with a new forage plant, giving such help as 

 it did to vine-growing twenty-five years ago, in in- 

 troducing the practice of grafting vines on the phyl- 

 loxera-proof American stocks. The proposed plant 

 is the Saghalin knot-weed, Polygonum Sachalinense, 

 called in France Sacaline, a perennial plant, hardy 

 and vigorous.bearing with equal indifference extreme 

 of heat in summer and cold in winter. We have cul- 

 tivated this plant since its introduction into France, 



