

to occasionally cut back the shrubs to prevent their growing too 

 high. The leaves and twigs are very nutritious, both cattle and 

 sheep fattening rapidly upon them. This plant should be given a 

 thorough trial in the south-western portions of the United States, 

 for, when once firmly established, the tagasaste plants will with- 

 stand any amount of drought. 



Ddsylirion tcxnninn (Sotol). A fodder plant of the lily family, 

 which occurs throughout western Texas and north-western Mexico. 

 It grows abundantly in the great bend of the Rio Grande, and is 

 there highly esteemed, producing fodder for sheep in the winter 

 season and during periods of extreme drought. The appearance 

 of the plant is something like that of a large pineapple growing on 

 a trunk two to five feet high. The narrow leaves, three to four 

 feet long, and one-third to one-half inch wide, radiate in every 

 direction, forming a rosette at the top of the trunk. The portion 

 eaten is the inner cabbige-like heart, which remains after the spiny 

 leaves have been cut o*if. An analysis of this, made by the chemist 

 of the Department of Agriculture, shows that it contains about 12 

 per cent, of sugar and gum, and about 3 per cent, of crude protein, 

 besides 65 per cent, of water. No attempt has been made to culti- 

 vate sotol, and it is becoming exterminated in many portions of its 

 range. Sheep can exist upon it four or rive months in the winter 

 without access to water, so that it would be an excellent forage 

 plant for dissemination and cultivation in arid regions where the 

 winters are not too severe. 



Desniodiiiin tortiiosinii I), molle (Beggar weed ; Florida beg- 

 gar weed ; cockshead ; Florida clover ; tick trefoil ; West Indian 

 honeysuckle. Fig. 9). An annual leguminous plant, indigenous to 

 Florida and the Gulf States, extending into the West Indies and 

 tropical America. This is undoubtedly one of the very best forage 

 plants for those portions of the United States where it grows. The 

 stems are tall, and, if grown at considerable intervals, are woody, 

 but where seed is scattered thickly over the ground the entire plant 

 can be converted into hay or ensilage. Florida beggar weed springs 

 up naturally in fields wherever the ground has been disturbed, about 

 the middle of June, and matures a crop in seventy-two to eighty 

 days. On sterile clay soils in the vicinity of Washington, D.C., 

 beggar weed grows three to four feet high. In the rich, moist, 

 sandy fields along the Gulf of Mexico it grows from six to ten feet 

 high. Horses, cattle, and mules are very fond of it. Beggar-weed 

 hay contains alv.mt twenty-one per cent, of crude protein. At a 

 yield of ten tons, the amount of fertili/ers contained in a crop 

 Yielded by one acre lias been estimated at : Potash, 80 pounds ; 

 phosphoric acid, 160 pounds ; and ammonia, 400 pounds. It will 

 be seen from this that as a renovator of worn soils, or as a green 

 in, mure, no better or cheaper fertili/.ei can be added to a field than to 

 turn under a rank growth of beggar weed. The tap root descends 

 deeply into the soil, bringing up mineral fertili/ers from the subsoil, 



