UTILIZATION AND RECLAMATION OF ALKALI LANDS. 469 



Saltbushes, and Herbaceous Crops. 



Australian Saltbushes. Experience in California indicates 

 that in the more southerly portion of the arid region, un- 

 palatable native plants may be largely replaced, even on the 

 ranges, by one or more species of the Australian saltbushes 

 (Atriplex spp.}< long ago recommended by Baron von Mueller 

 of Melbourne; of which one (A. seinibaccata} has proved emi- 

 nently adapted to the climate and soil of California and is 

 readily eaten by all kinds of stock. The facility with which it 

 is propagated, its quick development, the large amount of feed 

 yielded on a given area, even on the strongest alkali land ordi- 

 narily found, and its thin, flexible stems, permitting it to be 

 handled very much like alfalfa, seem to commend it especially 

 to the farmers' consideration wherever better forage plants can- 

 not be grown and the climate will permit of its use. It does 

 not, however, resist the severe cold of the interior plateau 

 country, and is wholly out of place in the Pacific Coast region 

 where summer fogs prevail. Most of the other Australian 

 species have an upright, shrubby habit, which adapts them bet- 

 ter to browsing than to pasture proper. The same is true of 

 the Argentine species (A. Cachiyuyum), which in its native 

 pampas is highly esteemed for that purpose, and succeeds well 

 in California. Of other Australian saltbushes, A. halimoides, 

 vesicaria and Icptocarpa are the most promising; the latter is 

 somewhat similar in habit to the semibaccata, but is not as 

 vigorous a grower. Since some of the saltbushes take up 

 nearly one fifth of their dry weight of ash ingredients, 1 largely 

 common salt, the complete removal from the land of a five-ton 

 crop of saltbush hay will take away nearly a ton of the alkali 

 salts per acre. This will in the course of some years be quite 

 sufficient to reduce materially the saline contents of the land, 

 and will frequently render possible the culture of ordinary 

 crops. 



Modiola. Alongside of the saltbushes, the Chilean plant 



1 Analyses made at the California station show 19.37 percent of ash in the air- 

 dry matter of Australian saltbush. (See California Station Bulletin No. 105 ; 

 E. S. R., vol. 6, p. 718). Analyses of Russian thistle have been reported showing 

 over 20 per cent of ash in dry matter. (See Minnesota Sta. Bulletin No. 34; Iowa 

 Sta. Bull. No. 26; E. S. R., vol. 6, pp. 552-553). 



