93 



without interfering with the next growth of the clover. The clover is 

 usually allowed to reseed itself. But little of the seed is sold in the 

 market, and it is usually sowitTby farmers without being cleared from 

 the burs, or pods. One serious objection io the plant is the liability of 

 the burs to infest the wool of sheep. 



There is another species, called spotted medick (Medicago maculata), 

 which is often confused with this, and is probably the more common 

 east of the Eocky Mountains, but the two are much alike and of about 

 the same agricultural value. 



Only Medicago dcnticulata is mentioned by Professor Watson in his 

 Botany of California as being found in that State. 



J. W. Alesworth, Slack Canyon, Monterey County, Cal. : 



On the coast, where the climate is moist, bur clover makes a rank growth and is 

 considered good feed late in the season. My place being 40 miles from the coast 

 and 1,410 feet in altitude it only grows here to a limited extent, though it is gradually 

 extending. When I came to this place, in 1870, there was none here. Bur clover is 

 good, rich feed, but is not sought after by stock until the other clovers and aliilaria 

 are gone. w 



Daniel Griswold, Westminster, Los Angeles County, Cal. : 



It is grown in all the lower valleys of California wherever the land is not very 

 salty, but scarcely any is found in the high valleys. It grows large and falls down 

 and curls around so that it is very difficult to mow, but all stock eat it on the ground, 

 green or dry. The seed is never saved, though it is produced abundantly. 



O. F. Wright, Temescal, San Bernardino County, Cal. : 



It grows here abundantly on high lands, with alfilaria. These are the only plants 

 on such lands that cattle will eat. They are never killed by cold here, but die when 

 dry weather comes. Slock pick on the bur clover while growing (from January to 

 June), and after it dies they hunt for the burs which are on the ground, and in (heir 

 efforts to get them they roll the old dry stems into rolls often as big as windrows of 

 hay. 



S. H. McGinnes, of Belmout, Tex. : 



The California bur clover does well here, making good hay and pasture. It comes 

 up in October and ripens in May. It takes but very few bunches to produce a bushel 

 of seeds (burs) and it only has to be planted once. Horses and hogs do well upon the 

 burs after they ripen and fall off. 



Edwin C. Eeed, Meridian, Miss. : 



Bur clover has been grown here to a limited extent, and a few who have grown it 

 twelve or fifteen years find it all that could be desired for winter and spring past- 

 ure. All stock eat it freely when they acquire a taste for it, and sheep and hogs eat 

 the burs left on the ground. The plant reseeds it self, but the ground should be plowed 

 and harrowed in August to secure an early winter pasture. It matures the 1st of 

 June, after which peas may be broadcasted on the same land, when it will require no 

 fall plowing. On rich lands it sometimes seeds in Bermuda beds, affording both win- 

 ter and summer grazing. I have grown vines 6| feet long, hip high, and as thick as 

 it could stand. I prize it above all other winter pastures. It is admirably adapted to 

 the Eocene formation, where red clover does not succeed, and it is far better if it 

 did, as bur clover is a winter plant. 



