748 



THE IKRIGATION AGE. 



proved itself of great value in California, where Prof. 

 Charles Shinn made an extended report of it. Doctor 

 Headden, in Colorado, has grown the plants and investi- 

 gated their feeding value. He thinks this one of the valu- 

 able dry land forage crops. In California it produced over 

 five and one-half tons per acre of fodder, where the rain- 

 fall was less than five inches per annum. This salt bush 

 spreads on the ground, so it is hard to mow for hay, and 

 its great value is as pasture. It becomes an annual where 

 the winters are cold, but produces large amounts of seed, 

 and in Colorado reseeded and maintained itself for five 

 seasons. It is very rich in protein and takes out of the 

 soil a large amount of mineral matter, as it contains seven- 

 teen per cent of ash. This salt bush spreads on the 

 ground, so its seeds must be planted very shallow. It 

 is difficult to get a stand, but after once started it grows 

 under very unfavorable conditions. Salt sages are espe- 

 cially valuable for alkali soils. 



White Sweet Clover. 



Bokhara or white sweet clover is a plant which is 

 much despised as a weed. Its good qualities are neither 

 known nor understood. In our opinion it is one of the 

 most valuable plants for certain conditions which we can 

 grow in the West. It has qualities which make it a most 

 desirable weed to occupy the waste places on the farm. 

 On irrigated farms, which are properly managed, this 

 clover never becomes a troublesome weed in the fields. It 

 does become more or less troublesome, however, in some 

 dry farm areas, because it is persistent and will spread 

 even in the native sod. Its qualities are, its great hardi- 

 ness; it will grow on soils too poor for other crops and 

 also on strong alkali soilsjit will stand more drouth than any 

 other clover; it is hardy enough to produce well at our 

 higher altitudes and is so strong in its growth that it will 

 produce a large amount of vegetation to plow under as a 

 green manure. 



Sweet clover is one of the strongest nitrogen-gather- 

 ing legumes. The bacteria on the roots of sweet clover 

 are said to be the same as those which live on the roots 

 of alfalfa, and soil from sweet clover land can be used to 

 innoculate alfalfa fields with the nitrogen-gathering bac- 

 teria. We have never examined sweet clover roots with- 

 out finding the nodules. On this account it is one of the 

 very best plants to grow for enriching the soil in nitrogen. 



Sweet clover makes a stock feed which is valuable if 

 it is properly treated. Breeding this plant has been com- 

 menced with the hope of producing a variety which will 

 not have the bitter and sweet flavor which makes it un- 

 palatable to stock. As it is, hay properly cured and fed, 

 give remarkably good results. A number of cattle men 

 have testified that they had little difficulty teaching their 

 stock to eat sweet clover hay and that they did well on 

 it. In some experiments carried out at the Wyoming Ex- 

 periment Station, sweet clover hay was fed to fattening 

 lambs with corn and other grain, and the butcher who. 

 dressed the lambs testified that they were the heaviest and 

 fattest he ever saw. 



Sweet clover is one of the best honey plants known. 



Its general appearance on a place and its values, as 

 indicated, makes sweet clover better as a weed, filling up 

 the waste places, than Russian Thistle, cow weed or a 

 host of more pernicious and worthless plants. 



Making Sweet Clover Hay. 



Sweet clover should be planted thick. Use twenty-five 

 or thirty pounds of seed per acre if planted for hay. It 

 must be cut when young, before the plants get coarse and 

 woody. The green plants are full of juice and the hay 

 must be cured in the wind-row or in small cocks. It should 

 be allowed to get quite dry before putting it in the stack. 

 When stacked, sprinkle in the hay five to eight pounds of 

 salt to each load, then let the hay stand in the stack two 

 years before feeding it. This method of curing hay two 

 years is little used in the United States, but it is a com- 

 mon practice in England to pay a premium for horse hay 

 which is two years old. Sweet clover hay is both strong in 

 flavor and richer in protein than any other plant we have 

 grown. Chemical analyses in Wyoming showed eighteen 

 per cent of protein. This indicates that the hay is very 

 rich. On account of this richness it must be fed with care 

 in order to make stock eat it successfully. If fed too 



much, animals will as quickly lose their appetite for it as 

 they would if overfed with grain or other rich food. 



Sweet clover is a biennial plant. It lives only two 

 years and the whole plant dies. Because of this fact good 

 farmers need never fear the plant as a weed. If not 

 allowed to go to seed the second year it will entirely dis- 

 appear. We recommend the planting of sweet clover on 

 grease-wood, alkali or other poor soils, letting it grow 

 only one to two feet high the second season and plowing 

 it under to increase the vegetable mold and nitrogen in 

 the soil. 



Dwarf Rape. 



Dwarf rape is one of the valuable forage plants to be 

 grown in the West. Its use is entirely as late fall and 

 early winter pasture. This is an alkali resistant plant of 

 much value for such portions of the farm as are unpro- 

 ductive for other crops through the rise of alkali. Only 

 dwarf rape should be planted. Other varieties have no 

 value except for bird seed. Rape grows best in the cooler 

 portions of the year, and although a hard frost will stop 

 its growth, it does not destroy its value as feed. It may 

 be planted either broadcast or in drills, using from two 

 to four pounds of seed per acre. It is useful as a catch 

 crop to be sown in the grain field for the production of 

 pasture after the grain has been harvested. As a forage 

 it is especially valuable for sheep and hogs. Cattle like 

 and do well on rape pasture. It will not do for milch 

 cows, because milk and butter become tainted. The dairy 

 products will seem all right for from twelve to twenty- 

 lour hours after they are first fresh, but in a day or two 

 they develop most unpleasant odors and flavors where 

 rape is pastured. Rape is an annual plant, so it is neces- 

 sary to sow it each year. Stock will sometimes eat too 

 much of it if turned into a field when hungry, and in such 

 case it causes bloat. Sow rape any time up to the first 

 of July. No doubt the fattening qualities of rape have 

 been exaggerated, but as pasture or a forage to be used 

 in connection with other foods, it will give good returns 

 for the cost of raising. 



As yet Kohlrabi is little known in the West, but it 

 is a crop which will be valuable for stock forage. It is 

 usually grown in gardens and used as a table vegetable. 

 Kohlrabi is one of the more drouth-resistant plants of the 

 cabbage family, which produces thickened stems above the 

 ground. The thickened stem and leaves are valuable stock 

 feed. It grows with comparatively little moisture, and 

 may be either harvested and fed to stock for soiling or 

 pastured in the fall. The seed should be planted the same 

 as turnips, preferably in drills, and may be planted in the 

 early spring in the open ground or the plants raised in 

 boxes and transplanted. 



Grass for Pasture. 



In the farming sections of the West, where alfalfa is 

 largely grown, there is increasing interest in grass pas- 

 tures for cattle and sheep, which will be safer than alfalfa 

 pasture, and which will produce more than our native 

 grass lands. The percentage loss of cattle or sheep pas- 

 tured on green alfalfa is too great. Some ranchmen are 

 becoming interested in growing early lambs for market on 

 their farms and others are milking cows where open range 

 is limited or not available. Sage brush range or native 

 weeds do not give nourishment enough and also do much 

 to reduce profit and pleasure from the use of the milk, 

 cream, or butter, and milk from cows on such pasturage 

 is unfit for the manufacture of cheese. There is real 

 demand, therefore for tame grasses to be sown for pasture 

 alone. 



There are many pasture grasses which succeed in the 

 West, and some are more suitable for their localities than 

 others. We have found none which produce a large 

 amount of feed without irrigation or moisture conservation 

 on our dry uplands. There are many places, however, 

 where winter rye succeeds without irrigation. If planted 

 early in September, winter rye will produce considerable 

 winter and early spring pasture, and the early rains sup- 

 ply moisture enough to mature a crop of grain. Several 

 of the native grasses, notably the Western Wheat-Grass, 

 can be greatly increased in unirrigated meadows by seed- 

 ing and harrowing. Under irrigation, even though there 

 may be only water enough for winter flooding, or a single 

 (Continued on page 753) 



