Mat 8, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



693 



berry and Eussian mulberry, are generally 

 known to be adapted for dry-land farming, it 

 is surprising to find that so little attention has 

 been given to the tamarisk as a shrub, or 

 small tree, suitable for hedges and shelter 

 belts, though the experience of the writer has 

 shown it to be absolutely unequaled for this 

 purpose. Only four experiment stations at 

 present come to mind where the tamarisk is 

 grown at all, and, even in these places as a 

 rule, only for ornament or as a curiosity. 

 These are the New Mexico Experiment Sta- 

 tion, the Hays Branch Experiment Station, in 

 Kansas, the Arizona Experiment Station at 

 Tucson, and the Fallon Experimental Farm 

 on the Truckee-Carson Irrigation Project in 

 Nevada. At the last named place, however, it 

 is being employed experimentally and from a 

 practical standpoint because of its qualities 

 above mentioned. 



It is peculiar that the tamarisk is listed by 

 a number of nursery companies as an orna- 

 mental for the humid areas of eastern United 

 States and is commonly employed in that 

 way. Earely is any mention made in nursery 

 catalogues of its adaptability for dry-land 

 conditions. The writer was made acquainted 

 with its drought-resistant qualities accident- 

 ally through having obtained a single speci- 

 men for planting in a yard in the southwestern 

 plains. It was soon found to be by far the 

 most drought-resistant and otherwise hardy 

 of all the trees and shrubs planted on the 

 same land, including about twenty species. 

 There appears to be no limit in dryness of the 

 soil on any usual Great Plains' farm beyond 

 which this plant will not survive. It is also 

 best fitted for saline soils of all plants yet 

 known to the writer. It has an extremely 

 rapid growth, and, by branching out close to 

 the ground, produces an excellent close hedge 

 which will soon turn some kinds of stock even 

 with its absence of thorns. None of the spe- 

 cies known to the writer grow very tall, not 

 ordinarily more than twenty feet, though two 

 rather old specimens have been observed near 

 the courthouse at Taseosa, Texas, 12 to 15 

 inches in diameter. 



To the ordinary observer, not a specialist 



in botany, the plant is best described by say- 

 ing that it most resembles asparagus. It has 

 a tendency to make a very scraggy growth 

 and will not grow erect with the lower limbs 

 very far from the ground unless carefully and 

 constantly pruned to that end. Botanically 

 it belongs to the order Tamariscineae. It bears 

 very small scale-like leaves and small pink or 

 white flowers, which are either four or five 

 parted. 



On the land above mentioned, situated in 

 the western portion of the Texas Panhandle, 

 the writer has tried the method (also sug- 

 gested by the editor of The OMahoma Farm 

 Journal) of dividing cultivated ground into 

 narrow fields several times as long as broad, 

 extending with their greatest dimensions east 

 and west, and planting narrow belts of trees 

 on the south sides of these fields to check the 

 blowing of the soil, which method, so far, is 

 found to be excellent. The trees employed in 

 planting these belts were usually black locust, 

 honey locust, Osage orange and Eussian mul- 

 berry, but it is now the practise to plant 

 tamarisk as the first row on the south side of 

 each of these belts. 



An interesting thing about tamarisk, and 

 of the greatest importance where these trees 

 are adapted and where nursery stock is not 

 easily obtained, is the fact that the plant can 

 be readily and rapidly propagated by means 

 of cuttings. After two or three years' growth, 

 therefore, of from one to one dozen specimens 

 there need be no further purchase of stock, 

 as there is then plenty of material in the way 

 of cuttings from these trees for all ordinary 

 planting purposes. If advantage is taken of 

 an opportunity to put the cuttings in the 

 ground just after a rain, no further attention 

 is needed other than good cultivation, and 

 during an average season on the driest farms 

 in the Great Plains the trees will thereafter 

 succeed without any question. 



In the Kew Index there are listed about 

 seventy species of tamarisk which are found in 

 various parts of the world, but none are native 

 in North America and, apparently, only a half 

 dozen at most are found in Europe. Alfred 

 Rehder has given a good account of the genus 



