222 FARM CROPS 



ailments better than the other wheat varieties. It 

 has another good quahty — its ability to hold the 

 grain in the spike. Common wheat shatters very 

 easily, but spelt never shatters. It is not believed 

 that there is much future for spelt in this 

 country. 



SPURRY. — A plant highly esteemed as a pasture 

 for cattle and sheep and for its fodder. It has been 

 found specially valuable as a pasture for sheep and 

 milch cows. Animals pastured on it are not liable 

 to injury from bloat. Though they may not take 

 kindly to the pasture at the first, they soon get ex- 

 ceedingly fond of it, both in the green and cured 

 form. It also has good milk-producing and fatten- 

 ing properties. 



Spurry is a tiny-like plant which grows from a 

 few inches to fully 20 inches in height,, according 

 to the soil. The variety that has come into the 

 market under the name of giant spurry is simply 

 the ordinary spurry. It is not capable of making 

 a stronger growth than ordinary spurry, as the name 

 would indicate. The stems of spurry are numerous 

 and exceedingly branched. They are fine in char- 

 acter, and they so interlace as to make it difficult 

 to walk through the crop in an advanced stage of 

 growth without tripping. The flowers are very 

 many, are not more than one-eighth of an inch in 

 diameter and are white in color. The seeds are 

 small. They are contained in small seed heads 

 resembling those of fiax, but not more than half as 

 large. They vary from dark brown to black in 

 color. The plants seed profusely. On some soils 

 the yield of fodder has been estimated as equal to 

 that of clover, but ordinarily it would not be so 

 much. 



