MISCELLANEOUS PLANTS. 225 



Spurry. — Spurry (Spergula arvcnsis) is a 

 quick growing plant which may be raised success- 

 fully on lands too light and hungry to produce good 

 crops of clover even where the climatic conditions 

 are suitable. It has special adaptation for the light 

 soils of Great Britain and in Denmark, Holland, 

 Belgium and some parts of Germany and Russia it 

 is extensively grown as pasture for cattle and sheep. 

 It is also grown as soiling food, as fodder and as 

 green manure. 



Spurry is a little plant with innumerable 

 branches and foliage very fine in character. It 

 seldom grows to a greater hight than twenty inches, 

 and the average hight is considerably less. The 

 plants have some resemblance to those of flax and 

 the same is true of the seeds. The blossoms are 

 white and are very tiny. The stems interlace some- 

 what so that one is apt to trip in walking through 

 a field of spurry in an advanced stage of growth. It 

 is frequently ready for being pastured or cut as soil- 

 ing food in from six to eight weeks from the date of 

 sowing the seed. 



The attempts made at the Minnesota Uni- 

 versity experiment farrn to grow spurry have not 

 met with much success. Those made on the light 

 sandy soils at Grayling, Mich., have been more 

 successful. The highest success in growing the 

 plant in the United States will probably be attained 

 on light sandy soils and under climatic conditions 

 which furnish ample moisture. Whether it will 

 ever be grown at all extensively in this country, in 

 providing soiling food, cannot now be predicted with 

 certaint)^ But it is highly probable that it will be 



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