45 



aocl ripening early, other crops may be grown on the same land during 

 the summer 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 sown by farmers without being cleared 

 from the burs or pods. One serious objection to 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 denticalata is mentioned by Professor Watson in his 

 Botany of California as being found in that State. 



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



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, hut is not sought after by stock until the other clovers and alfilaria are 

 gone. 



Daniel Griswold, Westminster, Los Angeles County, California : 



It is grown in all the lower valleys of the southern counties of California wherever 

 the land is not very salty, hut 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, California: 



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. Stock 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 their 

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

 hay. 



S. H. McGinues, Belmont, Tex. : 



The California Bur Clover does well here, making good hay and pasture. It conies 

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

 of seed (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. Reed, 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 pas- 

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

 the burs left on the ground. The plaut reseeds itself, but the ground should be 

 plowed and harrowed in August to secure an early winter pasture. It matures the 

 first of June, after w r hich 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 winter and summer grazing. I have grown vines G£ 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 bet- 

 ter if it did, as Bur Clover is a winter plant. 



