66 



STOCK BADGES OF NORTHWESTERN CALIFORNIA. 



spring. The burs are offered for sale by San Francisco seedsmen, or 

 can readily be collected in great quantity in the counties around San 

 Francisco Bay, where it is abundant. 



California lotus or Dakota vetch (Lotus americanus or Hosackia 

 pursliiana) (fig. 3), on account of the lateness of its growing sea- 

 son, is considered valuable as a range forage plant, helping to fill 

 the gap between the drying up of the ripened annual grasses and the 

 starting of the new autumn growth. It is thoroughly at home on dry 

 upland ranges, occasionally growing even among chaparral. Seed of 



the California lotus is not on the 

 market and must be collected in its 

 native habitat. 



Creeping bent (Agrostis alba sto- 

 lonifera) is a valuable perennial pas- 

 ture grass, making a good bottom 

 growth. On account of its running 

 rootstocks it is useful for mixing 

 with less distinctly turf-forming spe- 

 cies. It is not a productive hay 

 grass. Creeping bent requires a 

 moist soil, and is most likely to suc- 

 ceed in the mountain A'alleys. 



Diss (Ampelodesmos tena.x) is a 

 tall, coarse species from the arid re- 

 gions of Xorth Africa which was in- 

 troduced by the Agricultural Experi- 

 ment Station at Berkeley a few years 

 ago. Seeds of this plant were later 

 received from Professor MacOwan, 

 of the Agricultural Department of 

 Cape Colony, as of "a forage plant; " 

 shortly afterwards the writer learned 

 through a correspondent in Lake 

 County that he had received seed of the original distribution made by 

 the station and that the plant had proved remarkably successful with 

 him, producing a great deal of forage on dry, chaparral-covered hill- 

 sides where no other forage plants would grow, and that it was greedily 

 eaten by stock. 



Field peas (Pisum a r reuse) are already grown along the coast for 

 feeding to dairy cows during the dry summer months. Still greater 

 use can be made of this sweet, palatable, and very nutritious fodder 

 plant with the increasing use of the silo, as it makes an excellent 

 quality of ensilage. As a ration for stock, ensilage of oats and peas 

 mixed is considered almost unrivaled. Some reported failures with 

 trial crops of field peas are probably due to the use of weevil-damaged 

 seed, and careful examination of the seed should be made before pur- 



FiG. 3.— Dakota vetch (Lotus americanus) 



