The Australian Saltbush. 5 
resisting power may make it worthy of consideration by some peo¬ 
ple in this State. In our eastern counties, I have seen Russian 
thistle hay and have been informed that it was highly prized. I 
took this statement cum grono sells because the hay did not look to 
me as though it were fit to be eaten by any kind of stock and I saw 
no proof that the stock liked it. Mr. Payne, of Akron, suggests 
that Russian thistle hay may have a place in the feed of the plains 
stock as a laxative, for constipation is not uncommon among them. 
The Russian thistle is used to a limited extent in other parts of the 
State for hay making, and inquiry elicited from a thrifty, energetic 
ranchman the information that he had found it entirely unsatistac- 
tory. Further, I have known the saltbush, A. argentea, to have 
been made into hay not for constant use, but as an emergency fodder 
for periods when the stock could not obtain enough to eat, or in¬ 
deed anything by grazing. In sections where forage plants are such 
a desideratum as in these just referred to, any plant having better 
qualities than the indigenous ones or such as have been imported 
would be a blessing. This is really the reason for presenting this 
bulletin, for in this Australian saltbush, A. semihaccc.ta, we have a 
plant which will reproduce itself freely from seed; the little plants 
will bear transplanting quite well; it will resist drought after it is 
well rooted and produce an amount of hay greater than the thistle 
now occasionally used, and of certainly as good or a better quality. 
In the sections of the country to which reference has been made 
small crops of sorghum can be grown, not always enough to be 
called a crop, but sometimes a fair one. This sorghum is not, es¬ 
pecially in the spring of the year, a good fodder. It has no spines, 
as the thistle hay has, but sheep fed on it—sorghum fodder—lost 
weight rapidly. I know nothing about either the yield or quality of 
milo maize, but as compared with the other fodders mentioned, the 
Australian saltbush hay, though not presenting an attractive appear¬ 
ance, is worthy of consideration and that not as a portion of a ration 
but as a fodder to be given alone, for the question presenting itself 
to those persons in Colorado who may find it to their advantage to 
grow this as a forage plant, will in all probability be, not what they 
may mix to produce an advantageous ration, but simply as to what 
they can obtain to feed. The fact that they have used the so-called 
sand grass of the plains, Russian thistle, sunflower, and the native 
saltbush, A triplex argentca, for the purpose of hay making indicates 
clearly that anything as good or better than the best of these, which 
they can grow, is at least a desirable thing for them. 
The study of this plant had another object in view, or perhaps it 
is more nearly correct to state that in the beginning the object was to 
study its merits as a fodder and its adaptability to Colorado condi¬ 
tions, but in the end the object was extended to what we may 
