The: Australian Saltbush. 7 
We have fed it both green and dried, but almost exclusively 
to sheep. In one experiment we fed it to a horse. When fed green 
we had no trouble in inducing a lot of three sheep to eat it. The 
horse had been pasturing on it to some extent before we began feed¬ 
ing it to him as his only fodder. The sheep were fully matured 
animals in good condition; the weather during the time of the ex¬ 
periment, as well as all other conditions under which it was made, 
were altogether favorable. The time of feeding between weighings 
was three weeks. The result was that the lot had neither gained 
nor lost. The horse was not weighed, but we assumed that he 
had not lost materially, if at all; he ate the green fodder readily. 
At first the sheep showed the laxative qualities of the saltbush to a 
slight etxent, but this was of short duration and was at no time 
serious; the horse also showed it at first, but in this case it was 
also of short duration. There is doubtlessly a difference in indi¬ 
vidual animals in regard to the effects of this as well as any other 
fodder and it may be of a little interest to some to know that of the 
three sheep fed in this experiment, one gained a pound, one lost a 
pound, and the third just maintained its weight. 
The green fodder was not analyzed, nor was there any ac¬ 
count taken of the amount of the green fodder eaten; the only care 
taken was that they should have as much of the fresh fodder as 
they would eat. Samples of hay, however, were prepared from 
plants taken from different portions of the plot, as it varied con¬ 
siderably in the character of its soil. This feature of the ex¬ 
periment will not be mentioned further, but it is probably the 
cause of the very considerable variations shown in the analyses 
of these samples. 
The plot of ground on which the saltbush grew was in parts 
as strongly alkalized as any of which I had knowledge and was 
poorly drained, still we had previously grown sugar beets on the 
plot and obtained a yield of 19 tons to the acre and the beets were 
of excellent quality. Some portions of the plot, too, had been 
manured, so that it is quite right that the samples of saltbush hay 
should vary somewhat in their composition if these things have 
any influence on the composition of growing plants. 
As to the amount of hay we would be justified in expecting to 
obtain from an acre, I can give no opinion, as no data on this 
point was obtained. 
I have grown some of this plant for the past eight seasons, 
but at no time since the first season have I had it on a measured 
plot, and the first season I obtained nothing like a good stand. On 
this point I will again quote Bulletin 125 of the California Station: 
‘Tn February, 1896, saltbush seed was drilled here on the surface, in 
rows eight feet apart, and by September, when visited, the surface 
