Mexican clover makes its best growth late in the season and comes into cultivated fields after other crops are removed. It demands a sandy soil for its best growth. The yield of hay may exceed two tons per acre, and is commonly mixed with crab-grass. The hay seems to be succulent, nutri tious and palatable to most stock, though feeders are not agreed as to its value. It is not adapted for pasturage. Its chief value is as a renovator of sandy soils, and as a covering for the ground in late fall and winter, to be plowed under in the spring.
Modiola (Modiola decumbens).
Malracece. A perennial forage plant introduced from Chile into California. Its value has not been fully determined. It is much liked by stock and seems to increase the flow of milk when fed to dairy cows. A few growers have consid ered it nearly equal in value to alfalfa. It has wide adaptability to soils, withstanding alkali, and thriving on either moist or dry lands. It grows readily from either seeds or the nodes on the prostrate stems.
Partridge pea, Sensitive pea, Magothy Bay bean (Cassia Chamteerista). Leguminosic. Fig. 420. A native stout herb with showy yellow purple spotted flowers, highly recommended in colonial times in Maryland and Virginia for green-manuring [see page 106]. So far as known to the writers it was not used directly as forage, but only to prepare land for forage and other crops. It is one of the plants called "sheep-kill," said to be very purgative to sheep. The practice was to plant the partridge pea with oats in spring, using about one pint of the seed to one bushel of oats. After the harvesting of the oats, the partridge peas grew to maturity and produced a large crop of seed. The next year this land was put in corn. The cultivation of the corn resulted in destroying large numbers of the seedlings, but a sufficient quantity of them came on after the last cultivation of the corn to produce a satisfactory stand. The opinion was general that, with a rotation of oats or rye and corn, it was very advantageous to grow the partridge peas, especially as having once been seeded they per sist for many years without re-seeding. To a very slight extent the plant is still used in this way, but owing to the enormous superiority of the cowpea this use has been practically abandoned. [See Trans. Amer. Phil. Soc. III, p. 226 (1793).
Magothy bay is in Maryland on Chesapeake bay.] Prickly comfrey (Symphytum asperrimum.) Bor raginaccee. Fig. 421. A perennial forage plant ; stem erect, two to four feet; leaves dark rich green, long and narrow, abundant, rough, mucil aginous ; flowers purple, in nodding, one-sided clus ters. It has given greatest success in New York, Michigan and Florida, in the latter state on waste lands. It is now rarely grown in this country. It is said to be much grown in Europe. If cut and fed in the green state, the leaves and stalks make valuable forage. Stock must be trained to like it, as it is somewhat unpalatable. It is used for soil ing, but is not to be pastured and does not make good hay. Prickly comfrey produces an abundance of seeds, but is nearly always propagated by cuttings of the fleshy roots. The planting dis tance varies from eighteen to thirty-six inches each way. As the plants attain a large size. the greater distance is prefera ble. A light sandy soil is best ; several cuttings may be had each year.
Russian thistle (Salsola Tra gus). Chenopodiacem. Fig. 422. Introduced from northern Eu rope into the north , western United States by Russian immi grants about thirty years ago. For a time it was thought that the rapid spread of the pest would render farming impossible west of the Mississippi. but at present it is considered harmless and perhaps of some value as a forage plant when fed early.
Sacaline (Polygonum Sachalinense). Polygonacem. A tall bushy perennial (6-12 ft.) forage plant that gives little promise. It does not grow well from seeds, but may be propagated by root-cuttings. The stems are woody when two to three feet high ; leaves broad and heart-shaped. It is not drought resistant. It met with some success in Florida, where the succulent young stems were relished by stock. It forms a great mass of roots and is tena cious. Once much advertised as a forage plant. (Fig. Cyclo. Hort.) Samphire (Salicornia herbacea). Chenopodiacem. A succulent annual plant with leafless, jointed, branching stems six inches to two feet high. It belongs to the goosefoot or pigweed family. It is abundant along the coast from Anticosti south to Georgia ; it is also found in salt marshes in the interior from Manitoba to Utah. It is much relished by cattle. Not in cultivation.