Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1881-02-10
WHAT WE SHOULD RAISE.
A Grass for the Dry Soils of Ne.
v2da.

A Grass for the Dry Soils OF Ne.
vada.
The following extract from q lecture OF
W. A. Sanders of Fresno on "What We
Should Raise" says a California exchange,
delivered in a course on Economic Bot
any" gives information about a valuable
forage plant for dry portions of our State j:
''When we seek plants of economic value
TO introduce into our own State, our search
will most likely be rewarded with success
il we seek them in the Oldest settled, most
densely populated regions Ct the earth.
that have soil and climate similar to those
Of California. Interior and Western Asia
are dry regions of intense Summer heat.
From these we have obtained our Dhoura
and Sorghum-but there is another plant
improperly called a sorghum, the Sorghum
Helepense, the word Helepense being the
Arabic name Of the ancient city of Aleppo,
famed as being located in one Of the dryest
portions Of the habitable earth. 1t is sit
uated among the low, rocky hills or noun
tains between the heads Of the rivers Jor-
dan and Euphrates. Around this ancient
city. extending in all directions
where heat and drouth hold sway
over the country, grows this valuable
evergreen, evergrowing bunch grass. Its
roots are sometimes an inch or more in
diameter, and run down into the earth to
q depth Of more than twenty feet. No
mere sod-forming or fbrous-rooted grass
would live there for more than q single
oaaaon . fha 6aon ha1s.o ln.k - Al
mer sun would destroy its roots, and the
close grazing of the domestic herds would
annihilate tops and seeds, and it would
give place to noisome weeds on whose tops
and seeds no animals could feed, exempt
ing them from destruction. But not 30
easily destroyed is the s. Halepense. It's
tops, to be sure, are kept closely eaten off,
and goats and hogs dig deep into the earth
to get at and devour its Juicy, nutritious
roots /; but this only develops a new and
more luxuriant growth. Every half-inch
length Of roots left in contact with the
soil produces a new bunch Of grass.
Three years and . half ago I obtained
thirteen seeds Of this grass and sowed
them on my dry-land ranch in Fresno
county. Now I have nearly q quarter Of
an acre Of grass nearly as high as my
head, and masses Of roots down in the
ground. that q friend Of mine who stood
by while I dug a bunch Of it, expressed
himself, why, there are more roots than
earth under that grass"
1t is readily propagated from both roots
and seeds. Gut the roots into inch pieces
and drop them in burrows and pillow them
in, or plant them like potatoes, aud your
ground is set with a crop that here in the
dry lands can never be eradicated. No
land is too poor or too dry for it to grow
upon.
Stock eat it with avidity. As its roots
are four or five times as large as alfalfa
roots Of the same age, SO it will stand and
keep green through drouth that would en-
tirely kill alfalfa. Stock never bloat from
eating it, as they do from eating clover and
some of the other grasses. The seeds are
only about one-fourth as heavy as alfalfa,
80 a pound of it will go at least as far as
four pounds of alfalfa but it will do even
more than this, for from the spreading
habit Of both tops and roots, four pounds
Of seed are sufficient to sow an acre. But
q more valuable way of using it is to plant
ro~ot-cuttings anywhere ON pasture lands,
anywhere where 1t is desirable to produce
q ~never-ending additional amount Of good
feed for all kinds Of stock"