Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-11-15
MrLILorUs FOR TEXAS.

inencc in Fort Worth buttonholed lis on
the street some days ago and demanded to
know why we had never yet written up
melilotus as q hay and pasture plant for
Texas. There was but one way for US to
get out of it, and that lay through the hon
estly-expressed assertion that there were
so very many good things to write up, that
could be made grand success in Texas,
that it took several years for one to get
through with all of them, and that melilo-
tus had ''not yet happened to happen along
on the list" The gentleman went on to
state that last spring he made tour of
Alabama and Georgia where he saw mel
ilotus in all its glory, turning the old fields
into very paradise of verdure and stock
feed, ard he had ever since been thinking
of punching US under the ribs about it, but
this was the first opportunity offered him,
and now lie hoped that we wou Id consider
ourself punched. We don't at all mind
being punched under the ribs after the
style employed by the gentleman, but we
would fearfully despise to have our head
punched, and not feeling certain as to
where the next punch Of the enthusiastic
gentleman might be directed we promptly
promised to call melilotus up into the list
for this week, and it is now up.
Melilotus is kind of clover. For COM
mon it is usually called melilot. There are
two species of 1.-THE white and the blue.
The white-fowered melilot is common in
the Northern states, where it is quite gen.
orally known to the masses as ''sweet
Overwhelmingly it is Melilotis alba.
People grow it in their flower gardens up
there because of the sweet and pleasant
odor it gives Off, but beyond this odor no
particular Importance is attached to the
plant. The species to which our fellow
citizen referred rs cutting such an i'm
portant figure in Alabama and Georgia is
the blue-howered species known to botan-
lists rs Melilotus officinalis. BY common
consent the people of those states seem TO
have caught onto the specific name as the
popular name, and so call it melilotus. Not
long ago Mr.. Eli Shepherd of Greensboro
Ala, wrote to the Florida Agriculturist con-
corning it to the effect that melilotus (the
ue-fowered species) has wellnigh taken
possession OF his county of Hale. The
people are happy thereat, for on their lime
lands they have found it a most sublime
renoyator of worn-down farms. 1t does the
work of restoration by means of its root
growth sent deep into the soil to bring up
the manurial. elements entirely beyond the
reach of ordinary plants, and by its dense
shading of the surface, which restores the
lost nitre. 1t tears packed old field all to
pieces and renders it easy of working by the
ordinary farm implements. The plant is BIZ
ennial in Alabama, and in the course of its
Two years Of growth it brings up every fer
tilizing element of value contained in the
subsoil, and dying, leaves it among the heav-
lest root growth within the surface soil,
added to which is full supply of that in
dispensable element of the surface,
humus, or decomposcd vegetable matter.
Then, in addition to this, the large roots
running deep into the ground leave open
ings when they have decayed, which form
a system Of drainage almost equal to the
best tile drainage.
This, says Mr.. Shepherd, is the direct
work of melilotus in agriculture, but there
are other important works that it promptly
puts into motion. 1t is certainly great en-
courager of stock raising. With melilotus
on his place the planter, as all planters of
this rcgiCn well know, can have 4 paSturage
for horses, at 4 cost scarcely nominal, which
has no superior in that direction. It is far
ahead of red clover for the reason that it
never produces "slabbers' in horses; and
horses relish it as much as they do either
red or white clover, after their
running upon it for a time, an ac-
quiring taste for it. When first penned
upon melilotus the horse or mule would turn
MP his nose at it, but in week or so he
finds that he was entirely mistaken, gets
sQuarely down TO business, and after very
little experience would leave his melilotus
for no other green feed or hay feed that
could be offered him. The man with melil-
otus way snap his fingers at the fellow who
comes around 20 sell him farm horses or
mules-he can raise them at home cheaper
than was raised the stock that the fellow is
offering for sale. thus saving to himself sew
eral direct profits, at least.
Again, says Nh. Shepherd, melilotus will
be found great help to the dairyman. The
green fields Of melilotus-green all winter
make grand range for COWS. The cows
don't want anything better. \ few people
who have no melilotus on their places have
shown disposition to contend that melilo-
tus imparts a swedish md unpleasant flavor
TO milk and butter, but one never hears any
complaint from the consumers of that char
acter of milk and butter. The bugbear
seems to find life among the people who do
not have any me!ilotus. and who, OF course,
consume none of the melilotus milk or but
ter-a thing natural enough in this age of
general competition through which we are
passing. But with all this none can be
found ready 10 contend that miliiotus does
not vastly increase the flow of milk and the
yield of butter.
AS a hay plant, says Mr.. Shepherd, the
melilutus is first class. 1t grows to the
height of from three to Ave feet, and not in
freqIen.ly, on good lime lands, it rises to
the height Of ten feet. No finer stock feed
in the hay line is known than melilotus hay.
1t admits of several cuttings in each season,
and the hay IS highly relished by every
species of farm stock not excepting hogs.
and no unpleasant effects from its use have
wet boa tod