Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1899-08-31
SALT BUSH.
1t Furnishes Good sustenance For
Cattle In Arid Regions.

1t Furnishes Good Sustenance Fol-
Cattle In Arid Regions.
The California experiment station al
| Berkeley has recently scored another
remarkable triumph and has won the
gratitude of thousands Of farmers IN
the arid and semiarid region west OF
the Mississippi, says a correspondent
of the Boston Transcript. Ever since
1881 experiments have been conducted
at Berkeley and at the substations
throughout California to test certain
Australian plants, known in popular
language as salt bushes" 1t seems tC
be acknowledged now that some spe
cies of this large class of plants can be
profitabIy utilized on land heretofore
considered worthless.
About 1881 the late Baron Won
Mueller a man whose whole life was
devoted to the study of economic bot
any and to the distribution of valuable
species over new districts, sent seeds
of many Australian salt bushes to Cali
fornia. These salt bushes belong to g
very large class of curious and useful
plants formerly called chenopodiaceae
but more recently salsolaceae. The com
mon beet of our gardens and the pig
weed of the roadside belong to this
family. It's members often possess re-
markable powers Of resistance to al.
kali in the soil and grow where other
plants would quickly perish.
Many plants of the desert belong to
this family, which is also unusually
drought resisting Unfortunately. only q
few of the hundreds Of species of salso
laceae have any economic value. Those
species at first received from Australia
proved unworthy of general use. Elk
periments were made with many
kinds, but without marked success I'M
til species known as atriplex semi
baccata was tested near Tulare City
in the upper San Joaquin valley. Oh
very strong sblack alkali.''
Such alkaIi land contains so much
carbonate of soda and other salts that
common barley dies there Barley will
withstand $4,000 pounds of aIkaIi salts
to the acre. but dies when the tota
reaches 10000 pounds. while salt busf
has been known to grow when the
total reached $4,000 pounds to the acre
No other useful plant can show suct
a record.
The value of salt bush. commercially
speaking. is as a food plant for sheep
cattle. horses. hogs and to some extent
for domestic fowls. 1t keeps green al
summer, grows rapidly. yields from
two to four crops in a season and ap
pears to possess as important place
in farm economics as the we'll known
ealfa. The most careful analyses OF
tlir plant made at the experiment sta
tion show that its food value. pound
for pound. fairly approaches that OF
alfalfa. Since it can be grown on sol
too alkaline to produce alfalfa, it,
value is evident.
Further experiments, extending ovel
long period of years, have determ
! ined new and larger possibilities. Atri
pick semibaccata thrives in regions OF
very light rainfall. on extremely pool
soil undertake by hardpan. Its habits
Of growth in such places are modified
of course: the plant is much smaller
and yields less. but it covers the
ground, keeps green and grows unit
| heavy frosts come. The perennial roo
remains in the ground. ready for an
other season. Its value, under sucf
circumstances. can hardly be esti
mated. All that one can say is thai
such a plant makes thousands of acres
of almost worthless land capable OF
sustaining large flocas and herds.