Crimson clover must be sown after frost, for it is tender.  It will give a great show in June and July on low moist land.  It is not good against either frost or drought.  It has been amply tried in California and proved on the whole of little account.

California Winter Pastures.

We have a great deal of pasture land on which the native grasses yield less feed each year.  A great part of this land can be cleared of brush and stone, ready for the plow, but what can we sow to take the place of the native pasture?  The ground in many places is not level enough for alfalfa and in some places water is not available.  Can we break up the land and sow pasture grasses as the farmers are exhorted to do at the East?  The annual rainfall is from 12 to 15 inches.

The perennial grasses which they rely upon for pasturage in the East and which will maintain themselves from year to year, will not live at all on the dry lands of California, nor has investigation of the last twenty-five or thirty years found anything better for these California uplands than the winter growth of plants which are native to them.  Such lands should be better treated, first by not being overstocked; second, by taking off cattle at the time the native plant needs to make seed, because, as they are not perennial, they are dependent upon each year’s seed.  After the plants have seeded, the land can be pastured for dry feed without losing the seed.

Of course, if one has land capable of irrigation he can grow forage plants, even the grasses which grow in moist climates, like the rye grasses, the brome grasses and the oat grasses, etc., which will do well if given a little moisture, but it will be a loss of money to break up the dryer lands with the idea of establishing perennial grasses upon them without irrigation.  California pastures are naturally good.  In early days they were wonderful, but they are restricted to growth during the rainy season, or for a little time after that, and are therefore suited for winter and spring pasturage, while the summer feeding of stock, aside from dry feed, should be provided from other lands where water can be used.  The improvement of these wild pastures consists in a more intelligent policy for their production and preservation rather than an effort to improve them by the introduction of new plants.  Pastures may, however, be often improved by clearing off the brush and harrowing in seed of burr clover, alfilaria, etc., at the beginning of the rainy season.

Alfilaria and Winter Pasturage.

Will alfilaria (Erodium cicutarium) grow well on the hills of Sonoma county partially covered with shrubs?  I want something that will be food for stock another year.  I have heard of alfilaria and that it grows well without being irrigated.