Alfilaria And Winter Pasturage

Categories: Grains and Forage Crops

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.



Alfilaria is a good winter-growing forage plant in places where it

accepts the situation. It is an annual and therefore does not make

permanent pasturage except where i may re-seed itself. On the coming of

the dry season it will speedily form seed and disappear. It is therefore

of no summer use under the conditions which you describe, nor is it

possible to secure any perennial grass which will be satisfactory on dry

hillsides without irrigation. Improved winter pasturage can be secured

by scattering seed of common rye at the beginning of the rainy season,

or of burr clover, both of which are winter-growing plants. Pasturage is

also capable of improvement by being careful not to overstock the land,

so that the native annuals may be able to produce seed and provide for

their own succession. The secret of successful pasturage on dry uplands

is to improve the winter growth. It is too much to expect much of them

for summer growth without irrigation.