49

IOWA SEED COMPANY, DES MOINES, IOWA. 47.

Immensely Productive
JUST THINK OF IT!
95 TONS PER ACRE OF GREEN FODDER.
16 tons of good hay

Pencilaria.
TWO years ago when we first introduced Pencilaria to the farmers of this country there were many who looked incredulous at our statements of its wonderful productiveness, but still it created a great deal of interest and fully 75,000 farmers in all parts of the United States gave it a trial. In spite of the most unfavorable season that has ever been known in America for such plants, it proved wonderfully satisfactory everywhere and they evidently told their neighbors of it. We estimate that last season more than 225,000 farmers experimented with it. This year we want to increase the number to a million, as we know that there is no plant in existence which is equal to it for quick growth, immense size and superior quality. The same report comes from all parts of the country. From New England states to Florida in the east, from Manitoba to Texas and from Washington to southern California. Everywhere it is without parallel in productiveness. It grows on all kinds of soil, in all kinds of climate and everywhere pleases and astonishes those who have previously had no experience with it.
This plant, more properly known as Penicillaria, is a native of Africa that has been grown in the south for some time, but we now have it improved and acclimated here.

How is this?
75 Stalks
9 TO 14 FEET HIGH
Grown from one tiny seed no larger than a pin head.

DESCRIPTION. The seed is very small, about the size of a pin head, and it is really wonderful that it should produce such an immense growth of foliage. When it first comes up it looks like grass, but very soon changes its appearance so that it more nearly resembles corn, growing very rapidly and having broader, more succulent leaves than either corn, cane, Kaffir corn, pearl millet, Jerusalem corn, or any other plants of that character. It most nearly resembles the old pearl or cattail millet grown in the south as it belongs to the same class of plants, but it is of more sturdy, robust growth, has wider leaves and is more productive, and our customers in Texas claim that it produces an excellent crop in the same locality where ordinary pearl millet is a failure. The stalks grow to a height of 12 to 14 feet and are covered with juicy leaves which are quite similar to Indian corn in appearance, but instead of producing ears like corn or large heads like Kaffir corn it produces long cylindrical heads 10 to 16 inches in length and only about one inch in diameter closely set with thousands of tiny seeds which are greatly relished by poultry. At a distance a field of Pencilaria, when nearing maturity, looks like a field of giant timothy 12 to 15 feet high. One agricultural editor showed his ignorance by advising his readers not to plant it for fear that it would prove to be a noxious weed which would live in the ground over winter, but the fact is that Pencilaria is an annual and the plant dies in the fall never to grow again. The seeds are quite tender and those which fall to the ground do not sprout the next spring. Do not sow the seed until warm weather.
STOOLING HABIT. Everyone is greatly astonished with the stooling nature of Pencilaria. While it begins to stool out at once from the root, still it is after being once cut off that this is specially prominent. In introducing it two years ago we stated that 43 large leafy stalks, larger than the tallest corn stalks had been grown from one tiny seed. Many persons were incredulous, and the editor of one agriculture paper stated that this was clearly a misstatement as such a thing was impossible, but Pencilaria has far surpassed our claim, many farmers reporting fifty, fifty-four, sixty, sixty-five, sixty-seven and even as high as seventy-six stalks grown from one seed, each one of these stalks growing seven to fourteen feet in height and covered with long, broad, juicy leaves.

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95 TONS PER ACRE. One of the most noted farmers in the United States who also stands high as a writer for the agricultural press, states that he made a careful test, sowing the seed on the 15th of May in drills 18 inches apart. It looked like grass at first, but he cultivated it at the end of 12 days and it then grew very rapidly. He cut the first crop on July 1st, 45 days after sowing the field. It was then 7 feet high and it weighed, green, thirty tons per acre, and when dry gave six and one-half tons of hay per acre. The second growth was cut on August 14th when the plants were 9 feet high and the crop weighed 55 tons per acre green and 8 tons per acre dry. The third cutting was made October 1st. It weighed 10 tons green and one and one-half tons dry, thus making a total crop of 95 tons per acre of green fodder, and when dry made 16 tons of hay, all from one sowing of seed. If there is any other plant in existence which will afford such a yield we do not know what it is.

QUALITY. We claim that Pencilaria is much superior in quality to corn fodder, Kaffir corn or any similar plant. This is shown by the cattle leaving corn to go to the Pencilaria. It is perhaps not as rich and sweet as sorghum cane, but it is fully equal or superior to the non-saccharine sorghum besides being easier to handle and very much more productive. Cattle, horses and hogs are all very fond of the fodder and we feed it on our place constantly through the summer and fall and also the dry Pencilaria hay for use throughout the winter months.
CULTIVATION. The seed is usually sown in drills 24 to 36 inches apart, dropping three or four seeds to each foot of row. In this way one pound will sow an acre of land. Some of our customers are still more saving of seed than this and put it in hills like corn three or four seeds to the hill, but a large and better crop can be produced by sowing in continuous drills. It should be cultivated as soon as well up and it is seldom necessary to cultivate the second time as the plant grows so rapidly that it soon takes care of itself and quickly smothers out all weeds. It always pays to cut the first crop when the plants are two to three feet high, and the later cuttings when three to six feet high. In this way it will make four to seven crops per acre. If you allow it to grow on without cutting so as to obtain the seed crop, the quality is not so good. Do not sow the seed until the ground is quite warm, say about the usual corn planting time. While we always recommend that the seed be sown in drills, still some of our customers do not want to go to that trouble and they prepare the ground thoroughly and sow the seed broadcast, lightly brushing it in. It is well to remember that the seed is so small that it will not do to plant it deep. If it is covered with a quarter to a half-inch of soil it is sufficient. If seed is planted more than half an inch deep it will be very apt to fail to grow.
WHO NEEDS PENCILARIA? This season stockmen will especially need a quick growing forage plant, and they should try Pencilaria. We have turned cattle loose in a field of it and they seem to relish the food greatly, although we consider it more satisfactory to cut the fodder and throw it over into the feed lot. A farmer who wants an immense crop of hay this year should try Pencilaria as from it he will obtain not only an immense quantity but of superb quality. The dairyman who has hundreds of cows and the person who keops [keeps] only one should both grow Pencilaria, as it is claimed that one-fourth acre will supply sufficient fodder to keep a cow in good condition throughout the summer and fall, and sufficient hay can be made from one-fourth acre to supply a cow throughout the winter.
PRICES. Two years ago we sold the seed at $1.50 per pound when other seedsmen were asking $2.50 per pound for it. Last season we reduced the price to $1.00 per pound, and this year we have decided to still further reduce it and we now offer it at 10 cents for a large package; 25 cents for one-fourth pound; 40 cents per half-pound; 75 cents per pound by mail postpaid, or in lots of five pounds or more by express or freight, not prepaid, at 50 cents per pound.

The Pencilaria purchased from you is fine. You did not overstate matters in saying that forty-three stalks could be grown from one seed, as I counted one plant which had sixty-seven stalks. I have cut it five times during the season and it makes a fine feed for horses, cattle or any kind of stock.--G. M. Bailey, Warren county, Iowa.

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