m 



plant for a great many years. It i.s believed to have been tir.st intro- 

 duced into this country by the Department of Agriculture for this 

 purpose twenty-five or thirty years ago. It is an excellent plant for 

 quickly covering unsightly objects or arbors. The Florida Experi- 

 ment Station published an article on the velvet bean in a bulletin 

 issued in 1895, with the suggestion that it might be a useful forage 

 plant. Since then it has attracted considerable attention in the 

 Southern States, where it has come into extensive use and is highly 

 valued, especially as a fertilizer in orange groves. 



The velvet bean is a trailing or climbing annual legume, with leaves 

 resembling those of the cowpea and clusters of purple flowers at inter- 

 vals of 2 or 3 feet along the stem. Later these form clusters of short, 

 cylindrical pods, covered with a black velvety down which has given the 

 plant the name of velvet bean. Each pod contains from 3 to 6 large, 

 rounded, brown and white mottled seeds. It is an excellent soil reno- 

 vator, having exceedingly large coral-like clusters of tubercles as large 

 as a hen's egg. This mass contains about 6 per cent of pure nitrogen. 

 The vines attain great lengths, sometimes growing from 30 to 50 feet 

 in favorable localities. These may be cut for hay, which is greatl}^ 

 relished by all kinds of stock, or turned under as a green manure for 

 the improvement of the soil. 



Being a native of the Tropics, it matures seed onl}" in Florida and 

 the lower half of the States immediateh^ along the Gulf coast. 

 Wherever it ripens seed it is considered to be equal or superior to 

 cowpeas, but where seed must each 3^ear be purchased it is not as 

 valuable as that crop. In Florida the seed is sown in drills -i feet 

 apart, dropping from 2 to 4 seeds in hills 3 feet apart in the row. 

 Planted in this way it will produce a mass of vines and foliage to the 

 depth of 15 to 20 inches, covering the entire surface of the ground. 

 From 20 to 30 bushels of shelled beans per acre is an average crop. It 

 will completely destroy Bermuda grass, nut grass, and other trouble- 

 some weeds, and may perhaps check the Johnson grass. 



During the years 1898 and 1899 thirty-four packages of the seed 

 of velvet bean were distributed by this division. This distribution 

 included experimenters in 8 different States, Ver^^ favorable reports 

 have been received from Louisiana, North Carolina, Texas, and Vir- 

 ginia. Nineteen reports have been received, 3 recording failures, 2 

 unsatisfactory', 8 good, and 6 excellent. 



The following reports from experimenters in different States will 

 indicate something as to its value as a forage plant. 



ALABAMA. 



]SIr. A. W. Orr. Deer Park, Washington County: 



The ground was plowed and harrowed and the seed .sown IMay 15, 1S9S, }>y drop- 

 ping the seed into holes 2 by 6 feet apart niadL- with a hot'. The velvet bean was in 



