The Hay Crop 261 



a plant that had cUmbed to the top of a tall windmill 

 derrick. The Velvet bean makes a wonderful mass of 

 forage, and is cured in the same way as the cow pea. But 

 it is a plant that requires a long season and is of little use 

 north of the lower Cape Fear river section of North Caro- 

 lina. From that section south it is a very valuable hay- 

 making crop. We have planted them eight feet apart 

 each way and had them cover the ground waist deep, and 

 though the mass was so great, we found that in the im- 

 mature state the vines were in that they cured more 

 readily than the cow peas. For the extreme South there 

 is hardly any hay crop that will make a greater yield, and 

 the hay has a high feeding value. The yield of hay and 

 seed both are heavy and few seed are needed to plant the 

 ground sufficiently. But for the larger part of the coun- 

 try, the Velvet bean has no value whatever. 



This is another of the legume family that 

 W ^e^^^^^ has a value only in the far South, in southern 

 Georgia and Florida. It is a rank growing 

 species of the common tick seed and is botanically Des- 

 modium tortuosum. It is an annual plant growing from 

 six to ten feet high, and at the Louisiana station is said to 

 have made four to six tons of hay per acre. Experiments 

 made with it as far north as North Carolina and Virginia 

 do not show that it has much value that far north, and 

 that the cow pea is far better in those sections. But on 

 the sandy soils of Florida it flourishes finely, and has, 

 doubtless, a great value there. The family of Desmodium 

 has gotten the name Beggar Weed from the fact that they 

 grow on the poorest soils. 



Medicago denticulata, commonly known as Burr clover 



