58 CLOVER CULTURE. 



whether the Western farmer could sow it in his corn fiefds at 

 the last plowing or on the stubble after harvest and turn the 

 crop under in time for a crop of corn the next year. If some 

 variety. could be procured that would endure the northern 

 winters this might be done, and it would then prove of great 

 value in sections of the West whore corn is the leading crop 

 and where it is necessary to supply nitrogen at a very cheap 

 rate. The amount of seed necessary is from fifteen to twenty- 

 five pounds per acre, which should be sown broadcast and 

 -covered the same depth at which red or mammoth clover suc- 

 ceeds best in the latitude where it is sown. 



Japan Clover, (Lespedeza striata.) In some unknown 

 way there was introduced a variety of clover into the South 

 Atlantic States from Japan about forty-five years ago that has 

 proved of no little economic value, known as Japan clover, 

 (Lespedeza striata,} an illustration of which will be found on 

 next page. It. was little noticed before the late civil war, but 

 during the war it extended south and west and has spread 

 rapidly over a large district of country, especially along road- 

 sides, in abandoned fields and in open woods.* Like nearly 

 all clovers in climates oi great and long continued summer 

 heat, whether the rainfall be deficient or not, it is an annual, 

 growing up .every spring, and is killed by frost in the fall. 

 The seeds begin to ripen about the ist of August and con- 

 tinue to mature until the close of the season. . It reproduces 

 itself from seed on the same ground year after year, and 

 hence by mistake has frequently been regarded as a peren- 

 nial. It will grow on poor soils, but prefers clay, and only 

 on rich bottom lands does it obtain size sufficient to justify 

 cutting it for hay. It may be found in the situations above 

 mentioned in many of the Southern states, driving out broom 

 sedge and even Bermuda or Johnson grass in some localities, 

 but it does not withstand drouth so weli as the Bermuda. It 

 is likewise easily killed by froSt. It has proven a great bless- 

 ing to the Southern farmers, a good Samaritan, providing its 

 own charges, sowing itself wherev** there is an abandoned 

 field and thus binding up the broken-hearted land. It ranges 

 from the Atlantic Coast .to Tennessee, Mis^LJp^i, Alabama, 

 Georgia and as far West as north-eastern Texas. 



It is scarcely possible ito over-estimate ttie economic 

 value of this plant to the Southern farmer^ and it is only 

 since the recent discoveries of the power which all clovers 

 and all legumes possess of fixing nitrogen in the soil by ap- 

 propriating it from the atmosphere and storing it in the soil 



