540 FORAGE PLANTS AND THEIR CULTURE 



in late summer and mature their seeds in September and 

 October. The small flowers are purple. Dodson found 

 that a plant in good condition had 45.4 per cent of its 

 weight in stems and the remainder in leaves and buds. 

 As the plants get old, the lower leaves are shed more or 

 less and the percentage of stem weight becomes higher. 

 The roots are not deep, but Dodson estimated that the dry 

 weight of the stubble and roots to 12 inches in depth is 

 about one-third that of the hay removed. McCarthy at 

 the North Carolina Experiment Station described a broad- 

 leaved variety which showed " immense superiority " 

 over the common sort. 



656. Agricultural history. Lespedeza was first found 

 in the United States at Monticello, Georgia, by Thomas 

 C. Porter in 1846, his specimens being still preserved. 

 The plant seems to have already become common 

 by the close of the Civil War, and perhaps was much 

 spread by the movements of the cavalry during that 

 conflict, as the seeds are not digested by horses. At the 

 present time it occurs spontaneously in most of the area 

 from central New Jersey west to central Kansas and south 

 to the Gulf. Throughout all of this region it furnishes a 

 portion of the summer pasturage, thriving even on the 

 poorest soils. In the lower Mississippi valley, especially 

 in Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas, it grows tall 

 enough to cut for hay, and to a less extent this is the 

 case in other southern states on rich lands. 



There are no definite records as to when Lespedeza 

 was first cut for hay, but about 1880 its culture was taken 

 up and later strongly advocated by J. B. McGehee 

 in Louisiana. Its status as a cultivated crop may be said 

 to date from this time. Apparently it has never been 

 cultivated in its native country. 



