564 FORAGE PLANTS AND THEIR CULTURE 



to the work of C. E. Pleas of Chipley, Florida. At- 

 tracted by the remarkable luxuriance of the plant and the 

 fact that horses and cows ate the leaves greedily, he cured 

 some as hay and found it equally palatable to animals. 

 He then planted a small field, probably the first of the 

 kind ever planted in this country. Under field conditions 

 kudzu sends out long prostrate branches which root at 

 many of the joints and send up ascending twining branches 

 to a height of 2 to 4 feet. Eventually these become sepa- 

 rate plants as the prostrate stems usually die between the 

 rooted joints. Such a field when full grown presents 

 much the appearance of a thick field of cowpeas or soy- 

 beans. It can be readily cut with a mower, and the hay 

 cures more readily than most legumes, as the leaves are 

 less juicy. There is practically no shedding of the leaves 

 in curing. 



Some fields in northern Florida have yielded three cut- 

 tings of hay a season when well established, and yields of 

 as high as 10 tons to the acre have been claimed. In other 

 fields the total yield has been smaller than that of velvet 

 beans. It seems probable that under favorable conditions 

 kudzu will prove a very profitable crop, notwithstanding 

 the fact that its perennial nature does not permit of grow- 

 ing a winter crop in rotation. 



The seed of kudzu does not germinate very well, so that 

 the plant is usually propagated by layers. A new field 

 of kudzu is best established by the transplanting of well- 

 rooted plants in very early spring. These should be 

 planted about 10 feet apart each way, and the first season 

 will pretty well cover the ground with prostrate runners. 

 The second season a fair crop should be obtained, but the 

 field will not produce best results till the third year. The 

 planting should be done early in the spring, but in the 



