PART II. 

 DOMESTICATED LEGUMINOUS PLANTS. 



The leguminous plants embrace not less than 6500 species. They are 

 widely distributed in every quarter of the globe and vary in size from a 

 lowly plant that scarcely lifts its head above the surface to the majestic 

 locust trees found in tropical lands. 



Of the leguminous plants Dr. Gattinger in his Tennessee Flora enu- 

 merates 35 genera, 85 species and 3 varieties, making 83 species and varie- 

 ties. Nine of these have been introduced, three are woody plants, three 

 are trees and seventy-two belong to the flora found in the counties imme- 

 diately around Nashville. 



For the making of hay and for pasturage many of these leguminous 

 plants rank with the best domesticated grasses in nutritive elements, and 

 in their capacity for furnishing forage for live stock. As a restorer of 

 worn-out soils leguminous plants are far more valuable than the grasses. 

 Every leguminous plant is endowed with nodules, the habitat of special 

 microbes, which have the power of catching free nitrogen from the at- 

 mosphere, this nitrogen being assimilated by the plant itself. These 

 microbes are believed to embrace as many species as there are species of 

 leguminous plants, and the cultivation of one leguminous plant is thought 

 to destroy the microbes of another. "Clover sick" is probably due to the 

 destruction of the clover microbes, or bacteria. To preserve the fertility 

 of the soil it is important that leguminous plants become one of the crops 

 in rotation, and there should also be a rotation in the leguminous crops 

 themselves. Clover should alternate with cowpeas, soy beans, crimson 

 clover, etc. Nitrogen, in leguminous plants, occurs in the form of pro- 

 teids, which make meat and milk, and so is the most valuable constituent 

 in the food for cattle, especially for milch cows. The dry forage of legu- 

 minous plants is worth nearly twice as much for such stock as dry hay. 



The following domesticated leguminous plants will be discussed in 

 the order named in this bulletin: 



Red Clover Trifolium pratense. 



Crimson Clover Trifolium incarnalum. 



Bur Clover Medicago maculata. 



Alsike Clover Trifolium hybridum. 



White Clover Trifolium repans. 



Sainfoin or Esparcet Onobrychis saliva, 



Melilotus Melilolus alba. 



Lucern, or Alfalfa Medicago saliva. 



Cowpeas Vigna caljang. 



Peanuts Arachis hypog<za. 



Japan Clover Lespedeza slriala. 



Soy Bean Glycine soja or Sofa hispida. 



Short mention of other domesticated leguminous plants will also be 

 made. 



