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most valuable of all forage plants for the very reason that it will grow on 

 the most sterile or exhausted soils. It is largely used for hay, especially 

 when grown on calcareous soils, being said to have a high feeding value, 

 though less than that of the cowpea and clover. It does not stand cold 

 weather. The first frost will kill it, and occasionally it suffers from hot 

 weather when grown upon thirsty, sandy soils. Its roots penetrate to a 

 great depth in the soil and like all other leguminous plants it collects 

 nitrogen from the atmosphere It is much more highly esteemed in the 

 extreme Southern States than it is in Tennessee. 



Mr. H. B. McGehee, of Woodville, Miss., says: "My experience is that 

 Lespedeza striata (Japan clover) is the most satisfactory and best all- 

 around forage crop we have in Southwest Mississippi. It is the quickest 

 grown, easiest handled and affords the most abundant yield of any hay 

 crop we have. We prepare our lands and sow in October or March one- 

 half bushel of seed to the acre. It yields from one and one-half tons to 

 three tons per acre, reseeds itself, and the meadows may be lek from two 

 to three years without replowing. Often after preparing lands and sow- 

 ing our fall oats we sow Lespedeza among the young growing oats some 

 time in March, after all danger of a freeze is over, and thereby get two 

 crops from the same piece of land during one year. Stock .of all kinds 

 eat this hay readily and fatten on it. It sells on a local market for from 

 $12 to $15 per ton. Ours is a loamy, sandy soil, with a good deep sub- 

 soil." 



Prof. S. M. Tracy, says of this plant: "Lespedeza is the standard 

 clover plant of the South. It will grow on the poorest and dryest soils 

 and, pound for pound, is the best hay I have ever used for fattening or for 

 milch cows. Three years ago last October, our barn containing the hay 

 we had stored for winter use was destroyed by fire. The last of October 

 is late for making hay in Mississippi. On the day after the fire we put 

 our mowing machines into a field of Lespedeza, which we had before 

 thought hardly worth the cutting, and in two weeks we had stored a fresh 

 supply of hay, mostly Lespedeza, but with a liberal mixture of asters, 

 golden rod and plum bushes; but even this hay gave us better results in 

 milk and butter than did equal weights of imported timothy." 



Mr. Samuel McRamsey, of Warren county, Tennessee, who was in 

 the dairy business for many years, says: "This clover made its appearance 

 in this locality in 1870. It is fast covering the whole country. It supplies 

 much grazing from the first of August until frost. It is short, but very 

 hardy. Sheep are very fond of it, and cattle will eat it. It is killing out 

 the broom sedge wherever it appears. It grows exceedingly well on red 

 clay, and with a little care covers red hillsides that are much too common 

 all over the state. If it will do this and destroy the broom sedge, it should 

 be cultivated. It is not good for meadow and is only valuable for 

 pasture." 



Upon the farm of the writer in Montgomery county, Tennessee, the 

 chief soil of which is a deep clayey loam belonging to the Lithostrotion 

 bed of the subrarboriiferous formation, Lespedeza appeared about 1880, 

 and it quickly took possession of several wooded lots and also spread in 

 some older fields that were not in cultivation. At first cattle were totally 



