340 Transactions of the American Institute. 



kill. It is like compelling a man to eat more than his stomach can 

 bear. 



Mr. F. D. Curtis — Decaying animal matter acts best as a manure 

 when composted with barn manure and loam, with plenty of plaster 

 to absorb escaping gases. "When muck and plaster are used in suffi- 

 cient quantity, lime may be mixed in to hasten decomposition. Let 

 him dig a shallow pit shaped like a saucer, and throw the offal into 

 it in layers, using rotten straw and weeds or rotten turf, with some 

 plaster ; if the odor is rank, and cover all in with three or four inches 

 of garden earth or forest mold. The principle is that vegetable 

 decay and animal decay neutralize each other, and convert matters 

 noisome and offensive into the choicest plant food. 



The Japan Clover in Georgia. 



Prof. H. E. Colton forwarded a specimen of grass, and wrote as 

 follows from Macon : " I inclose you a sample of a grass which is 

 destined to occup} 7 a large part in the regeneration of the old fields 

 of the South. It is called here Japan clover and Georgia clover. 

 Mr. C. "W. Howard says it is botanically lespedeza striata. It was 

 first called to my attention on the line of the Alabama and Chatta- 

 nooga Railroad near Elyton. The people there believe it was brought 

 here by the Chinese. Not being disposed to give much weight to 

 their assertion that it never was known here before the war, I have 

 since asked hundreds of persons, and all say it was not known pre- 

 vious to 1865. It is a rich, succulent grass, with firm roots. As fast 

 as eaten down it comes up again. It roots out the old broom-sedge 

 and takes its place, thus making a rich green sward, where before 

 reigned supreme the dingy yellow of the sedge. I have seen cattle 

 and sheep eat it with the greatest eagerness, and I am told hogs will 

 also eat it ; that they will leave clover for it." 



Mr. A. S. Fuller — The plant to which the gentleman refers is not 

 a grass, but a near relative of our common clover. It was introduced 

 in some unknown way from Japan about twenty-five years ago, and 

 has rapidly spread over the southern States. It is known as Japan 

 clover or lespedeza striata. The plant seems to have become natural- 

 ized in many portions of southern Atlantic States, and is certainly a 

 blessing to southern farmers. 



Jute. 

 Mr. T. F. Scott forwarded from Mississippi a sample of what he sup- 

 posed to be jute. He found it growing on his plantation, and said : 



