THE MARYLAND 



AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 



BULLETIN No. 1(H). MARCH, 1905. 



THE WILD LEGUMES OF MARYLAND AND 

 THEIR UTILIZATION. 







By i. B. S. Norton and E. P. VV; 



The vaiue to the soil of the cultivated leguminous plants has long 



zed and they are now being used extensively, aside from 

 alue, tor adding to the nitrogen and humus con- 

 tent of the land. 



The wild plants of this kind, next to th< - and compos 



[ r part of our native flora than any other family of plants, 



since many of them arc closely related to the kinds doing host 



under cultivation it is reasonable to suppose that some of the wild 



.re of value in the same manner as the cultivate 



..n of this bulletin to furnish a list of the leguminous plants 



wild in this S showing the localities and kinds of soil and sur- 



lings where the ; [ and indicating the ways in which they 



may be utilized, with as to tin improvement of the 



xperiments along this line being in 

 this Experiment Station. 



lions and observations over the State as well as 

 all available herberia and published records have been u>vd as the 

 - of this work. In addition to our own observations some of the 

 - etc., have been taken from various standard works. 



UTILIZATION. 



Tin Juable use of the wild legumes is in improving soil by 



impounds produced in them from the assimilation 



of free atmospheric nitrogen in the noduie.s on their roots. For this 



>n their protein content is unusually high and they also then make 



'.v are trees and have valuable w 

 amenta! while a few are bad v 



as. 



