49 



Dr. B. H. Brodnax, statistical correspondent, Brodnax, Morehouse 

 Parish, Louisiana : 



Lespedeza was first noticed here about 1865. It is supposed to liave been introduced 

 in the cavalry hay fed the horses of the Federal cavalry, which occupied this parish 

 for a short time. It has since covered nearly the whole parish. It is not cultivated, 

 but is rapidly rooting- out nearly every other grass in the parish. It kills out bitter 

 weed (dog fennel), Bermuda Grass, and everything else. It is a splendid forage crop, 

 and excellent for grazing until frost destroys it. 



Dr. Charles Mohr, Mobile, Ala. : 



Lespedeza striata, Japan Clover — an annual plant, which, during the last twenty 

 years has spread all over the Gulf States. It blooms and ripens its seeds from the 

 early summer months to the close of the season, and grows spontaneously in exposed, 

 more or less damp, places of a somewhat close loamy soil. No attempts at its cultiva- 

 tion have been made. In the stronger soil of the lands in the interior this plant, pro- 

 tected from the browsing of cattle, grows from 1£ to 2 feet in height, and yields large 

 crops of sweet nutritious hay, the same plot affording a cut in August and another in 

 October, yielding respectively a ton and a half and one ton of hay to the acre. The 

 plant is perfectly hardy, and is not kuo wn to have been killed out by a long drought. 



It is easily subdued by cultivation, as it does not again make its appearance on land 

 where it has been plowed in, and is not found among the weeds the farmer has to 

 contend with in the cultivation of his crop. It is a perfect pasture plant, easily es- 

 tablished and standing browsing and tramping by cattle well. Its propagation 

 through the woods and pastures is effected by cattle — the seeds passing through the 

 animals with their vitality unimpaired. As a fertilizing plant it is greatly inferior 

 to the Mexican clover. 



J. B. Wade, Edgewood, DeKalb County, Georgia : 



It is said by the old residents here that Japan Clover was unknown in this part of 

 the country until " after the war." It now grows spontaneously on most of the land 

 of Middle Georgia that has a red-clay subsoil, and which has been turned out, i. e., 

 is not plowed or cultivated for two or three years. It grows sufficiently high to make 

 hay, but as it springs up in February, or even earlier should there come a warm spell 

 of weather, it is mostly used for grazing, as it lasts from February to November. 



J. B. Darthit, Denver, S. C. : 



It does not stand drought as well as Bermuda; both are our best pasture plants. 

 For cattle we have nothing better than Japan Clover, but it salivates horses and mules 

 after the 1st of July, especially if very luxuriant. 



J. W. Walker, of Franklin, N. C, in a letter to the Blade Farm, says: 



Seventeen years ago Japan Clover was found here occupying an area not exceeding 

 10 feet squire; it now covers thousands of acres, upon which all kinds of stock keep 

 fat and sleek, while the yield in milk and beef products has increased a hundred fold. 

 Our exhausted and turned-out lands that have hitherto yielded nothing but that 

 worse than useless broom-sedge {Andropogon scoparlas), now have in its stead a beauti- 

 ful carpet of most nutritious verdure. This plant grows anywhere and on any kind of 

 soil, rich or poor, wet or dry, high or low. It has been found in luxuriant growth on 

 the summit of the Blue Ridge, at a height of 4,000 feet. It will catch and grow luxu- 

 riantly where none of the clovers proper will grow at all ; unlike them it never runs 

 out. 



J. B. McGehee gives the following experience in a letter to the 

 Southern Live Stock Journal, September, 1886 : 



This has proved the worst season for its propagation that I have yet met with. I 

 have this week examined over 200 acres of my last spring's sowing, where I sowed 

 20265— No. 3 4 



