Circular 



No. 863 



November 1950 • . Washington, D. C. 



UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



Sericea and Other Perennial Lespedezas 

 for Forage and Soil Conservation 1 



By A. J. Pieters, 2 formerly principal agronomist, Division of Forage Crops 

 and Diseases, Bureau of Plant Industry, and Section of Agronomy and 

 Range Management, Division of Conservation Operations, Soil Conservation 

 Service; Paul R. Henson, senior agronomist, Division of Forage J^rops and 

 Diseases, Bureau of Plant Industry, Soils, and Agricultural^Jfingineering , 

 Agricultural Research Adinynistration ; and William E. Adams, station 

 agronomist, and A. P. BarNett, assistant agricultural engineer, Soil Con- 

 servation Service 



CONTENTS 



Page 



Introduction 2 



Habit 3 



Flower and seed development 5 



Climatic and soil adaptation 6 



Culture 8 



Germination of hard seed 8 



Treatment of hard seed 9 



Method of seeding 10 



Rate of seeding 11 



Time to seed 11 



Care during first and second 



year 11 



Inoculation 12 



Lime and fertilizer 12 



Diseases 13 



Weed competition 13 



Sericea stands 14 



Volunteer stands 14 



Number of plants to a stand 14 



Hay from sericea 15 



Number of cuttings 17 



Chemical analysis 19 



Vitamin content 21 



Minerals in sericea hay 22 



Page 



Yields and leanness 22 



Feeding trials 23 



Tannin in sericea hay 26 



Sericea meal 28 



Silage _ 28 



Sericea for grazing 28 



Seed production 33 



Harvesting 33 



Appearance, weight and num- 

 ber of seeds 34 



Wildlife uses 34 



Sericea, a self-mulching crop 35 



Soil improvement with sericea 36 



Sericea for erosion control 37 



Sericea in the soil conservation 



program 39 



Species and varieties of perennial 



lespedezas 42 



Varieties of Lespedeza cuneata- 42 



Native American species 42 



Other perennial species . 43 



Chromosome numbers in sericea 46 



Literature cited 46 



1 Contribution from Soil Conservation Service and Bureau of Plant Industry, 

 Soils, and Agricultural Engineering. The latter bureau was known as the 

 Bureau of Plant Industry, at the time Circular 534 was issued. 



2 This Circular is a revision of and supersedes Circular 534, Lespedeza 

 Sericea and Other Perennial Lespedezas for Forage and Soil Conservation, 

 by A. J. Pieters. Dr. Pieters died in 1940. 



