FOR THE SOUTHERN STATES. 



81 



frequently, until April, it still will mature seed. It has become 

 naturalized in limited portions of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, 

 Alabama, and perhaps other States. It is a very pretty grass in 

 all its stages ; and especially so when the culms, two or three feet 

 high, are gracefully bending the weight of the diffuse panicle 

 with its many pedicelled flattened spikelets, each an inch or 

 more long and with twelve to sixteen flowers. 



I would not, however, advise sowing this grass on poor land 

 with the expectation of getting a remunerative return. It tillers 

 abundantly under favorable conditions. 



JAPAN CLOVER. 



(Lespedeza Striata.) 



There is now so much enquiry about this plant, so much con- 

 fusion, lack of knowledge and confounding with or mistaking for 

 it another worthless species, and also the same errors in regard to 

 a small genuine clover, that it is deemed proper to give some 

 correct information on the subject. 



Rescue Grass. 



To botanists this plant has been known for 

 manj' generations in its native habitat in China 

 and other eastern parts of Asia. Finding its 

 way to Japan it encountered congenial chmate 

 and soil, and rapidly spread over the entire 

 country occupying all waste places, which it 

 has continued to possess and improve for 

 much more than a century. Here as on the 

 continent, it was of dwarfish habit and received 

 a name indicative of the fact. 



Finally a few seeds, arriving in the United 

 States, germinated, contested a few feet of 

 soil with other native and exotic j)lants that 

 had long pre-occupied the land. 



It gained strength and increased in yield of 

 seed till becoming somewhat abundant, it 

 commenced its westward invasion, simultane- 

 ously extending its conquests northward and 

 southward, firmly holding aU conquered 

 territory. Since 1870 its strides westward have 

 been immense. It now .extends from the 

 Atlantic seaboard across the Mississippi, and 



Japan Clover. 



its out-posts are pushed far towards the 

 western border of Texas. 



Denuded, soil-less hill tops, sandy plains, 

 gravelly slopes, bottoms and banks of washes 

 and gullies, pine thickets, open woods, fields, 

 dry and damp soils, all seem as if specially 

 created for its home. It seizes upon all with 

 equal facility. 



It maintains its dwarfish habit on sands, 

 gravels and other spots too poor to produce 

 any other vegetation, densely covering the 

 surface with its green robe and afl:ording 

 delighted live stock with delicious nutritious 

 grazing for four to eight months of the year. 

 But on richer soils it dofi:s the dwarf and dons 

 the tree style justifying the American name of 

 "bush-clover," sending its long tap root deep 

 down in the subsoil and its stem two to three 

 feet up into the light and air, with its many 

 branches thickly set with leaves, inviting tooth 

 and blade. 



It attains here on rich or medium soil 

 protected from live stock a magnitude that 

 could not have been imagined by one seeing 

 it in its far eastern home. It takes possession 

 not only of unoccupied land and pine thickets 

 but grows among sedges, grasses, briers and 

 weeds, completely eradicating many species of 

 noxious grasses and weeds. It subdues even 

 broom grass and holds equal contest with 

 Bermuda grass; in some localities one yielding, 

 in other localities the other succumbing, while 

 in other spots both maintain equal possession; 

 or one year one may seem to rule, and the 

 next year the other. 



VALUE. 



On sands, gravels, or denuded clay hill tops 

 no other plant known to me is so valuable for 

 grazing. Taking a succession of ten years, 

 the same assertion would not be far out of the 

 way for rich lands w^hile few forage plants on 

 these would yield so much or so valuable hay. 



The analysis of red clover gives 16 i^er cent, 

 albuminoids and 41 carbohydrates. The average 

 of two analyses of Japan clover gives 15.85 

 albuminoids and 56 carbohydrates, placing it 

 above red clover in nutritive value. It is 



