8 Js'ATIVE LEGUMES OF NEBRASKA AND KANSAS. 



sand hills, and 16 of western table-lands and foothills. Only a few of 

 these are abundant and widely distributed. 



Of the 1,022 plants included in the table of legumes east of 100°, 340 

 are Kuhnistera, 333 Psoralea, 185 Amorpha, 77 Vicia, 67 Lotus, 12 

 Astragalus, 4 Lespedeza, 3 Aragallus, and 1 Baptisia. 



With the possible exception of Astragalus, Psoralea is the most 

 widely and evenly distributed genus in the State and has probably 

 been the most effective in fertilizing the soils, closely followed by 

 Kuhnistera and Amorpha, while Astragalus has been an important 

 factor in all localities. Astragalus crassicarpus (ground plum) was 

 formerly so abundant as to tinge whole prairies with the color of its 

 flowers, but is now almost extinct in many sections. In much of the 

 western half of the region Lotus has been very important. 



VALUE OF LEGUMES IN PASTURES. 



The value of the native legumes lies not alone in their ability to store 

 nitrogen in the soil, but in their feed value also. Live stock always do 

 better in new pastures than in old ones unless tame grasses have come 

 in. It seems fair to assume that this difference is partly due to the 

 greater portion of leguminous forage plants in the new pasture, giving 

 a better balanced ration. 



Many of the legumes are so ravenously eaten by stock as to be exter- 

 minated in a short time. Astragalus crassicarpus is one of the first to 

 disappear. Cattle do not seem to relish Psoralea and Kuhnistera in 

 new pastures, but after the more palatable legumes are gone these, too, 

 are eaten and disappear, although their vigorous root systems enable 

 them to endure a long time. So far as the writer is aware, Baptisia 

 bracteata (false indigo, lead plant) is the only native legume that is 

 able to maintain itself in pastures. This does not seem to be eaten by 

 stock, for it thrives in pastures even where feed is scarce. 



LESSON OF THE PRAIRIE LEGUME FOR THE FARMER. 



Western farmers have been slow to learn their lesson from nature. 

 Nature on her farm has kept up the production of grasses and other 

 nitrogen robbers by the constant growth of legumes. If this fact had 

 been recognized sooner perhaps there would not have been such reck- 

 less exploitation of the rich soils of the Mississippi Basin. For forty 

 years farmers have lost sight of this and have taken off grain crops (all 

 grasses) continuously and doubted if this practice would ever exhaust 

 their soils, because they were still productive after the removal of 

 twenty, thirty, or forty crops. But now the effect is evident; farmers 

 must learn from the prairies around them one of the first principles of 

 permanent agriculture and introduce leguminous crops into the farm 

 rotation. 



[Cir. 31] 



